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6.5 sq km ‘city of future’ will be suspended on stilts to increase air circulation

It may be one of the world’s largest producers of oil, sitting on vast reserves projected to last another century, but Abu Dhabi’s ruling sheikhs are preparing for a future without oil.

Construction is under way of what is billed as the world’s first carbon-neutral city, rising from a featureless sandy expanse near Abu Dhabi airport and the coast.

Masdar City will be among one of the world’s built-from-scratch eco-cities.

Designed by famed British architect Norman Foster, the 6.5 sq km ‘city of the future’ will be suspended on stilts above the ground to increase air circulation and reduce the heat from the desert floor.

No cars will be allowed. Instead, the city will be split into two decks and on the lower level, residents will be ferried around by thousands of driverless transport pods controlled by touch screens and guided by sensors in the ground.

With the sleek silhouette of a racing motorcycle, but with room for four people, the pods look like props from a science fiction movie.

Above will be the main pedestrianised street level, where businesses, shops and homes will be located.

Water will be drawn from dew and a solar-powered desalination plant.

Most of the electricity for the 50,000 residents will come from solar panels on every roof and over the narrow alleys where they will double as sun shades, reducing the need for air-conditioning.

Overall, Masdar City is expected to need about a quarter of the energy of a normal city of comparable size. Officials say that when the city is completed by 2020, it will produce no waste and emit no carbon dioxide.

The cornerstone of this US$22 billion (S$32 billion) city of the future is the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, which will be the world’s first postgraduate research university in science and engineering focusing on alternative and clean energy technology.

The emirate has roped in the recently announced partner for Singapore’s fourth university – the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – to partner it in its academic venture.

When the institute opens its doors on a temporary campus on Sunday, its faculty will have spent up to a year working closely with MIT professors.

Provost John Perkins, formerly dean of the faculty of engineering and physical sciences at the University of Manchester, said he has already recruited 25 faculty staff, many of them from top British and American universities.

The institute received 1,000 applications for its 100 slots. In the end 92  students from 22 countries were selected and they will start classes next week.

‘Masdar Institute is aiming to create and shape a new generation of leaders and critical thinkers in science and technology,’ Professor Perkins said.

He added: ‘ I am confident seemingly insurmountable barriers and obstacles in meeting both the challenge of climate change and economic growth can be overcome.’

And while the financial crisis has seen developers throughout the United Arab Emirates cancelling or delaying construction plans, Masdar officials brush off such concerns, saying ‘everything is on track as planned’.

The emirate is certainly not short of cash. Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund is estimated to be US$700 billion.

Mr Khaled Awad, head of development at Masdar City, assures visitors that Masdar is no desert mirage, saying: ‘Our vision is Masdar will become a blueprint for urban living of the future, an incubator for alternative energy, a sort of Silicon Valley for clean technology.’

Source : Straits Times – 16 Sep 2009