The latest attempt to create an entire community with reduced needs for energy, water, land and other resources, even perhaps complete self-sufficiency, is to be found rising from the sand in Abu Dhabi, where ‘Masdar City’ a near-self-contained mini-municipality designed for up to 50 000 people and intended as a centre for academic and corporate research on non-polluting energy technologies will see its ground breaking ceremony on 9 February.
The 2.3-square-mile community, set behind walls to divert hot desert winds and airport noise, will be car free, according to the blueprint of architects Foster & Partners, the London firm that has become a byword for this kind of energy-saving grand design.
The new town will have narrow pedestrian streets shaded by canopies made of photovoltaic panels. It will produce all of its own energy from sunlight. Water will be suplied by a solar-powered seawater-desalination plant. Horticultural produce will come from nearby greenhouses, and all waste will be composted or otherwise recycled.
The first phase, to be completed over the next two years, will be construction of the Masdar Institute, a graduate-level academic research centre associated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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