Foster & Partners: Masdar review near completion

Masdar City, currently not much more than a construction site in the sand.

A first review of Masdar City, the carbon neutral development in Abu Dhabi, is nearing completion, said architect firm Foster & Partners on Monday.

The completion of the review is an important prerequisite for the next stages of construction, said the company in a statement.

The news comes as the Masdar Institute, which is developing clean technologies and is part of the development, is welcoming its first occupants.

The masterplan has been designed from the outset to be highly flexible, in order to anticipate and incorporate emergent technologies, as well as to respond to lessons learnt during the implementation of the first phases of the project, according to Foster & Partners.

Further mixed-use phases of Masdar City are now being prepared for imminent start on site. The project has been under development for the past three years.

Doubts about Masdar City had emerged as parent company Masdar had slashed its workforce, and had announced an official review of the project. The project has already quietly been rebranded as ‘carbon neutral’ from ‘zero carbon’.

Masdar CEO Dr Sultan Al Jaber in June reaffirmed commitment to the projects green credentials, saying that ‘the vision remained the same”, in spite of the review.

Masdar is a government owned company committed to developing and promiting clean technologies and sustainability. In June, it announced that it is building the Shams I 100MW concentrated solar plant.

Abu Dhabi, which is seeking to satisfy seven percent of its energy needs from renewable sources, is launching a raft of sustainability measures, such as green building standards.

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