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Masdar City ( ar, مدينة مصدر, Madīnat Maṣdar, lit=Source City) is a
planned city A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...
project in Abu Dhabi, in the
United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at t ...
. Its core is being built by Masdar, a subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company, with the majority of seed capital provided by the Government of Abu Dhabi. Designed by the British architectural firm
Foster and Partners Foster + Partners is a British architectural, engineering, and integrated design practice founded in 1967 as Foster Associates by Norman Foster. It is the largest architectural firm in the UK with over 1,500 employees in 13 studios worldwide ...
, the city relies on solar energy and other renewable energy sources. Masdar City is being constructed east-south-east of the city of Abu Dhabi, a five minute drive from
Abu Dhabi International Airport Abu Dhabi International Airport ( ar, مطار أبو ظبي الدولي) is an international airport in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The airport, located east of Abu Dhabi city, is the second largest ...
and 40 minutes from
Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...
. The city will be connected to existing urban areas via roads and light-rail. Masdar City hosts the headquarters of the
International Renewable Energy Agency The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is an intergovernmental organization mandated to facilitate cooperation, advance knowledge, and promote the adoption and sustainable use of renewable energy. It is the first international organis ...
(IRENA). The city is designed to be a hub for
cleantech Clean technology, in short cleantech, is any process, product, or service that reduces negative environmental impacts through significant energy efficiency improvements, the sustainable use of resources, or environmental protection activities. Cle ...
companies. Its first tenant was the
Masdar Institute of Science and Technology The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology was a graduate level, research-oriented university focused on alternative energies, sustainability, and environmental research. In 2017, it merged with two other institutions in Abu Dhabi, Petroleu ...
, which has been operating in the city since it moved into its campus in September 2010.


Design and intent

Masdar City is one of a small number of highly planned, specialised, research and technology-intensive municipalities that incorporate a living environment, similar to
KAUST King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST; ar, جامعة الملك عبد الله للعلوم و التقنية ') is a private research university located in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. Founded in 2009, the university provid ...
,
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
or
Tsukuba Science City is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 244,528 in 108,669 households and a population density of 862 persons per km². The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 20.3%. The total ar ...
, Japan. The project is led by Masdar, a subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company. Partners in the project through its Clean Tech Fund are Consensus Business Group, Credit Suisse and Siemens Venture Capital. Construction of the first phase of the project was to be managed by
CH2M Hill CH2M, earlier CH2M Hill, was an engineering company that provided consulting, design, construction, and operations services for corporations and governments. The company was organized in Corvallis, Oregon, and headquartered at 9191 South Jamaic ...
. Infrastructure construction for the city was to be handled by the Al Jaber Group and design of the central Masdar headquarters building was awarded to
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture Adrian is a form of the Latin given name Adrianus or Hadrianus. Its ultimate origin is most likely via the former river Adria from the Venetic and Illyrian word ''adur'', meaning "sea" or "water". The Adria was until the 8th century BC the main ...
. The city's
wayfinding Wayfinding (or way-finding) encompasses all of the ways in which people (and animals) orient themselves in physical space and navigate from place to place. Wayfinding software is a self-service computer program that helps users to find a location, ...
system was developed by Endpoint and City ID. Initiated in 2006, the city was envisioned to cover and estimated to cost . The original plan was that it would take approximately eight years to build, with the first phase scheduled to be completed and habitable in 2009. Construction began on Masdar City in February 2008 and the first six buildings of the city were completed and occupied in October 2010. However, due to the impact of the
global financial crisis Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to: Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989 * ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015 * Bruno ...
, the initial was estimated for completion in 2015; final completion was pushed back to between 2020 and 2025. By 2016, less than had been developed and final completion was estimated to be 2030. , a 2030 completion date was still projected. The city is meant to be exemplary, focusing on sustainability while demonstrating greener urban living. As designed, the city would be home to 45,000 to 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses, primarily commercial and manufacturing facilities specialising in environmentally friendly products. In turn, more than 60,000 workers are expected to commute to the city daily. , fewer than 2,000 people are employed in Masdar, and only the 300 students of the Masdar Institute live on site. the areas that have been completed are only lightly occupied, home to an estimated 1,300 residents and another 4,000 office workers. ground-breaking occurred for a new expansion: the Masdar City Square (MC2). The expansion is planned to cover 29,000 square meters with a Gross Floor Area (GFA) of 50,000 square meters. It would involve the complex's first net-zero energy office building and six additional green buildings with certification at 4-Pearl Estidama, LEED Platinum, and WELL Gold levels. This expansion is projected to be completed in 2024. The expansion is part of the UAE's Net-Zero by 2050 Strategy. Masdar City is meant to incorporate efficient water use into its design. To achieve this Masdar City will recycle water and maximize the use of said water. It will employ rainwater collection schemes, catch condensate and use acceptable waste water streams. Masdar City will attempt to incentivize behavioral changes to conserve potable water.


Architecture

Masdar is a sustainable mixed-use development designed to be very friendly to pedestrians and cyclists. Masdar City has terracotta walls decorated with arabesque patterns. From a distance, the city looks like a cube. The temperature in the streets is generally cooler than the surrounding desert. The temperature difference is due to Masdar's unique construction. A wind tower modelled on traditional Arab designs sucks air from above and pushes a cooling breeze through Masdar's streets. The site is raised above the surrounding land to create a slight cooling effect. Buildings are clustered close together to create streets and walkways shielded from the sun. Masdar City was designed by Foster and Partners. Foster's design team started its work by touring ancient cities such as
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
and
Muscat Muscat ( ar, مَسْقَط, ) is the capital and most populated city in Oman. It is the seat of the Governorate of Muscat. According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the total population of Muscat Governorate was ...
to see how they kept cool. Foster found that these cities coped with hot desert temperatures through shorter, narrower streets usually no longer than . The buildings at the end of these streets create just enough wind turbulence to push air upwards, creating a flushing effect that cools the street. Masdar City contains a tech park made from recycled standard 40 foot unit shipping containers.


Transport system

The initial design banned automobiles, as travel will be accomplished via public mass transit and personal rapid transit (PRT) systems, with existing road and railways connecting to other locations outside the city. The absence of motor vehicles coupled with Masdar's perimeter wall, designed to keep out the hot desert winds, allows for narrow and shaded streets that help funnel cooler breezes across the city. People as well as goods and supplies will be transported using the PRT. In October 2010 it was announced the PRT would not expand beyond the pilot scheme due to the cost of creating the
undercroft An undercroft is traditionally a cellar or storage room, often brick-lined and vaulted, and used for storage in buildings since medieval times. In modern usage, an undercroft is generally a ground (street-level) area which is relatively open ...
to segregate the system from pedestrian traffic. Subsequently, a test fleet of 10
Mitsubishi i-MiEV The Mitsubishi i-MiEV (MiEV is an acronym for ''Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle'') is a five-door hatchback electric car produced in the 2010s by Mitsubishi Motors, and is the electric version of the Mitsubishi i. Rebadged variants of ...
electric cars was deployed in 2011 as part of a one-year pilot to test point-to-point transportation for the city as a complement to the PRT and the freight rapid transit (FRT), both of which consist of automated electric-powered vehicles. Under a revised design,
public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typi ...
within the city will rely on methods other than the PRTs. Masdar will instead use a mix of electric vehicles and other clean-energy vehicles for mass transit inside the city. The majority of private vehicles will be restricted to parking lots along the city's perimeter. Abu Dhabi's planned but delayed light rail and metro line may eventually connect Masdar City's centre with the greater metropolitan area. connections to beyond the city continue to be by car, as a projected light rail line does not yet exist. Since 2018, as part of an ongoing trial, seven NAVYA Autonom fully autonomous shuttles carry passengers between the car park and the city centre. A further route was due to open in 2019 that ran from the residential complex above the city's North Car Park to the headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the Majid Al Futtaim's My City Centre Masdar Shopping Mall.


Commercial tenants and population


Masdar Institute

The
Masdar Institute of Science and Technology The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology was a graduate level, research-oriented university focused on alternative energies, sustainability, and environmental research. In 2017, it merged with two other institutions in Abu Dhabi, Petroleu ...
is a graduate-level research university focused on alternative energy, environmental sustainability, and clean technology. Its campus is located in Masdar City. The Masdar Institute was Masdar City's first occupant. The design of the campus emphasises flexibility, the use of traditional architectural elements, and modern materials to provide for an optimised combination of natural lighting and cooling that minimise energy needs. By 2013, 336 students were enrolled at the institute. These students were selected from more than 2,000 applicants. 42% of enrolled students are from the
UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...
and 35% are
female Female ( symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females ...
. The Masdar Institute plans to eventually enroll about 800 students. Admitted students from all countries are offered a full-tuition scholarships, monthly stipends, travel expenses, laptop computers, textbooks, and accommodation in order to facilitate their studies. Masdar students and faculty are engaged in over 300 joint projects with academia, private enterprise, and government agencies. Their research tends to focus on renewable energy, smart grids and smart buildings, energy policy and planning, water consumption, environmental engineering, and electronics. The Masdar Institute has been behind the engineering plans of Masdar City and is at the center of research and development activities. The institute's building, developed in co-operation with the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
, uses 51% less electricity and 54% less potable water than traditional buildings in the
UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...
, and is fitted with a metering system that constantly observes power consumption.


International Renewable Energy Agency

Masdar City will host the headquarters of the
International Renewable Energy Agency The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is an intergovernmental organization mandated to facilitate cooperation, advance knowledge, and promote the adoption and sustainable use of renewable energy. It is the first international organis ...
, commonly known as IRENA, the first intergovernmental organization in the Middle East. , construction of IRENA's headquarters was underway. Masdar was selected to host IRENA's headquarters after a high-profile campaign by the UAE. In its bid, the UAE offered rent-free offices in Masdar City, 20 IRENA scholarships to the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, and up to US$350 million in loans for renewable energy projects in developing countries.


Siemens

A regional headquarters for Siemens has been built in Masdar City. This building is the most energy efficient in all of Abu Dhabi. In 2014, more than 800 staff will start work there. The LEED Platinum building makes use of sustainable and energy efficient materials and building techniques. It was designed to use 45 percent less energy and 50 percent less water than typical office buildings. The Siemens headquarters won an award for best office building at the Mpim Architectural Review Future Projects Awards in 2012. The Middle East Architect Awards named it both the best and most sustainable office building the same year. The building is built around the idea of a "box within a box". The structure includes a highly insulated airtight inner façade that insulates from the sun and a lightweight aluminium shading system on the exterior. The plaza beneath the building is funnel-shaped. This shape works to suck prevailing winds underneath the building. Due to the
Venturi effect The Venturi effect is the reduction in fluid pressure that results when a fluid flows through a constricted section (or choke) of a pipe. The Venturi effect is named after its discoverer, the 18th century Italian physicist, Giovanni Battista ...
, a breeze flows up to the roof of the building through atria in the buildings structure, cooling public spaces without energy costs. These atria also allow daylight into the centre of the building in order to reduce the need for artificial lighting, further reducing energy consumption. The building's automation systems are all from Siemens. Siemens signed an initial ten-year lease.


Incubator Building

The Incubator Building includes retail and office space to house start-ups, small-and-medium-sized enterprises, and regional offices for multinationals. The Incubator Building is designed to accommodate roughly fifty companies. Some of the most notable tenants include General Electric, Mitsubishi, Schneider Electric, and the
Global Green Growth Institute The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) is a treaty-based inter-governmental international development organization headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. The organization promotes green growth, a growth paradigm that is characterized by a bala ...
. The Incubator Building is also home to the first LEED CI-certified office in Abu Dhabi, Alpin Limited. The Incubator Building houses the General Electric Ecomagination Center. The center offers training and exhibitions on energy and
water efficiency Water efficiency is the practice of reducing water consumption by measuring the amount of water required for a particular purpose and is proportionate to the amount of essential water used.Vickers, Amy. “Water use and conservation." Amherst, MA ...
.


The Catalyst

Masdar City partnered with BP, oil giant, to created 'The Catalyst'. This start up will support new and innovative companies which are 1–3 years away from commercialization of their products. , The Catalyst added three new companies which they were supporting through multiple facets. These include training and mentorship as well as funding. The Catalyst aims to attract companies focusing on green technology and they accept applications from local and international businesses and entrepreneurs.


Renewable resources

The original master plan envisioned a city functioning on its own grid with full
carbon neutrality Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the "p ...
. However, the development was later hooked into the public system, and by 2016 its managers determined that the city would never reach net-zero carbon levels. Masdar is powered by a field of 87,777 solar panels with additional panels on roofs. There are no light switches or water taps in the city; movement sensors control lighting and water to cut electricity and water consumption by 51 and 55 percent respectively. Gerard Evenden, the lead architect, says that the original plan for Masdar called for powering the entire city through on-site methods such as rooftop solar panels. He said,
"When we started this project, nobody had really looked at doing projects of this scale. Then you realise it's much more efficient to build your solar field on the ground in the middle of the desert. You can send a man to brush them off every day, rather than having to access everyone's buildings individually, and you can make sure that they are running at their absolute peak. It's much better than putting them on every building in the city."
Blowing sand has been a problem for its solar panels, so Masdar has been working with other companies to engineer surfaces with pores smaller than sand particles to stop them from sticking on the panels. Scientists at the Masdar Institute are also working on coatings that repel sand and bacteria for use on solar panels and in other applications. Besides
photovoltaics Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially ...
, concentrated solar power (CSP) plants are being explored. For example, so-called "beam down" CSP plants have been constructed to test the viability of use in the city. Water management has been planned in an environmentally sound manner as well. Approximately 80 percent of the water used will be recycled and waste water will be reused "as many times as possible", with this
greywater Greywater (or grey water, sullage, also spelled gray water in the United States) refers to domestic wastewater generated in households or office buildings from streams without fecal contamination, i.e., all streams except for the wastewater fro ...
being used for crop irrigation and other purposes. The exterior wood used throughout the city is palmwood, a sustainable hardwood-substitute developed by Pacific Green using plantation coconut palms that no longer bear fruit. Palmwood features include the entrance gates, screens and doors.


Reaction

The project is supported by the global conservation charity
World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wor ...
and the sustainability group Bioregional. In 2008, in response to the project's commitment to zero carbon,
zero waste Zero waste is a set of principles focused on waste prevention that encourages redesigning resource life cycles so that all products are reused. The goal of this movement is to avoid sending trash to landfills, incinerators, or the ocean. Current ...
and other environmentally friendly goals, WWF and Bioregional endorsed Masdar City as an official One Planet Living Community. The project is also supported by Greenpeace; however, they stress that there should be more focus on retrofitting existing cities to make them more sustainable rather than constructing new zero-carbon cities from scratch. The
US Government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...
has supported the project. The
US Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United States. ...
has signed a partnership agreement with the Masdar Group in a deal that will see the two organisations share expertise to support plans on zero-carbon cities. The
Alliance to Save Energy The Alliance to Save Energy is a bipartisan, nonprofit coalition of business, government, environmental, and consumer groups based in Washington, D.C. The Alliance states that it advocates for "energy-efficiency policies that minimize costs to so ...
honoured Masdar City with a 2012 EE Visionary Award in recognition of the city's contributions to the advancement of energy efficiency. Some skeptics are concerned that the city will be only symbolic for Abu Dhabi. In an interview in 2011, Geoffrey M. Heal, a professor at Columbia Business School in New York City and an expert in
environmental economics Environmental economics is a sub-field of economics concerned with environmental issues. It has become a widely studied subject due to growing environmental concerns in the twenty-first century. Environmental economics "undertakes theoretical or ...
, called Masdar "a gimmick, a way of attracting publicity and attention." Its use of solar energy is not a practical model for others to follow, Heal further noted, given that few places in the world enjoy as much year-round sunlight as the
Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bod ...
. Others have expressed concern that it may become just a luxury development for the wealthy.
Nicolai Ouroussoff Nicolai Ouroussoff (russian: Николай Владимирович Урусов; born October 3, 1962) is a writer and educator who was an architecture critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' and ''The New York Times''. Biography Born in Cambridg ...
wrote in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' that Masdar is the culmination of the gated community concept: "the crystallization of another global phenomenon: the growing division of the world into refined, high-end enclaves and vast formless ghettos where issues like sustainability have little immediate relevance".


Gallery

Masdar PRT (3) cropped.jpg, Personal rapid transit (PRT) Masdar city under construction 2012.jpg, Masdar City under construction


See also

*
Abrahamic Family House The Abrahamic Family House ( ar, بيت العائلة الإبراهيمية) is an interfaith complex on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi. The undertaking was inspired by the Document on Human Fraternity signed by Pope Francis on behalf of the Cat ...
, another international center in Abu Dhabi


References


External links

* {{Authority control Buildings and structures under construction in Abu Dhabi Planned cities in the United Arab Emirates Foster and Partners buildings Proposed populated places Sustainable urban planning Neighborhoods of Abu Dhabi New towns started in the 2000s