Masdar’s green architecture competition
Published in Abu Dhabi-based sustainable developers Masdar, who launched the ground-breaking zero-carbon, zero- waste Masdar City at the inaugural World Future Energy Summit– being designed by Lord Norman Foster have announced plans to launch architectural competition for green buildings that will surpass the current LEED standards.
Speaking at the recently concluded Cityscape event Khaled Awad, director of property development, said the they are looking for designs for a zero-carbon hotel for the project, which will occupy 6 km sq of land in the Middle East.
Awad also revealed that the final designs for the first scheme to be built in the city, a university called the Masdar Institute, were due for completion by the end of November. The project is being designed by Foster and Partners, who are also masterplanning the city. “We gave the firm the task of designing to demonstrate to us that the masterplan is do-able,” said Awad adding further that the Masdar buildings would outperform the highest LEED standard, LEED platinum, in order to meet their objective of creating a zero-carbon city. The novel initiative aims to reduce energy consumption of buildings by 60 per cent and to supply the remaining energy with renewable sources.
“For this to be a success, we have to able to continue to stick to the original version of the development being zero carbon. We are on target for this right now,” said Awad.
Quick facts about the Masdar project:
- Masdar will include a 10MW PhotoVoltaic (PV) plant, the first phase of which will be completed in 2011. “This will be a breakthrough for PV costs,” says Awad.
- Only 1 per cent of the renewable energy for the city will come from wind. Apparently a study revealed that wind-power harnessing didn’t provide any cost benefits.
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