MASDAR CITY // GREEN UTOPIA IN THE DESERT

Foster + Partners has revealed these images of what it claims to be the first zero carbon, zero-waste city in the world. The Masdar development in Abu Dhabi is a 6 km sq, car-free “walled-city” scheme. The development is being driven by Abu Dhabi’s Future Energy Company and will include a new HQ for the company as well as a new university.

Norman Foster said: “The environmental ambitions of the Masdar Initiative – zero carbon and waste free – are a world first. They have provided us with a challenging design brief that promises to question conventional urban wisdom at a fundamental level. Masdar promises to set new benchmarks for the sustainable city of the future.”

Unveiled at the Cityscape conference in Abu Dhabi, Foster + Partners said Masdar would be a dense, walled development constructed in two stages. The first phase would see the construction of a large photovoltaic power plant, which would later become the site for the second phase.

The surrounding land will contain wind, photovoltaic farms, research fields and plantations, so that the city will be entirely self-sustaining, the architect said. The development is set to open in late 2009.

+ Fosters and Partners

Comments

[Reality Abu Dhabi]

Masdar is designed to ensure that Abu Dhabi grows its own share of global energy market by fostering the development and commercialization of innovative and advanced technologies in alternative, renewable and sustainable energies for a safer, cleaner environment and future.

[brian maddock]

while it might be able to sustain its own power because it was designed in the desert the only way to provide the community with the most essential resource they will need to import water which requires energy

[comodisc]

re the water comment, other articles ont his city point out that a plant to convert salt water to potable is part of the plan, in keeping with the self-sustainability intent

[comodisc]

re the water comment, other articles ont his city point out that a plant to convert salt water to potable is part of the plan, in keeping with the self-sustainability intent

[Alex]

Marketing hype is so abundant in this place that you have to question everything you hear. How do you expect residents of the city to walk when the weather is so hot and humid 8 months out of the year? Air conditioners require a tremendous amount of power, will the solar cells be sufficient to provide that power?