In the present work, a novel Al–Ti–Zr light-weight alloy was designed using CALPHAD (CALculation of PHAse Diagram) method and validated with experiments. Based on the melting points obtained from differential scanning calorimetry and CALPHAD, the as-cast alloy was homogenised at 475 °C for 24 h. For the chosen nominal composition of Al87.5Ti6.25Zr6.25 (at.%), a microstructure with FCC and Al3(Ti, Zr) as the major phases was observed experimentally in the homogenised (equilibrated) microstructure in contrast to the three phases (FCC, Al3Ti(h) and Al3Zr) predicted by the thermodynamic calculations. The homogenised alloy showed a significant hardness improvement when compared to the as-cast alloy. The hardness of the alloy (∼2200 MPa) is ∼30% superior to that of 7075 Al alloy and better than other commercial Al alloys. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.