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MAS DARHattie Hartman visits Masdar City, the ‘living laboratory of low-carbon design’ that aims to secure Abu Dhabi’s position as a leader in environmental masterplanning and renewable energy

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Masdar City, Abu Dhabi

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Masdar’s high-density – 135 people per hectare – is its most radical feature

Masdar City is an incongruous development: a six million square metre, £14 billion, carbon-neutral, zero-waste city in tiny Abu Dhabi, one of the world’s smallest nations, yet one of its largest oil producers. Masdar sits amid Abu Dhabi’s four-lane motorways. These connect the city to nearby islands that, by 2018, are planned to house a Guggenheim by Frank Gehry, a Jean Nouvel-designed Louvre, a Performing Arts Centre by Zaha Hadid and Tadao Ando’s Maritime Museum.

Foster + Partners’ Sheikh Zayed National Museum is already on site on Saadiyat Island, 500m off Abu Dhabi Island, and will chart Abu Dhabi’s 50-year transformation from pearl-diving village to global player with a population of around 1.6 million. The Benoy-designed Ferrari World will open later this year, adjacent to the city’s three-month-old Formula One racetrack on Yas Island.

Abu Dhabi is hedging its bets, readying itself for the day its extensive oil and natural gas reserves run out. In January, within days of commissioning a South Korean group to build four nuclear plants in the United Arab Emirates, the Abu Dhabi government announced that IRENA, the newly created International Renewable Energy Agency, whose mission is to transform global energy supply, will be located in Masdar City. Abu Dhabi lobbied hard to wrest IRENA from Bonn in Germany, where it was conceived. Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture is already tweaking its Masdar Headquarters building to accommodate IRENA.

The stroke of genius in the Masdar concept is prioritising education as a route to global thought-leadership on renewable energy. The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, established in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), already has its first cohort of 90-odd students. It is not without irony that they are being housed in Abu Dhabi’s Petroleum Institute as they await the move to the Masdar Institute’s Foster-designed labs >>

�Phase�1�commissioned�or�on�site Masdar Headquarters (Adrian

Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture)

City centre: Hotel and convention centre (LAVA)

Masdar Institute (Foster + Partners)

Masdar Institute neighbourhood(Aedas)

PRT station, housing and mosque (Foster + Partners). Townhouses (Foster + Partners and Thomas Herzog)

Abu Dhabi International AirportCentral Abu Dhabi

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Personal rapid transit (PRT) PRT station Light rail transit (LRT) LRT station

Car park

Personal rapid transit (PRT) system map

Personal�rapid�transit�(PRT)�system

All private cars arriving at Masdar will park in one of nine gateway car parks, and people will continue on foot or via PRT vehicles. These driverless electric-powered vehicles will travel at up to 40km/hour. They run on lithium-phosphate batteries, with a range of up to 60km on a 1.5 hour charge. Dutch company 2getthere has supplied Masdar with the first 10 vehicles, which will serve a 1.2km route with two stops in phase 1. The total proposed system includes almost 90 stations and 3,000 vehicles.

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PHASE 4

PHASE 3

PHASE 2

PHASE 5

Remainder of phase 1

Swiss Village

Future phases 2-5

Masterplan phasing

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and housing in September. Switzerland, another small country looking to reinvent itself in the 21st century, plans to build a mixed-use cluster of clean-tech companies adjacent to the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology. The ‘Swiss Village’ is already backed by over 120 Swiss businesses that see business opportunities in the Gulf and value in the Masdar aura.

Located 17km from Abu Dhabi’s city centre, Masdar is intended to house 50,000 residents and 40,000 commuters on an undistinguished site adjacent to the airport. In terms of masterplanning, Masdar’s high density – 135 people per hectare – is its most radical feature, according to Christopher Choa, a principal at AECOM Design + Planning, which is landscaping Masdar’s public realm. ‘Think Monaco, as contrasted with Kensington and Chelsea at roughly 129 residents per hectare and Paris at roughly 215 residents per hectare,’ says Choa. It’s impos-sible to imagine just how radical this is without describing the range of housing on offer in Abu Dhabi: large walled villas, gated communities, beachfront tower blocks, and tenements of varying quality on the city’s outskirts, which house the countless immi-grants who service this economy.

To achieve such density in this inhospitable desert environment, where it’s impossible to walk outside during eight months of the year, Masdar is built above a service podium, with a personal rapid transit (PRT) system. This will require major behavioural change, because people will have to leave their private cars (essential for moving around the rest of Abu Dhabi) in car parks at entrances to the city, and continue in the PRT’s driverless ‘cars’. These will accommodate four passengers and come in two classes: leather-finished for VIPs and standard-upholstered for everyone else.

Like its PRT system, Masdar is carbon-neutral in first-class style. The buildings are designed to be extremely energy efficient, in

line with the sustainability agenda (see pages 30-31). Gerard Evenden, senior partner at Foster + Partners, says: ‘Every design decision and material choice in the Masdar Institute buildings has an absolute reason for being.’ Massive amounts of renewable energy will be required, and Masdar is currently testing solar technologies on the site and has invested in a photovoltaics plant in Germany.

Abu Dhabi is deliberately differentiating itself from its energy-hungry neighbour, Dubai. The landscaped courtyards and retractable roofs of Foster + Partners’ Central Market project – on the site of the city’s souk,

which was destroyed by fire in 2002 – are a far cry from the vast aquariums and air- conditioned spaces of Dubai Mall.

It would be easy to criticise Masdar were it not part of a larger strategic vision. In addition to its long-range Plan Abu Dhabi 2030 – a masterplan that divides Abu Dhabi into districts and defines uses, densities and building heights – the emirate has developed Estidama (AJ 30.10.08), its own environmen-tal rating system with weightings adapted to reflect local climate and resources. Last year, Abu Dhabi Municipality adopted new building regulations, based on those due to

arrive in the USA in 2012. Energy modelling will be mandatory for all buildings, and glazing will be restricted to 30 per cent of a building’s envelope. A low-carbon schools programme is underway and a water plan addresses rising sea levels.

Abu Dhabi’s resources and political structure permit it to cherry-pick the best examples from around the world and implement new policies straightaway. The £350 million Sheikh Zayed Mosque (2007) and the seven-star, £2 billion Emirates Palace Hotel (2005) demonstrate this small nation’s ability to get things built, even if the taste

for luxury and show is a cause for wonder.Masdar aspires to be a living laboratory

of low-carbon design, yet it faces serious challenges. The climate is inhospitable and sand coats all surfaces, including solar collectors. Two men spend one week a month cleaning the 110,000m2 photovoltaic test array on the Masdar site. Abu Dhabians are betting that technology can dominate the climate, and, with almost limitless resources, they just might succeed.

The level of ambition and resources seen here – both financial and human – are exceptional and would be difficult to replicate

elsewhere. ‘Everyone talks about zero-carbon cities, but nobody has put their foot forward the way Abu Dhabi has,’ says Evenden. The big question is whether a knowledge centre for renewable energy, a cultural quarter and the Ferrari World complex will create a city with soul – a self-sustaining place where people want to live, work and visit. One thing is certain – Masdar adds a unique ingredient to the mix. ■

Above�Benoy’s�Ferrari World on Yas Island will open later this yearTop�right�Foster +

Partners’ Central Market is modelled on a traditional soukAbove�right�The new

cultural quarter on Saadiyat Island will include a Guggenheim by Frank Gehry

Masdar City, Abu Dhabi

‘ Everyone talks about zero-carbon cities, but nobody has put their foot forward the way Abu Dhabi has’

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Masdar City’s location in Abu Dhabi

ARABIAN GULF

● Central Market

● Emirates Palace Hotel

Sheikh Zayed Mosque ●

● Ferrari World

● Formula One racetrack

CENTRAL ABU DHABI

SAADIYAT ISLAND

YAS ISLAND

● Abu Dhabi International AirportMASDAR

CITY

To read more about Masdar City as it develops, visit ajfootprint.com

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Masdar City, Abu Dhabi

The most striking visual element of the Masdar Institute residences is the balcony screens, whose patterns are designed by Jean-Marc Castera as an interpretation of the traditional mashrabiya screen. The screens are made from glass-reinforced concrete, which was selected for its low thermal mass,

A key concept of the Masdar Institute is spaces that are shared between interdiscipli-nary research facilities and various academic programmes. Every design decision was influenced by the need for flexibility and adaptability, and the labs will have easily movable casework systems and quick disconnects for all bench services. Open around the clock, the labs must maintain a stable internal temperature due to the sensitivity of the laboratory-calibrated equipment.

The laboratories are nominally 11m deep, with a column-free floor space arranged around light courts in a C-shaped plan. The envelope is highly insulated and as airtight as possible and the facade has an overall glazing ratio of 22 per cent. A continuous high-level clerestory illuminates the laboratories, and light-shelves bounce light deep into the spaces. Windows are located either at desk height or at eye level at strategic points in the plan.

All windows within the laboratory spaces are shaded with a combination of horizontal and vertical fins, to cut out high and low-angle sun respectively. The positions of the shading devices were optimised after extensive computer modelling with the Ecotect building analysis program, to confirm that no direct sunlight would penetrate the glass at any time of the year.

ETFE cushions cover the facade’s solid panels. ETFE was selected after extensive study by facade engineer Mott Macdonald, primarily because of its very low thermal mass and surface temperature, which minimise heat radiation into the public realm in the evening, reducing any heat-island effect. The ETFE cushions have a silver frit on the external surface and a thin, mirror-finish aluminium foil that reflects controlled, filtered light.

Prefabrication of the cladding units helps minimise waste and provides a greater accuracy of finish to minimise infiltration.

RESIDENTIAL BUILDING

Masdar Institute of Science and Technology

Foster + Partners

LABORATORY BUILDING

Masdar Institute of Science and Technology

Foster + Partners

1. Double-glazed argon-filled units with low-e coating

2. Softwood windows, stained black-grey

3. Plasterboard 4. Powder-coated 90

per cent recycled aluminium panels

5. GRC slatted soffit (40 x 50mm slats)

6. 150mm glass wool insulation

7. Linoleum floor finish on screed

8. GGBS in-situ concrete structure

9. Galvanised steel support frame

10. GRC cladding, typically 25-30mm thick

11. Balcony floor finish: concrete screed cast into GRC floor form

12. GRC mashrabiya panel13. Openings in roof14. Balcony GRC roof

panel on galvanised steel frame

Section and plan

1. GGBS in-situ concrete structure

2. 250mm glass wool insulation

3. Mirror-finish solar-surface film

4. Low-e, argon gas-filled double-glazed unit

5. Silver-finish ‘light shelf’: modular horizontal shading devices (silver powder- coated extrusion)

6. ETFE pillows (full length of elevations) with silver dot frit (40mm diameter dots 50 per cent coverage) on external face of ETFE

7. Stonhard recycled glass epoxy floor to laboratory

8. Folded vertical sheet shading fins

Section and plans at high and low level

Residential building: environmental data Laboratory building: environmental data

Material/component

GlassTimber windowsAluminium (recycled)GRC

Material

GlassETFE

System U-value (W/m2K)

1.21.20.25

–

U-value (W/m2K)

1.20.25

Material embodiedenergy(kgCO2 /m2)

65.2 (16mm thick)0.591kgCO2

14.2 (3mm thick) 12.2

Material embodiedenergy(kgCO2 /m2)

65.2 (16mm thick)19.3

embodied energy and capacity to be easily moulded. The balconies create a self-shading facade, screening the building envelope. An inner layer of 90 per cent recycled aluminium reflects light within the balcony, and its high thermal conductivity allows it to cool down quickly. The apartments in the residential buildings are thermally lightweight and highly insulated to allow for rapid cooling.

Operable windows in the apartments allow natural ventilation, which is possible on many evenings and in the daytime during winter, despite the extreme climate. The more exposed upper floors are about 25 per cent glazed, while the glazing ratio on shaded lower floors increases up to 45 per cent. A high-level clerestory and vertical slot windows maximise daylight in the apartments.

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Glass-reinforced balcony screens

Lab building facade prior to installation of

ETFE cushions

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Masdar City, Abu Dhabi

Clockwise from left AECOM’s design for the public realm, showing future light rail transit (LRT); Aedas’ low-rise housing near the Masdar Institute; the Swiss Village, a cluster of clean-tech companies; a hotel interior in Masdar’s city centre – wall surfaces will respond to changing tempera-tures; the roof of the Masdar Headquarters building includes a 3ha photovoltaic array; LAVA’s highly insulated 200-room hotel will be energy-neutral using rooftop solar panels

Masdar Institute neighbourhood, Aedas

Masdar Headquarters, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

The 135,000m2 Masdar Headquarters, which is on site and due to complete in late 2012, will provide offices for 2,500 people, including IRENA’s staff of 200. The building will be carbon-positive, generating more energy than it uses, and will exceed the LEED Platinum standard.

Eleven wind cones, which supply ventilation and exhaust warm air, funnel daylight to the interior of the plan and create internal garden courtyards. A large roof canopy and glazed insulating outer walls create a shaded microclimate and allow air to circulate through the building. Shaded green roofs will provide landscaped communal space. The roof canopy incorporates a 3ha photovoltaic array, and solar-thermal tubes supply the building’s air-conditioning. Earth ducts cool outside air and double as pedestrian ‘pedways’, linking the building’s garden space to Masdar’s personal rapid transit system.

The building’s form resulted from extensive environmental analysis and all materials have been specified using lifecycle analysis. Water consumption is reduced 70 per cent over the baseline. Construction began last year and piles, grade beams and the slab on grade are complete. Aedas is designing several city blocks

adjacent to the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, including a hotel, over 600 housing units, shops and offices. Low-rise passive solar design and a shaded public realm helped determine the orientation and form of the blocks. This approach minimises solar gain and glare using passive shading.

Each plot was treated individually in terms of shape, orientation and access to the prevailing wind. Situated along the main boulevard, the office building and one of the housing schemes benefit from breezes, while the remainder of the plots, recessed and surrounded by neighbours, rely on internal courtyards, careful daylighting and lightweight veils to achieve optimum conditions. The office and retail schemes use high-level wind scoops to channel breezes into shaded courtyards.

Aedas’ research and development group is responsible for maintaining a sustainability overview for each phase of the scheme. The team will evaluate materials and construction issues that relate to recycled content, embodied carbon, airtightness and thermal performance to assist environmental as well as operational performance targets.

The project is due on site late this year.

Public realm and landscaping, AECOM

AECOM is designing Masdar’s public realm, including concept design for the entire site and construction documentation for phase 1. Food, water and energy strategies are used to enhance microclimatic conditions, including wind and ventilation, sun and shade, and water and evaporative cooling. Photovoltaic arrays within the public realm will store and feed solar energy into Masdar’s system.

AECOM’s design makes the most of traditional east-west orientations to shade public spaces. Hardscape materials with low embodied energy are being specified, and planting will include diverse and native species, shade plantings, productive trees, palms and crops. Around 73ha will be dedicated to food crops, which will also provide shade, enhance wind flow, and reduce heat and water loss from evapotranspiration.

Rain and storm water will be collected through swales, cisterns and groundwater lenses, then naturally filtered, stored and used as needed throughout the public realm.

Masdar city centre, LAVA Swiss Village

Masdar’s city centre, due to start on site late this year, comprises a plaza, a five-star hotel, a long-stay hotel, a convention centre and an entertainment complex, plus retail facilities. Architecture practice LAVA is currently prototyping the plaza’s giant ‘sunflower’ umbrellas, which will provide moveable shade in the day, store heat, and then close and release the heat at night.

Intelligent, heat-sensitive technology will activate light poles in response to pedestrian traffic and mobile-phone usage. The specific performance and visual impact of different facade materials, selected from a library supplied by Masdar, are being researched to ensure the main building wall surfaces will respond efficiently to changing temperatures and contain minimal embodied energy.

Located between the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology and the city centre, the Swiss Village will be a hub for Swiss clean-tech companies. The programme includes offices, research labs, light manufacturing, housing, retail, a school and the Swiss embassy.

A competition is currently underway to select eight Swiss architecture practices to design the 200,000m2 site. Presentations were held in late January and the winning practices will be announced later this month. Each architect will work alongside two service engineers.

The Association Swiss Village Abu Dhabi (SVA), for clean-tech enterprises who want to have a presence in Masdar, currently numbers more than 120 companies.

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