The construction of Masdar City, unveiled in 2006, is part of Abu Dhabi´s
ambitious plan to become a global hub of excellence in renewable
energy and clean technologies.
The city has been designed by the British firm Foster and Partners and its architecture is inspired by traditional Arabian cities. The first
phase was finished in September 2011 and comprises six buildings of the Masdar
Institute of Science and Technology campus, including residential buildings,
laboratories and a Knowledge Center, a total of 35,000m2 of gross floor area.
There are also a number of retail, services and food outlets. The second phase
will be finished by the end of 2012, when the first commercial building in the
city and Siemens and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)
headquarters are completed and fully operational, with a total area of 110,000m2.
Building a clean and sustainable city is not a utopia anymore:
Masdar City is a reality! The city, under continuous construction since 2008, relies entirely on renewable energy sources
(mostly solar power) and uses cutting edge technologies for waste treatment and
for achieving a sustainable carbon neutral ecology.
Masdar seeks to become a leader in making renewable energy a real and viable business. It is a living lab, a place to develop and test new technologies and projects and, if successful, commercialize and replicate them in other cities.
Masdar seeks to become a leader in making renewable energy a real and viable business. It is a living lab, a place to develop and test new technologies and projects and, if successful, commercialize and replicate them in other cities.
The city has been designed by the British firm Foster and Partners and its architecture is inspired by traditional Arabian cities. The first
phase was finished in September 2011 and comprises six buildings of the Masdar
Institute of Science and Technology campus, including residential buildings,
laboratories and a Knowledge Center, a total of 35,000m2 of gross floor area.
There are also a number of retail, services and food outlets. The second phase
will be finished by the end of 2012, when the first commercial building in the
city and Siemens and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)
headquarters are completed and fully operational, with a total area of 110,000m2.
At full build-out by 2025, Masdar is expected to have 40,000
residents and another 50,000 commuters.
But Masdar is not just a clean city with zero carbon footprint, it
is also a smart city. In the next posts we will see what makes Masdar different from other cities, what makes it sustainable
and smart.
In the meantime I’ll leave this video here so you can learn more about
this amazing project.
