Grön

The Masdar Initiative is an ambitious new project to build a walled city within Abu Dhabi with renewable technologies, in hopes of achieving a carbon neutral, zero waste community. Master-planned by London-based architects Foster + Partners and driven by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, the six-square-kilometer development, initiated in 2006, is expected to be complete by 2010. Strategically located next to Abu Dhabi’s international airport, Masdar will be linked through roads, railways and public transport routes, while the city itself will remain car-free to maintain its carbon neutral ecology. Seeking to put all transport points within 150 meters of each other, the shaded, compact network of streets will encourage a pedestrian-friendly environment; and citizens in a hurry can avail themselves of an electric, driverless rapid transport system. Further plans include a university, The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, and the headquarters of the Future Energy Company. “The environmental ambitions of the Masdar Initiative are a world first,” says Norman Foster, and promises to set a blueprint for sustainable cities in the future. With expansion carefully planned, the surrounding land will contain wind and photovoltaic farms, desalination, waste recycling, research fields, and plantations, so that the city is entirely self-sustaining. Now that’s living in the future.