THE WORLD'S FIRST SUSTAINABLE CITY. Designed by Norman Foster
The project includes plans to start building a city with zero carbon and zero waste up to 15,000 residents in the desert in the first quarter of this year. "Achieving zero-carbon city is doable," said Jaber (Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of Masdar). In the long term, the project will house 50,000 people. The city is being designed by the British architect Norman Foster .
"This is an extremely ambitious project," said Gerard Evenden, senior partner of the firm of architects Lord Foster in London, which has had a team in charge of design for nine months. "We were invited to design a zero carbon city. For this grim place, we need to go back in history and look at how the ancient sites were adapted to their environments. "
The buildings are stacked like a ' Kashba ', and the cooling system will come from wind turbines that will collect the winds of the desert and expel hot air. No building will exceed five storeys high, and the city is oriented northeast to southwest to obtain an optimum balance of sunlight and shadow.
It will seem to many cities built in the era of horse drawn carriages. Most roads have only three meters wide and 70 long, to be able to develop a microclimate that keeps the air moving, the roofs allow air to enter and protect the inside of the hot sun in summer.
No one was at a distance greater than 200 meters of public transport, and the streets will give colonnaded squares and fountains.
"In no way trying to impose an international standard architecture in Masdar. We strive for a balance of light and heat, "said Evenden. "This area only have three months of extreme heat, and the rest of the year is pretty wet."
The dream of every architect is building a new city and Foster's team explains that started from scratch. The idea was reduced to the amount of energy needed to build and to live in that city, leaving after the solar energy the rest.
"We will start with a huge solar power station to provide enough energy to build the city. About 80% of the roof space will be used to generate this energy, given that we expect the technology to improve as we build the hope to eliminate subsequent solar power plant. Let's say that we would borrow the energy from the outside, but we are trying to prove that is possible to generate all within the confines of the site, "said Evenden.
ABU DHABI .- Abu Dhabi, the largest of the UAE and one of the largest oil producers in the world, plans to invest 15,000 billion in the first phase of an initiative to develop green energy and build the hydrogen power plant larger the world.
The investment is part of the Masdar Initiative, a company created to develop clean and sustainable energy, as announced by Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayn Summit Energy of the Future held in the emirate. Not detailed, however, no specific date.
"I would like to underline the commitment of the Government of Abu Dhabi Masdar Initiative to announcing an initial investment of 15,000 million dollars," he said. "Next month will be launched Masdar City, the first carbon-free city in the world."
The money will go to infrastructure projects, renewable energy as a solar plant, and labor, all to put Abu Dhabi as the market leader in clean energy, said Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of Masdar ( or Future Energy Company of Abu Dhabi).
SOURCE: elmundo.es
