With every passing week, it seems like Masdar City in Abu Dhabi comes one step closer to becoming a reality. Whether it’s an announcement regarding the completion of a 10 MW utility-scale solar project being connected to the electric grid to provide power for the construction of Masdar City, or the fact that the city will be home to the newly established International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the city’s progress and sustainability goals are always generating excitement and anticipation.
A Sustainable Oasis In The Middle Of The Desert
For those unfamiliar with the project, Masdar City is currently being built in Abu Dhabi (part of the United Arab Emirates) and when completed in 2018 will be the first carbon neutral and zero-waste city in the world. With expectations of 50,000+ residents and over 1,500 businesses, how is a city in the middle of the desert going to achieve such sustainability?
Master-planned by Foster + Parters, Masdar City incorporates sustainability into every aspect of its design and planning (sans the fact that it’s a city in the middle of the desert). While an entire blog could be dedicated to its sustainable features and design, here are a few highlights:
- The city will have an advanced transportation system consisting of a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) and a Light Rapid Transit (LRT) system located underneath the city allowing for pedestrian traffic to move freely above. The PRT system is an individual point-to-point mobility solution, with 83 stations, that carries residents throughout the city. It has direct links to the adjacent Abu Dhabi International Airport, surrounding developments and will have connected access to Abu Dhabi City.
- The city will produce as much, if not more, power than it consumes making it carbon neutral when it comes to energy. Over 200 MW of renewable energy will be generated by the city, with over 170 MW coming from solar photovoltaics. The rest will be provided by concentrated solar and thermal energy generated from waste.
- A 70 % reduction in energy usage compared to a similar sized typical city construction.
- 60% of the water demand will be provided by recycled water which will be cleaned and be safe enough for drinking, irrigation and any other potable use.
- All of the waste in Masdar City will be managed through an integrated, user-friendly, invisible and odorless system.
The Crown Jewel
The main focus of Masdar City is it’s city center designed by the firm LAVA. Truly something out of every sustainable designers’ dream, Masdar’s city center is unlike anything else in the world. From LAVA:
We see Masdar Plaza as “The Oasis of the Future”: a living, breathing, active, adaptive environment; stimulated by the social interaction of people, and spotlighting the use and benefits of sustainable technology. As in the case of an oasis, the Plaza is the social epicentre of Masdar; opening 24-hour access to all public facilities. Interactive, heat sensitive technology activates low intensity lighting in response to pedestrian traffic and mobile phone usage. The Plaza is able to change into an outdoor cinema for international events and national celebrations.
By analysing the potential pedestrian flows throughout the Plaza and surrounding facilities, the design seeks to accentuate this ‘loop’ of indoor and outdoor user-experiences This ‘loop’ marries the lowest possible energy expenditure to the highest levels of user comfort in correlation to pedestrian flows.
Our ‘Petals from Heaven’ feature interactive umbrellas that open, provide shade, and capture energy during daylight hours; folding at night to release stored heat.
Solar analysis provides insight into the tuning of facades in order to incorporate an ability to respond to varying sun angles and levels of solar intensity.
The Oasis of the Future is a living, breathing habitat. The ability to control ambient temperature at all times of the day is the key to making the Plaza a compulsive destination. The gorges pull inhabitants into the loop. The ‘Petals from Heaven’ open and close; protect pedestrians from the sun; capture, store, and release heat; adjust the angle of shade based on the position of the sun. The heat sensitive lamps adjust the level of lighting to the proximity of pedestrians. The water features ebb and flow based on the intensity of ground temperatures.
The promenades lure pedestrians into the shopping and leisure facilities. Similarly, the public are seduced into the Plaza during cooler night hours and cooler months of the year.
Our 5 Star Hotel is organised efficiently around a ‘Central Canyon’ and is linked to the Extended Stay Facilities via a ‘gorge’ housing Retail premises. The Central Canyon is a day-lit space deep within the building, connecting the hotel’s restaurants and ballrooms to the guest amenities.
So if this kind of city can be built and succeed in one of the harshest environments on Earth, think of what a city like this could do in a temperament climate. You could actually have cities that produce significantly more power than they consume; virtually eliminating the need for centralized large power plants. The only problem is very few governments in the world can afford, or would be willing to fund, such a project. With an estimated total development budget of $24-billion phased over an 8 year development timeline, Masdar City certainly isn’t cheap, but for a place like Abu Dhabi that’s rich in oil money, $24-billion really isn’t that much.
pics courtesy of ArchDaily / LAVA
The Good: A city that produces its own clean renewable energy, recycles all of its waste, and is essentially built to have as little impact as possible on the environment. It’s beautiful; both aesthetically and environmentally
The Bad: It’s in the middle of the desert making Masdar City need much more power to keep its inhabitants comfortable than a city in a more ‘inhabitable’ climate. The city’s incredibly large price tag means only oil rich nations can, or would, be able to afford such an endeavor (irony).
The Bottom-Line: A carbon neutral, zero-waste and almost self-sufficient city that proves buildings don’t have to be contributors to the problem of climate change, but can be a big part of the solution.
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