In collaboration with the client and team architects (CBT/EHAF) and inspired by traditional Arabic architecture, the neighborhood's urban form is carefully sculpted to create human-scale open spaces, courtyards, and pedestrian corridors. A dense urban grain with narrow-shaded walkways and broader open areas naturally draws people together and creates vibrant, pedestrian-friendly environments that promote a healthier way of life. The pedestrian corridors and coordinated openings in the built form are carefully oriented to harness prevailing winds for ventilation and passive cooling. The building's greywater is re-used to irrigate the open spaces and the public realm.

The city's distinctive Visitors' Center is located at the southern entrance - relocated from the 2015 World Expo in Milan. The site connects the central neighborhood to the city's internal "Green Finger." Here a variety of unique, interpretive landscape typologies, inspired by the Emirati heritage of Bedouin migration, provide the setting for the visitors' center architecture, designed by Foster & Partners.

Central to the neighborhood is the flagship district plaza. This iconic space is designed to host both community events and institutional celebrations for the adjacent MIST university. An elevated retail roof deck that defines the form and reduces the scale of the plaza transitions users from the plaza level to the existing upper levels. The structure is punctured with openings to the sky and planted with palm trees that green the upper level. Pedestrian walkways, shaded cafés, and stadium-like seating at the upper level provide views of the event lawn and the broader city. In contrast, the underside offers a cooler, deeply shaded plaza space.

A significant gateway park is located at the northern entrance of the neighborhood that announces the city's green infrastructure at the urban edge. The design language is derived from the country's geology and historic Bedouin tower architecture. These sculptural landforms conceal vehicular parking entrances and accommodate accessible pathways to the upper level. The grand stair provides legible pedestrian access from the greenbelt to the park and the neighborhood beyond. At a children's play fountain, custom structures simulate the natural effect of high-water consuming shade trees, and indigenous, low water consuming plant material is used here and throughout the neighborhood.