Planning and Design

• What is Masdar City ?
• About Masdar
• Sustainability and the City
  • Planning and Design
  • Energy Management
  • Water Management
  • Waste Management
  • Transportation
  • Supply Chain
• Frequently Asked Questions

Every aspect of the city’s urban planning, engineering and architecture is approached with sustainability in mind. More specifically, planning seeks to facilitate reductions in demand of electricity, water and other resources.

Image Showing Thermal Analysis Planners recognised that the biggest environmental gains come from some of the most passive, and least expensive, tools: the city’s (and buildings’) orientation (with regards to the sun and prevailing winds) and its form. Next most effective is building performance optimisation, such as an efficient envelope and systems, and smart building management. Active controls, such as renewable energy, are the most expensive, while offering the lowest relative environment-impact returns. That’s why designers first concentrated on orientation and performance optimisation, thereby reducing a large amount of energy demand with little cost, and only subsequently looked at what active controls could be implemented.

Pictures taken by a thermal imaging camera show the difference in radiant temperature between a typical central Abu Dhabi street and a street in Masdar City. The bright white hot spots of the exposed street, yellow and bright orange show the hottest areas dominate the central Abu Dhabi streetscape, while blues and purples – indicating cooler temperatures, dominate in the Masdar City streetscape. This difference in radiant temperature of up to 20°C is quite an achievement.