Masdar City - Norman Foster's Green Desert City

[hkskyline]

Architect Foster sees future in green desert city
By Lin Noueihed

DUBAI, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Imagine a city of 50,000 with no cars, no carbon, no waste, a green city of the future. Now imagine it in the Gulf desert, where summer temperatures can hit 50 degrees and 24-hour air conditioning is a way of life.

British architect Norman Foster has his work cut out in Masdar City, a project the Abu Dhabi government hopes will bring the United Arab Emirates' carbon footprint down to size.

"We are involved in a number of projects in Abu Dhabi and this is without question the most idealistic. It is probably the most idealistic project in the world today and the most relevant to any conferences from Kyoto to Davos," Foster told Reuters.

"This is not about fashion, this is about survival."

The rapid economic growth of the United Arab Emirates and fellow Gulf Arab countries flush from record oil prices comes at a time of mounting international concern over climate change.

The UAE is among the highest per capita emitters of greenhouse gas in the world but the capital Abu Dhabi announced on Monday it would be investing $15 billion in developing renewable and clean energy, including Masdar City, which is scheduled to be built in seven phases from 2008 to 2018.

To do that in a desert climate is no mean task and the formidable Foster, whose firm is behind a slew of famous designs from London's Millennium Bridge to Berlin's rebuilt Reichstag, says he went back to basics in designing Abu Dhabi's green city.

"This is a specific response to a place that is more climatically demanding in terms of achieving zero carbon. It is more difficult in the desert than in temperate environments. it would be easier in the Mediterranean or northern Europe," he said in a telephone interview.

"But I think it is all about working with nature, working with the elements and learning from traditional models."

Masdar will be a walled city in traditional Arab style. With no cars allowed, it will be a compact city, with narrow, shaded streets amenable to walking, not dissimilar to the way urban spaces were traditionally organised to shelter shoppers and pedestrians from the harsh sun of the Middle East.

It will also feature eco-friendly transport systems to ferry people around, including a light railway, unusual in a part of the world where public transport is minimal and people rely heavily on big cars.

Rather than spreading out buildings, which is common in Gulf Arab countries that have plenty of empty desert to work with, Masdar will go for density not sprawl.

It will draw its power from solar panels in a part of the world with year-round sunshine, will harness wind and thermal power and rely on photovoltaic farms, all with the aim of making it self-sustaining.

"Take Venice. You don't feel any deprivation in Venice because there are no cars. Quite the reverse. It is so attractive it is in danger from being too popular," Foster said. "We are talking about the technology to do more with less."

[Sir_Spike]

Westerners need to catch up to this sort of thinking.

[city_thing]

If the leaders are really wanting to bring down the UAE's carbon footprint, then wouldn't it be easier to 'retrofit' Abu Dhabi, rather than build a big new city?

[SYDNEYAHOLIC]

It will be extremely interesting to see how this pans out. I love the simple idea of crowding all the buildings together to create maximums shade - the idea has been implemented for thousands of years around there but we've been too smart to use it. Can't wait.

[Sir_Spike]

Originally Posted by city_thing

If the leaders are really wanting to bring down the UAE's carbon footprint, then wouldn't it be easier to 'retrofit' Abu Dhabi, rather than build a big new city?

It would be far too expensive to retrofit existing cities. This will be the primary problem in western countries also when the energy crunch really digs in. Plus, the modern trend of privatization of city infrastructure means many have a vested interest in not converting.

Clean-slate cities, on the other hand, have the advantage that you can build these more efficient systems in right from the start.

Check out this thread for more info.

- Mike

[PresidentBjork]

Originally Posted by Sir_Spike

It would be far too expensive to retrofit existing cities. This will be the primary problem in western countries also when the energy crunch really digs in. Plus, the modern trend of privatization of city infrastructure means many have a vested interest in not converting.

Clean-slate cities, on the other hand, have the advantage that you can build these more efficient systems in right from the start.

Check out this thread for more info.

- Mike

True, but it can't be more expensive the building a whole new city surely? Because that's what seems to be the main caveat of the scheme, creating all the necessary resources is going to create a huge carbon footprint even before the place is functioning.

If they are so concerned about such issues they could have been a little bit more proactive with the recent development of Dubai. Much of the city's growth has only occurred very recently when environmental concerns were already well known, but despite this they carried on planning with complete antipathy to these concerns.

That's said it's still a good idea and should be carried out, but along with more sensible planning for the existing city.

[davee08]

norman foster you've done it again! it'd be interesting to see this project progress and yet again dubai is at the forefront keep up the good work although it would be nice to see a retrofit abu dhabi cost does matter

[hkskyline]

More information in the World Developments section : http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1023149

[mwinyi]

would love to visit that place

[intensivecarebear]

Anyone else see the irony in creating a 'green' city in the middle of a desert with scarce local resources (other than oil)? I do think it would be a stronger statement to retrofit the existing infrastructure like what city_thing mentioned, in combination with this new development. It cant be a truly sustainable or 'green' project, especially at this scale, when most of the resources to create this new city have to be transported thousands of miles. That said, at least they're FINALLY starting to address issues related to development and the environment in the UAE

[poshbakerloo]

A green city in the desert? AC anyone?

[Ribarca]

Quite funny to claim to build a green city with oil money. As long as Foster gets his pay check...

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by Ribarca

Quite funny to claim to build a green city with oil money. As long as Foster gets his pay check...

I'm sure he'll prefer a pay cheque.

[Ribarca]

Originally Posted by isaidso

I'm sure he'll prefer a pay cheque.

You know what I meant.

[mwinyi]

by the way they just made rain in the desert last week...Abudhabi that is

[Chrissib]

Originally Posted by isaidso

I'm sure he'll prefer a pay cheque.

Is he a French guy?

[Slartibartfas]

Originally Posted by poshbakerloo

A green city in the desert? AC anyone?

Thats one of the smart things about it. In Dubai they are building glass skyscrapers as unsuitable for desert climate as possible for obvious reasons.

Masdar is a lot about how to reduce the need for AC. The city is built in a dense fashion, with narrow alleyways. Similar to traditional settlements. Shaddow is a valuable good in this climate you have to know. The wind is also used for the better. The city is built in a way that the warm winds can't effectively penetrate the settlement but the cool night winds which usually come from another direction can.

There are a lot more clever design features which help to get the max temp reduction without AC. While I guess that AC will still be installed, I think it is save to say that compared to other cities in that climate this one will have a vastly superior energy efficiency.

Someone said this is oil money being spent. Yes it is and I am glad someone spends oil money for applied research in new environmental friendly and energy efficient city design rather than in golden palaces only or funny artificial islands in the sea.

[idnobleg]

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

[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