Masdar City Square, which will span 29,000 square metres and comprise seven green buildings, aims to support its own and the UAE’s carbon-neutrality goals.
Masdar City, which combines a technology and innovation hub as well as a sustainable community in Abu Dhabi, has broken ground on a new square comprising seven green buildings to support its own carbon-neutrality goals and the UAE Net-Zero by 2050 strategy.
The MC2 development extends Masdar City’s commitment to net-zero, sustainability, technology, and wellbeing by building an expanded community of businesses that will operate in harmony with the environment. Work on the development will begin this year and is scheduled for completion in 2024.
Green construction
Faithful+Gould, a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group, has been awarded a project management consultancy services contract, while global architectural and consulting firm Woods Bagot will handle design and construction supervision consultancy for the project. Woods Bagot previously designed the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) headquarters in Masdar City.
The development includes seven single- and multi-tenant office buildings and a parking facility. Six of the buildings will be built to the highest green construction specifications while the MC2 headquarters building will be Abu Dhabi’s first net-zero energy office building. This means it will use no more energy than it produces by integrating energy efficiency-focused design and systems and renewable energy technologies. The MC2 headquarters building will be immediately identifiable by an innovative solar photovoltaic panel canopy.
Speaking at the occasion of the groundbreaking, “Masdar City is already home to one of the world’s largest clusters of green buildings with Estidama and LEED certifications,” said Ahmed Baghoum, acting executive director, Masdar City. “With the completion of MC2, and its seven new green buildings, including Abu Dhabi’s first net-zero energy office building, we are further demonstrating how urban development can be both economically and environmentally sound and sustainable.”
The buildings in MC2 add to Masdar City’s legacy as a regional pioneer in net zero and green construction. In 2017, Masdar City announced the completion of its Eco-Villa project, the UAE’s first net-zero energy villa. The 405-square metre villa was the first in the country to achieve a Four-Pearl rating, using around 72 per cent less energy and 35 per cent less water than a conventional villa of the same size in Abu Dhabi, reportedly mitigating 63 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
MC2 will be located adjacent to Masdar City’s existing development centered around the Mohammed bin Zayed University for Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) and the Siemens Middle East headquarters. MC2 will incorporate the existing Irena headquarters and will include courtyards, a daycare, an amphitheatre plaza, shaded pedestrian boulevards, a fitness centre, a meditation room, and more.
Masdar City, which opened in 2010, is one of the world’s most sustainable urban developments and the only planned and approved research and development cluster in Abu Dhabi. A 10 MW solar array and rooftop panels provide the city 1 MW of solar energy to meet some of its power needs. All buildings within Masdar City are mandated to achieve at minimum a Three-Pearl Estidama rating, meaning they are designed to reduce energy consumption by at least 40 per cent and reduce water consumption by at least 40 per cent compared to provided standards.
The city is home to more than 1,000 companies dedicated to developing innovative technologies across the sectors of renewables, energy storage, artificial intelligence, health, space, and mobility. These include, among others, Irena, the UAE Space Agency, Siemens, the Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC) and its two pillar entities, Technology Innovation Institute (TII) and Aspire, Tabreed, Honeywell, and the MBZUAI. Masdar City is also home to the leading health technology company G42 Healthcare (G42).
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Quelle/Source: Smart Cities World, 06.07.2022
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