Masdar Sustainable City / LAVA
The future well being of cities around the globe depends on mankind’s ability to develop and integrate sustainable technology.
LAVA designed the Masdar City as the city of the future; positioned at the forefront of integrating sustainable technology into modern architectural design. Rome, Athens, Florence; most great historical cities have had the plaza, forum, or square at their epicentre – where the life, values, ideals, and vision of the population evolved. Equally, the centre of Masdar must be an iconic beacon that attracts global attention to sustainable technology.
We see Masdar Plaza as “The Oasis of the Future”: a living, breathing, active, adaptive environment; stimulated by the social interaction of people, and spotlighting the use and benefits of sustainable technology.
Hence, our design proposal focuses on the delivery of three key issues:
- Performance – to demonstrate the use and benefits of sustainable technology in a modern, dynamic, iconic architectural environment.
- Activation – to activate or operate the sustainable technology in accordance with the functional needs of this environment, 24 hours a day, and 365 days of the year.
- Interaction – to encourage and stimulate a social dynamic where the life, values, ideals, and vision of the population of Masdar evolve.
The “Oasis of the Future” is conceived as an open spatial experience, whereby all features; whether hotel, conference, shopping, or leisure, offer the highest quality of indoor and outdoor comfort and interaction.
As in the case of an oasis, the Plaza is the social epicentre of Masdar; opening 24-hour access to all public facilities. Interactive, heat sensitive technology activates low intensity lighting in response to pedestrian traffic and mobile phone usage. The Plaza is able to change into an outdoor cinema for international events and national celebrations.
Buildings’ surrounding the Plaza form gorges, evoking mystical comparisons with the Grand Canyon and the entrance to Petra.
The “Oasis of the Future” demonstrates sustainable technology in a user-friendly architectural environment – flexible use of space, outdoor and indoor comfort, and optimum performance.
The user experience is the heart of the “Oasis of the Future”.
By analysing the potential pedestrian flows throughout the Plaza and surrounding facilities, the design seeks to accentuate this ‘loop’ of indoor and outdoor user-experiences This ‘loop’ marries the lowest possible energy expenditure to the highest levels of user comfort in correlation to pedestrian flows.
The following environmental and engineering design concepts will be utilized to minimize energy consumption:
- Radiant surfaces
- Air movement that supplements natural wind patterns
- Evaporating cooling mist
- Thermal mass and PCM
- Slab cooling and Luna Panels
- Shading of external facades surrounding the Plaza
Our sustainable design and engineering philosophy balances the ‘vision of the future’ with ‘scientific fact and availability’. Our aim is to provide the Abu Dhabi Energy Company with the lowest possible carbon footprint, whilst maintaining the highest level of user experience within the practical viability of affordable architecture.
Our engineering specialists have analysed each component of potential energy expenditure and investigated individual efficiencies in order to reduce the carbon footprint. Even the façade of the buildings surrounding the Plaza will incorporate long-life, loose-fit structural design to enable flexible future planning and reconfiguration opportunities.
Switching and sensors will activate and deactivate features and functions in correlation with usage and pedestrian flow.
All front and back of house functions within the Hotel and Convention Centre will capture sustainability of water, waste, materials, indoor and outdoor environmental quality
In fact, our proposal strives to exceed those of the Masterplan and is, in addition, benchmarked against Estidama and LEED (Platinum). Adaptive cooling provides all facilities with extended usability during peak heat loads.
Our ‘Petals from Heaven’ feature interactive umbrellas that open, provide shade, and capture energy during daylight hours; folding at night to release stored heat.
Solar analysis provides insight into the tuning of facades in order to incorporate an ability to respond to varying sun angles and levels of solar intensity.
The Oasis of the Future is a living, breathing habitat. The ability to control ambient temperature at all times of the day is the key to making the Plaza a compulsive destination. The gorges pull inhabitants into the loop. The ‘Petals from Heaven’ open and close; protect pedestrians from the sun; capture, store, and release heat; adjust the angle of shade based on the position of the sun. The heat sensitive lamps adjust the level of lighting to the proximity of pedestrians. The water features ebb and flow based on the intensity of ground temperatures.
The promenades lure pedestrians into the shopping and leisure facilities. Similarly, the public are seduced into the Plaza during cooler night hours and cooler months of the year.
Our 5 Star Hotel is organised efficiently around a ‘Central Canyon’ and is linked to the Extended Stay Facilities via a ‘gorge’ housing Retail premises. The Central Canyon is a day-lit space deep within the building, connecting the hotel’s restaurants and ballrooms to the guest amenities.
The hotel’s entrance and lobby, located at the base of the atrium, offers guests an immediate view out onto the Plaza in one direction and the green of the park in another.
The western edge of the Plaza rises to create the Convention Centre forecourt and ascends as a continuous path into the Lobby area. Our design of the Convention Centre Lobby resembles an enormous, light-soaked cavern, providing an enclosure for the conference facilities with the Plaza framed in the background.
The awe-inspiring ‘erosion-effect’ design of the façade that flows across this edge of the Plaza is complemented by water features and also houses the sub-podium PRT and Retail concessions.
This spectacular conference facility, with its gigantic cavern atmosphere, will leave a lasting impression on all visitors.
‘Masdar Plaza, The Oasis of the Future’ will create an iconic venue within a truly visionary city.
‘Masdar Plaza, The Oasis of the Future’ incorporates the highest level of knowledge and expertise in science, technology, and construction methodology, globally. It is an intellectual balance between iconic architectural identity, cutting edge sustainable design and technology.
Related articles:
29 comments »
Frank Lloyd Wright!!! :)
thats ‘wright’ !!
ofcause, it’s Wroght
oh, sorry, Wright…^^
yeah http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/wi/wi0000/wi0052/photos/171426pv.jpg
Impresive it only what i can say about this office, LAVA is simply unique, in a good way of course, this guys have HUGE projects, and i wish to know who is behind all of this projects
this is such a sick projecttt
beautiful
sustainable with sex appeal
brilliant.
sustainable? my foot!
The text is a bit misleading. Foster + Partners did the masterplan and are designing a large portion of the city. LAVA did this specific project.
Wouldn’t it be better to spend all that money to retrofit an existing city rather than build a new one that will occupy more land?
I agree with Mathew that it is so much more environmental to fix existing cities rather than sprawling more. Unfortunately, we architects have to follow the money to make a living and if the only job is to design a city in the desert, we do it (unless we were willing to put ethics in front of profit). I guess Foster’s argument would be: They are going to build a new city in the desert anyway, so let’s help them do it as green as possible. A real dillema, but I wish some famous architects would make a statement by declining the job publicly, and criticize these crazy, vanity driven, real-estate speculations (like Dubai).
Am I off base here, or do others agree with this?
it would be really interesting (and far more efficient) if it used sunaitec.pt systems instead of PV panels.
someone please translate the site and add it here please.
beautiful
Frank Lloyd Wright did this already. lets try to be a bit innovative. More curves and plastic trees.
Wow, that’s amazing.
Agree with Lester. I wonder if PV panels are a real good idea. I heard that it asks almost as much CO2 to produce that it can probably save in 20 years of efficient life. After 15-20years you have to change it again and it costs again CO2 and money, and i don’t talk about rest of the necessary plant to transform this electricity. “Our engineering specialists have analysed each component of potential energy expenditure and investigated individual efficiencies in order to reduce the carbon footprint”. I’m very curious to know what says the analysis report.
Appropriation’s art or copy-Wright.
Yes, Wright has done it already at Johnson Wax. So?
One has to wonder, is “only once” the best thing for architecture? I saw the Wright exhibit at Guggenheim 2 weeks ago and thought it was rather unfortunate no one had recreated Johnson Wax’s lilly pad columns. After all, how many people will make it to Racine Wisconsin and get to stand in that gorgeous room? Is it such a bad thing to recreate beauty in architecture?
I’m willing to wager most people crying foul here, who have done built work, hasn’t copied a detail from “Details of Modern Architecture”. Sure it’s details and not the big tuna, but is the difference so great?
Not to mention that Wright’s columns were cast in concrete. In this project however, the ’sunflowers’ aren’t even columns; they’re tensile structures(wrapped over a metal armature) that opens or closes depending on the sun’s intensity.
So while they might appear similar (the architects probably even acknowledge this), I think they’re an entirely different beast.
dubai is ging to be a ghost town in 20 yrs max
Dubai is the new Detroit.
hahah very true! when i left about 6 months ago it was already turning into a ghost town… but now… from what ive heard, it already is one!
this project is however in abu dhabi… which is actually 100 times more boring than dubai is, or shall i say was when the construction boom was taking place.
if this development is ever actually finished, with people living in it and using those little pod cars than they plan to use then and only then will i congratulate them. oh… and if it is finished we’ll see how long it takes before the buildings start to crack and tumble.
And they can make a sequel to “I Am Legend” there.
With muslim zombies.
And instead of dogs, camel zombies.
That would be nice.
this is all a lie. there is no way pv can generate half the energy demand of that beast. show the research not the fancy rendering. prove this works.
oh course this will work! can’t you see that dubai built a 1 km high tower, a ski-village in a bubble and several huge theme parks in dubailand????? oh wait… they’ve all be cancelled (oops sorry my mistake.. they’re on “hold.”)
the UAE has become the biggest joke of all time.
Links to this article »