All Green City... Possible?

[-Corey-]

I saw that a program on the Discovery channel about Greensbourg, very interesting.

[kakaching]

Does anyone know what qualities make Polli-brick a good wall clad?
Is it safe to stack it up and make such a large building?

For buildings to be built now or in the future, since we have the technology, it's better to use sustainable methods and recycled materials right?
Since we have a lot of waste we need to manage that has been building up, we should use it to create long lasting and necessary things, like houses and buildings, roads... etc.

It would be cool if more solar panels or solar technology can be used on buildings ... haha or even integrated on Polli-brick!

[idnobleg]

What are your opinions/views about Masdar city in respect of the quality of features it has.

[Suburbanist]

Originally Posted by idnobleg

What are your opinions/views about Masdar city in respect of the quality of features it has.

I dislike the fact its streets are way too narrow and inadequate for proper clear line of sight with the sky (regardless of the PRT use).

[idnobleg]

Originally Posted by Suburbanist

I dislike the fact its streets are way too narrow and inadequate for proper clear line of sight with the sky (regardless of the PRT use).

Don't you think it was designed that way since the city will have its own electrically charged cars as no other vehicles are allowed into the city. The city was meant to be a carbon-free city remember.

[Suburbanist]

Originally Posted by idnobleg

Don't you think it was designed that way since the city will have its own electrically charged cars as no other vehicles are allowed into the city. The city was meant to be a carbon-free city remember.

I like the idea of using PRTs. But just because your don't have normal road vehicles running there doesn't mean the city shouldn't have wide boulevards and streets giving ample open lines of sight and sunlight incidence on buildings.

[joshsam]

It also isn't convenient to have wide open spaces when temps go up to 50°C without sitting in a car... So small streets with lots of shadow make sense.

[Suburbanist]

Originally Posted by joshsam

It also isn't convenient to have wide open spaces when temps go up to 50°C without sitting in a car... So small streets with lots of shadow make sense.

No, narrow streets are unhealthy and block sight lines of windows.

[joshsam]

How are they unhealthy? ok they block sight lines of windows-wich is also the case in many historical area's in European cities that have one of the highest quality of living in the world and are most of the time very expensive- wich has absolutely nothing to do with what I wrote. Your reply is not a reply on what I said.

[Suburbanist]

Streets are meant for transportation. People in Masdr use pod/PRTs. People are not supposed to be out in a 50-degree weather. They are supposed to be indoors in a/c buildings.

[fieldsofdreams]

I disagree with you, suburbanist. Narrow streets were made for a purpose: those would have been originally used as horse pathways and side streets before the advent of modern roads and highways with specific widths and minimum distances. Narrow streets and alleyways were made to allow pedestrians, cyclists, and small cars to bypass busier main arteries, as well as providing a refuge from an already chaotic pace of life in an urban area. Think of it as a flower bed smacked in the middle of Broadway in New York City or Michigan Avenue in Chicago.

[The Cake On BBQ]

Originally Posted by Suburbanist

Streets are meant for transportation. People in Masdr use pod/PRTs. People are not supposed to be out in a 50-degree weather. They are supposed to be indoors in a/c buildings.

Masdar is designed to home 50k people, so I guess if they make streets wide the city would seem too empty and dead. Not to mention it would let more sunshine in which means making walking harder since no-one would be comfortable under the direct sun having your skin fried.

I don't like such utopian pushing-it-too-hard projects like masdar, it's pretty outdated and proven to be inconvenient when tried to apply to the mass several times. While I appreciate the concept, we obviously can't demolish every single building in the world and rebuild them from zero.

So, technologies that can be easily adopted by everyone and every building in the world should be developed. ( like red disks in Copenhagen, roof gardens, living walls, vertical farms etc)

[idnobleg]

Hi all,

I am currently researching into the first carbon-free city in Abu Dhabi. The name of the city is Masdar city an initiative of the UAE government. I will be looking at the quality of construction and the impact of this sort of sustainable construction on the environment and the quality of living and working in such environment.

The public view/opinion is kindly needed to analyze the following:

1. Sustainable construction as a tool for improving construction quality.

2. Enhancement of customer satisfaction based on 1 above.

I have developed a questionnaire for this purpose and the link is provided below. Just copy and paste to your web browser.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/IdowuAjayi

Thank you so much as you take time to respond to my survey.

Idowu Ajayi
Kingston University London