Sustainable Buildings and Cities Around the World: March 2011

Monday, March 21, 2011

The Land of Religion

I am not a religious person. I have attended few church services in my life and probably as many bar and bat mitzvahs. I joke sometimes that given my friends and their invitations to Hanukkah and Seder dinner, I am closer to being Jewish than to Christian, the religion in which both of my parents were raised. Because of this, religion has never been a matter of great importance to me personally. I understand its role in our world (at least to the degree an outsider can) but don’t actively practice a religion. I instead rely on a set of values I feel is ostensibly Christian but also common to most if not all world religions. Yet here, in India, I find myself in one of the holiest lands on earth. Here is the birthplace of the oldest religion in the world, Hinduism. It is the land in which the Buddha obtained enlightenment and the home of Sikhism, a large Muslim population, many Zoroastrians (Parsees), and other mystical beliefs. There are even some who claim that Jesus lived for a stint in India. While admittedly it is not the holy land for three of the major world religions (that honor belongs to Jerusalem), it is an important center of religion and a country where, unexpectedly, I have given great thought to the subject.

This trip has been an unexpected wealth of religious thinking for me. If you recall from my post on my last week in Dubai, I had the opportunity to pray in a mosque and learn the actions associated with the five-times daily reminder of God’s presence and supremacy. The peaceful, meditative atmosphere that induced self-reflection combined with the humbling communal aspect of the prayer affected me and brought to mind thoughts of the importance of religion. I saw the strength of that community in action, how ideally it helps breed social equality into people’s thoughts, and how when executed in the intended manner, it caused one to evaluate one’s actions and redirect his course if necessary. On arrival to India, I didn’t expect that I would have a similar experience (how could I when I hadn’t expected the prayer in Dubai), but I should have known that in this land of religion, I would experience something to stimulate again my thinking on faith.

This came sooner than expected, and in Delhi, of all places. Though located on the Yamuna River, one of importance in Hinduism, Delhi is not considered to be a holy city in any major religion, nor is it particularly flush with religious sites. Yet along the purple Metro line, a white marble structure unlike any you will have ever seen rises from the trees and captures your attention. If you stop at the Kalkaji Mandir station, and I encourage you to, you will find that this beautiful sculpture is a temple, but not one from the major religions of the nation. In fact, this is of a religion that also considers Jerusalem to be its holy land, but not Christianity, Judaism, or Islam. It is a Baha'i Temple, and in particular, the Lotus Temple.

Don’t know what the Baha'i Faith is? Neither did I, but if anything that made me want to find out more. I had alighted from the Metro with a mind treating this as another sight to see within Delhi and a plan to start early so I wouldn’t have to cram them all in at the tail end of my stay. That mentality stayed as I wove through throngs of schoolchildren visiting the site on a field trip. However after depositing my shoes and heading to the base of the monumental, gorgeous architectural feat, I felt an atmosphere of greater reverence than that afforded just a typical sight. As I waited to enter, I and the other visitors were explained the tenets of the Baha'i Faith, which centers on unity of all major world religions. The Baha'i’s believe that Bahaullah is the most recent prophet of God after Jesus and Mohammed and was sent in the 1800s to teach God’s word to modern society. Their views are decidedly more liberal than the Catholic Church or Islam regarding women, marriage, and social issues, and they seek unity rather than divisiveness among these often tense religious sects. Under this belief, the temple is open to anyone from any faith to pray and meditate with the only requirement of silence while inside. At different times of day, this silence is broken with a prayer from one of the 9 world religions which they seek to unify.

After entering, the architectural enthusiast in me fought hard to forget religion and just stare at the beautiful concrete and marble interior. My eyes followed the graceful arches that buttressed the 9 interior lotus petals, eliminating the need for any interior columns. Structurally and aesthetically, this was an inspiring space. However after this initial assessment, it was time to focus on the purpose of visiting a temple—meditation and religion. Looking around, I saw people bent in different forms of prayer. Some had the more Christian pose of hands clasped and head bowed, others assumed the meditative seating of the Buddha, and still others sat straight and still, eyes closed in thought. Not sure which best would suit me, I went with what felt natural and soon was lost in thought about the nature and role of religion in modern society.

Now I won’t discuss all of what went through my mind for a few reasons, mostly because I don’t want to get into a religious discourse and partly because some of it was on my own personal beliefs. Besides, I don’t want to give the impression that this was a profound revelation for me in any way. It was one of the most dedicated times I’ve had to think about religion, but it did not leave me with any crystallizing vision on my own beliefs. What I will say is that at one point in my stream of thought, my mind turned toward the topic of extremism in religion. In both this temple and in the mosque in Ajman, I was surrounded by an atmosphere where religion bred peace and community, not division. So how, I wondered, do people become so tied up in single lines or phrases within their religious texts or teachings that they deviate from what, to an outsider, seems the overarching message? Sure each religion claims to be the right one, but as long as attempts at “educating” (read: converting) the non-believers are peaceful, that should not be an issue. It only becomes one if the dogma of righteousness is taken to an extreme and drives zealots to violence in the name of their god(s). And why is this prevalent in Western religions but not Hinduism and Buddhism? I don’t have any answer for these questions, and probably never will, but it seems strange that such an overarchingly positive message can become so twisted in the minds of a few. If anyone has thoughts, I’d be interested to hear.

I was taught more about the Ba’hai faith after leaving the temple by one of the volunteers, a girl from Riverside, CA, named Carmel. She spotted me as an American from far away and when we realized we were from just down the freeway from one another, she was eager to lead me on a personal tour of the display on the Baha'i Faith. It was interesting to learn about this new religion and ponder its beliefs. What to the engineer in me was more interesting, though, was the video showing the construction of the temple. Precise wood formwork, 48 hour continuous concrete pours with regulated cooling, and placement of individually created marble slabs went into the construction. The amount of innovation and high-technology required and executed in a generally lower-technology culture (India in the 1980s) was fascinating and really fascinating to watch.

A quick aside at this point: I have often looked at older mosques and temples and marveled at the details of the sculptures on the facades and interiors. The amount of devotion that went into the construction to put that level of painstaking detail just astounds me. Looking at modern structures, I have often felt that is missing. Now I know that there is a difference now in the amount of money available and labor laws (you can’t pay an artisan peanuts these days or just have a king allot large sums to projects), but it still seems that the devotional aspect of the laborers is missing. Here, at the Lotus Temple, it was apparent that the Iranian architect who executed the project had the full religious spirit in him throughout. The care he took to ensure that his design was completed as envisioned was inspiring. It was refreshing to see someone care so much about creating a grand home for his faith.

It was not long after my visit to the Lotus Temple that I had my second encounter with religion in India. In fact, it was the following weekend when, after finding the trains to Agra once again fully booked, I headed north to Amritsar. Many who visit India for just a few weeks miss this gem of a town partly because it is out of the way and partly because aside from the border closing ceremony with Pakistan, its only draw is the Golden Temple, the holiest site in Sikhism. This, in my opinion, is a mistake. In my time in this country, I have not found a more peaceful place than that temple, and whether you are a Sikh or not, to sit on the cool marble and watch the sun’s first rays glance off the massive amounts of gold adorning the façade of the temple is an awesome experience.

First, again, I will discuss the architectural viewpoint. The temple sits on a platform in a large square pool surrounded on all sides by white plastered, ornate buildings. The buildings house various kitchens, dorms, and facilities for Sikh pilgrims (of which there are many), while the temple is only for devotion and prayer. The pool is ringed by a white colonnade growing out of marble flooring which provides a comfortable place to sit and access to the pool to wash away one’s sins. The temple itself is a gorgeous building for its ornate façade detailing and for the hundreds of kilograms of gold heaped on its top and sides by a Sikh ruler wishing to make a present to the faith. Four bulbous towers reach skyward, one in each corner, around a central bulbous dome, all adorned with smaller bulbs, spires, and upturned pieces reminiscent of lotus petals. The sides are draped in fake windows and pilasters, and thousands of smaller floral and other designs in a beautiful arrangement that shows just how much care was taken in the creation of this place.

In the ultimate mark of devotion, prayers ring out from the temple continuously throughout day and night. Songs of devotion from the Sikh canon are dispersed over loudspeakers to those in and around the temple as a constant reminder of faith and God. Those who sing these chants are admirably passionate in their beliefs and following the truest path they know to reaching a higher plane. Even those who are of a different faith, I believe, must admire this devotion and that they have chosen to express it in a constructive manner that is both self-satisfying and for the good of their community.

I arrived at the temple at sunrise and sat on the marble floor, watching as light filled the square cavern around the temple. As I did, I observed the line to enter the temple proper grow from only a few right at sunrise to the length of the pathway out to the temple and then some. Here, on a Sunday of no great importance in the Sikh religion, the number of people making pilgrimage to the temple or visiting just for regular prayers was incredible. I have been in full temples and churches in the past, but that has always been on a special occasion—a holiday or a special ceremony in the life of a member of the faith. This was a normal day in Amritsar, and yet the line to pray was like the line for a ride at Disneyland! I suppose that comes of the Golden Temple being such a holy site (perhaps the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem has a similar queue each day), but also of the devotion of the Sikh followers. As I mentioned earlier, I have often felt that devotion to religious ideals, even among those who claim to practice religion, lacks in modern culture, but here I saw the respect which these people held for their faith. It was inspiring.

Later in the morning, I was approached by two young Sikhs eager to talk to a foreigner—they don’t get many at this site. They told me more about Sikhism and took me into the queue for the temple. Together we walked to the temple front, they prayed, and I followed, and then we walked to the back to drink the water of the pool. Initially hesitant because of the old adage not to drink the water in India, I did on the insistence of my companions who would see it as an affront to their faith if I did not. We then were offered a sweet tasting mash to conclude the prayer ritual and headed back down the walk to the colonnade around the temple.

That small description of this event may not sound like much—certainly it was not the shared prayer experience that I had in Ajman in the mosque, nor was it the meditative peace I found in the Lotus Temple. Yet as I watched my companions, I saw these two outgoing, typical Indian teens suddenly transform into a calm, devoted, meditative state when we entered the temple, clearly engaged in self-reflection and prayer. I have seen the same among my more religious friends at home during daily or weekly prayers, but it was interesting to see here how even among modern youth, religion still has a significant role. Based on what I saw then and have seen since, this seems to be truer in India than in the US.

After this prayer, my friends departed and I was left alone once more at the temple. I headed off to see a few other temples and sights in Amritsar but returned in time to sit by the temple once more before and during sunset. In this time, as I sat alone, I directed my thoughts once more toward religion and the line of devotees still waiting to pray. I pondered my own beliefs and why for these people religion and prayer were an important part of their lives and for me it was not. Was I missing something? Or did my values, sense of community and role therein, and faith in science, to some degree, provide the same function as the faith in a higher power did for them? Again, I had no major revelations but some interesting thoughts that I will refrain from sharing to avoid a religious treatise. However considering the role that religion plays in Indian culture (one that I have since learned is quite important in many aspects of life and not so important in others) and considering the general lack of comparable religious importance in the US, I wonder what has become the substitute. Clearly here for many, religion provides some valuable service. So if it does not do the same for the average American, what has replaced it?

Again, in an attempt to avoid delving too deep into opinions on religions, I will stop there and return to my narrative. As night fell, I was led to the communal areas of the temple by another friend. He showed me the dining hall and dormitories where volunteers helped prepare food and rooms for travelers and pilgrims. I was again impressed with the philosophy of openness to all religions—both dining and lodging were open to all for only a donation of your choosing. After this, and one last glance at the temple, it was time to return to the bus station for the overnight ride home (an adventure in itself, but one for a later post).

I suppose that after these two experiences, though I have few conclusions about my own beliefs or the importance of religion in society, the one realization I have had is that it is important to take time to consider these issues. It is important because it helps inform your own beliefs and understand your views but also because it allows you to see the world through someone else’s eyes. We get too often wrapped up in our own beliefs, be they religious or secular, and forget that others view the world through a different lens. We can never forget that it is necessary to see the world from all sides to reach work together effectively and overcome differences. With that thought, I will end this post. I will also leave with a promise of another post on India’s major religions later (which I did not explore in this, obviously) and a visual representation of my activities as described in this post.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Of Mice and Monkeys

Alright, after my last long post about Masdar City, I am finally ready to move on in my writing from Dubai to Delhi. Before I discussed Masdar, I left off on a jet to Delhi, ready to start my adventures in India. Before landing in India, I had twice experienced developing nations—once in Kenya and once in China—and had seen just how different those two locations are. Nairobi, for example, is a very polluted city with dilapidated buildings, lots of small poorly maintained shops, and degraded public spaces. Shanghai and Beijing, on the other hand, are very appearance-conscious and thus maintain cleaner streets, better public areas, and visually pleasing building fronts of the most part even if the structures beneath are week or degraded. Given that India is more often compared to China than Kenya in the media, my anticipation was that Delhi would be more along the lines of Beijing than Nairobi as the country’s capital.

When I arrived at the airport, the terminal certainly had a better appearance than Nairobi, and soon I was in a black and yellow cab bound for my cheap hotel in a sector of the city known as Paharganj. Yet on the entire drive there, I kept wondering “where’s the city?” Few lights lined the roads or the buildings and it seemed as though we were constantly traveling through suburban areas that were poorly maintained. Sidewalks were lacking, trees in need of trimming hung over roads littered with pollution, and no institutional buildings or skyscrapers could be seen. Driving was an adventure too, and all I can say is that I’m glad my cabbie seemed to know how to handle the roads because I would not want to be in his position. Only later did I learn that this all was just a normal trip through the heart of Delhi.

We arrived at Paharganj and I must say that I was shocked by what met my eyes. Burning heaps of trash illuminated the visibly crumbling buildings lining a narrow street filled to the brim with motor scooters, cycle rickshaws, pedestrians, hawkers, stray dogs, and cows. The assault of toxic chemicals from the fires, manure, and putrid water lining the roads was a shock to my nose, as was the cacophony of barking, mooing, clanging of bells and dishes, and shouts of those selling vacation packages all over the nation. How could this be the capital of India?

Finding my hotel was a challenge too, but thanks to a quasi-helpful man (he was helpful only until I had declined his offer for a several thousand dollar tour through the Indian state of Rajasthan), I found my way. Settling in to the dormitory room I had booked, I found myself alone in the four-bed room for the night. Well, or so I thought. After unpacking a bit, showering (in the cold water) and then lying down in my sleeping bag (I didn’t trust the cleanliness of the sheets provided), I saw my roommate appear. He poked his head out of a small space next to one of the other beds and tentatively emerged into the room. However when he saw me, my rodent roommate quickly scampered back into his hole, not to appear again until the next day. Throughout my four day stay, this little mouse made several cameos on my floor and, hopefully, none on my bed while I slept.

Needless to say, when I finally left that hotel in Paharganj after two separate stays of four and two days (I’ll explain why the punctuation in a moment), I was relieved to be in a bit cleaner area. Moreover, each morning I stayed there, I awoke with a headache because of the exhaust fumes of the motorbikes in the alley outside. The fumes entered the room and did not leave thereby perfuming it with the wonderful smell of diesel. Because of this, each morning I stayed in Paharganj, I rose to leave as early as possible and did not return until evening. The other reason for this was that simply leaving the street on which the hotel was located was a trial. Every other step, I was corralled by a “friend” trying to lure me into his shop for tea only to then try and sell me on a trip to Kashmir, Rajasthan, Goa, or some other location within India. Some even offered hash or ganja, others harder drugs, all of which I politely declined. I suppose a number of tourists get trapped in these schemes but I was determined not to become one of them. By leaving early, I often could avoid such hawkers, and returning late gave me an excuse to make a beeline to my hotel.

When I got to explore New Delhi, I was surprised that I could not for the life of me find a visible city center. Whereas Shanghai and Beijing, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and even Nairobi have distinct downtowns with tall buildings and imposing edifices, Delhi seemed not to have the same. Certainly there was the area built by the British which is very monumental in nature, but there was no true center of town even there. The government buildings here were not tall and were masked by trees to the point where they were not visible from any great distance. The other remnants of the British occupation seemed so degraded and exploited by various uses that they too no longer represented a visual center of the town. Everything I passed seemed polluted and dilapidated—preventative maintenance seemed not to be a concept here, and sprawl rather than increased density seemed the norm. For someone interested in sustainability, both of these were interesting and disheartening trends. Sure I saw a lot of green space and trees, which should be good, but when it was covered over with litter, could it really be called greenery?

A couple of young computer engineers I met in a park by Connaught Place explained this phenomenon to me by saying that people in India did not really care about throwing trash away properly. For many years they just discarded whatever was not used and so they continue this. Parents and grandparents carelessly throw away packaging and unwanted items and children mimic this. Unfortunately now, there is more trash and less natural trash than in days of yore when waste was mostly natural products. They said that this practice formed one of three cores of India—“Pollution, Population, Corruption” or PPC. This, they said, was all you need to know to understand the problems of India. Certainly, I thought, this was worth remembering and watching throughout my stay.

As my first weekend approached, I figured it would be nice to get out of Delhi while I had a lot of flexibility and see if all cities were like this. When I found that the train to Agra to see the Taj Mahal was already full, I turned my sights elsewhere. With the help of Lonely Planet, I learned that not far from Delhi lay the city of Chandigarh, the first master-planned city in independent India done by none other than Le Corbusier. The architecture and planning enthusiast in me jumped at the chance to see a work by so famous, and controversial, a personality as Le Corbusier, and soon I had booked my tickets to and from the city.

I arrived after a pleasant journey to find a city completely unlike Delhi and very interesting in terms of its composition. Unlike the seemingly unplanned and sprawling Delhi, Chandigarh was a perfect grid laid out in Le Corbusier’s stark philosophy of straight lines and proportions in sectors. Keeping with his brutal and honest ideals, the buildings featured exposed materials (concrete and brick mostly) and appeared to me after 50 years of weathering as though they were stone or rock monuments cast starkly against the lush green trees in the foreground. Among these monoliths lay wide roads built for many more cars than Chandigarh now sees but at least, unlike most of India, featuring pedestrian and bicycle paths on which I could comfortably walk beneath the trees as I explored.

My first stop was the architecture and planning museum which to me was a fascinating tour of the city’s history and transformation from a curving, organic plan by the original American designers to the grid of Le Corbusier. Le Corbusier’s fascination with the human form and its proportions was evident throughout the design, from the “head” of the city with the government offices (the only buildings he personally designed) to the “heart” of the shopping center right in the middle of the city and the “lungs” as the green belts throughout the city. Seeing how the city developed was really interesting, especially for me being interested in city development in India and other nations. From here, I went to learn more about the development and the man behind it all at the Le Corbusier museum. Here, fascinating letters showed how Nehru supported Le Corbusier and the back and forth between politicians, architects, and the master planner in how the city should be built and executed. Pictures told the story and showed the rise of the city and Le Corbusier’s architectural masterpieces at its head. The whole narrative was fascinating, and I encourage you to learn more about it if you have an interest in architecture or planning—it’s a fascinating story.

Perhaps what fascinated me most about it though was how much sustainability, though under different names, came into the planning. Long before that was a buzz word, Le Corbusier and his team were carefully planning how far would be reasonable for people to walk, what the best way to incorporate natural spaces into the city would be to provide fresh air and open space, and how to best incorporate both cars (seen as a needed form of transit) with pedestrians and cyclists. These questions are now part of the dialogue typical of sustainable cities, but to see them discussed back then was interesting to me. Le Corbusier focused heavily on the size of the sectors to ensure that each was walkable in 15-20 minutes by a typical pedestrian and that there would be quiet streets on which people would feel safe walking. He created 7 types of roads ranging from highways to pedestrian and cycle paths and ensured that both ends of the spectrum networked across the city so cars and people could easily and safely move. Such thoughts about segregation of traffic were very progressive for post-war India and certainly are unique to Chandigarh—Delhi on the other hand often lacks any pedestrian paths. Looking at Chandigarh, it seemed strange to me that so many of the innovations which Le Corbusier included are just now seeming to be rediscovered and included in planning and design. As controversial as his concrete and brick buildings may be, they do respond well to the climate without space conditioning (you will see A/Cs though because they are also filled far over capacity). It seems that between the time of Chandigarh and now, there was a period of lost knowledge that we are now overcoming. Some might argue that this was the freedom associated with central air-conditioning—suddenly architects no longer were bound by climate in designing and so could make what they wished; only when environmentalism and oil prices checked this philosophy did the climate science behind the older buildings get rediscovered.

Whatever the reason that Le Corbusier’s city seemed so advanced even now, it was fascinating to consider as I walked the streets and looked at the sectors. I even made it out to the artificial lake he created both to provide a place of relaxation and to help cool the climate while replenishing the groundwater. This was an important environmental feature for a forward-thinking city trying to ensure continued resource access.

As I left, I met two students from the animation school in Chandigarh who kindly accompanied me for dinner at their favorite chicken restaurant. After some good food and good conversation, we parted ways and I headed back to my hotel for the evening.

The next morning I woke and headed to a very interesting place, and another adventure in sustainability in some way. Lonely Planet calls it a trip down one man’s rabbit hole into wonderland, and certainly that is true—stepping into the Nek Chand Fantasy Rock Garden is like stepping into a really interesting miniature wonderland. Built in secret by a road worker out of discarded objects he collected, the garden is now an Indian institution and a monument to the creativity of one man and the beauty that can result from a vision and lots of trash. Now I say this is a trip into the world of sustainability as well because this shows exactly what can be done with waste—it is not just for throwing away and decomposing. There is beauty in garbage, maybe not all of it, and maybe not everyone can see it, but rather than throwing things away, why not make art? Why not make a wonderland in your backyard? It certainly was an interesting visit and trip, and I recommend it if you can stop through—it’s an interesting morning.

From here, I made a pilgrimage to the sites of Le Corbusier’s buildings—the government buildings he made in Chandigarh and his only actual works in the city. True to their pictures and his style, they featured exposed elements, monumental structures, and very intricate geometric patterns, mostly based on rectangles and squares. As an architectural buff, they were very interesting to view, even though I don’t know that I personally like the style. I certainly was impressed with but did not really like the Open Hand monument that was his crowning sculpture on the city and its symbol. For me, though, the whole trip was interesting simply to see the world of such a divisive and to this day controversial figure in architecture history.

From these structures, I headed through the beautiful rose garden which Le Corbusier planned within the city to spend my final hours before catching a train back to Delhi. I met here another new friend with whom I conversed for a while in the beauty of the garden near sunset before parting to catch our respective trains. Yet rather than have my day end nicely here, I have two more interesting experiences to relate.

One of the most interesting sights in India, and unfortunately one of the most common, is that of a rickshaw driver or pedestrian paused on the side of the road, facing a wall and relieving himself. Perhaps it is a lack of public facilities or just a cultural phenomenon whereby people are not bothered by such actions—perhaps it has been done for years and no one thinks anything of it. Either way, coming from a Western perspective, it bothers me mostly because it makes the city smell and I don’t really want to walk through other peoples’ urine on my daily strolls. Now this did not bother me in Chandigarh as I did not see it much, but what did bother me was that when I arrived at the train station, I found out part of the reason why this is still a problem in today’s world. Needing a pit stop before the train, I headed for the sign that said “Men’s Toilet.” As I started to walk in, I was stopped by a call from behind. Turning, I saw a man holding out his hand from behind a table. Confused, I looked quizzically at him until he pointed to a sign that explained it was 5 rupees to use the bathroom. I couldn’t believe it. I asked him incredulously if he wanted me to pay 5 rupees to use the urinal. He must’ve understood because he nodded, and I was astounded. Here guys were using the side of the station for a bathroom, and instead of trying to stop this, they were encouraging it by charging to urinate in a sanitary condition! I would’ve explained this to the man demanding money but I could tell it would have fallen on ears that only comprehended Hindi, so instead I took my money in disgust and walked away. That is the only time that I have felt compelled to use the wall to relieve myself, but I held my dignity until the train arrived.

In the meantime occurred the other story with which I wanted to end my post, coming full circle to the title. As I waited for the train, I saw a little monkey sitting on the side of the tracks having a snack. By the time I went to photograph him, he had run away. Shrugging, I sat back until I realized that I had to cross to the other track to catch my train. I turned up the stairs and saw my little friend again, now sitting on the railing of the stairs. Pulling out my camera, I advanced a few steps suddenly the mother monkey jumped down onto the landing. I halted and brought the camera up, ready to shoot when suddenly the monkey screeched, bared its teeth and advanced a few steps toward me. Jumping, I ran back down the stairs, probably to the delight of the locals to whom, as a friend put it, monkeys are like squirrels. Only after the monkey had cleared the landing, did I dash up the landing and over to the proper platform quickly, careful not to be scared once more. In retrospect, the incident was funny, but at the time, that, as Lonely Planet calls them, “testosterone-charged macaque” had my heart beating and my mind visualizing monkey bites and rabies shots.

So after a healthy scare by an angry monkey, I cruised safely back to Delhi and my mouse roommate at least for another night or two.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Masdar City

For many in the green building field with whom I’ve met, the mention of Masdar City elicits a breathless reaction—a flash of amazement and hope at this unprecedented project. For readers unfamiliar with the project, Masdar was an undertaking of the Abu Dhabi government in 2006 to be the first zero carbon city in the world. From the beginning, it was considered by many to have the most ambitious targets of any eco-city plan. With the power of such a rich government behind the project, hopes were high that Masdar could overcome the challenges of predecessors such as Dongtan to become more than just a mirage in the sands and become the first constructed eco-city. In the years since its inception, the ambitions of Masdar have been tempered to a degree by reality, but this bold vision is still moving forward. This post will chronicle the history of Masdar to date and some of the perceptions of and responses to the project from my experiences in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

The Story
Masdar City was conceived by the government of Abu Dhabi in 2006 as an initiative to create a completely carbon neutral city of 6 sq km [1]. Within the wave of eco-cities, this was unprecedented as it would target carbon emissions as a measure of success and strive to be completely zero-carbon. The project, as stated by the Abu Dhabi government, was to help Abu Dhabi become a leader in renewable energy technology in the face of diminishing oil and a rise in renewables as the energy sources of the future. Furthermore, since the majority of Abu Dhabi’s revenue is from oil which is not a sustainable income source in the long term, the government is actively developing a number of new economic areas to diversify for the future. Masdar is just one of these [2].

The leaders of the project brought in renowned architect Norman Foster from London to develop the master plan for the city. Foster and his team considered the harsh desert environment of the United Arab Emirates, and asked themselves how it could be that people had lived here so successfully for years before the advent of air conditioning and modern technology. They found their answer in the winding, narrow streets of the old cities of the Arabian Peninsula. The result was a master plan that appears more like a dream than a blueprint for a modern city. Entirely built on an undercroft of several meters height, the city plan is oriented such that direct sun never strikes the facades of the buildings. Narrow alleys capture the cool breezes and sweep them past homes and offices, while the outside wall blocks the harsh desert winds that would blast the city in Abu Dhabi’s summers. Overhangs and vegetation are plentiful with solar panels often creating the dual function of shading and power generation [3].

Being a city planned from scratch, Foster and his team had the luxury of creating from scratch all of the city’s sewage, wastewater, and transportation infrastructure. Rather than dig into the sands for these functions, the team used the podium that helped elevate the streets from the harsh sands and winds to create an infrastructure undercroft. All waste (liquid and solid) would pass through this undercroft, and in an unprecedented and ambitious design move, so would all people moving great distances throughout the city. Foster and his team decided to create Masdar as a car-free city where transportation inside the walls would be accomplished with a system known as a Personal Rapid Transit, or PRT [4]. The PRT is essentially an updated version of Disney’s PeopleMover attraction from the 1964 World’s Fair [5]—a self-guided vehicle accommodating up to 4 passengers at a time. Unlike Disney’s version, however, these cars run from magnets, not on a track, and thus can be programmed to go to and from many destinations. Sensors in the vehicles detect and avoid obstacles all while the passengers have a comfortable ride [6]. In this manner, the entire area of the city could be easily and conveniently covered, solving the issue of the “last mile.” (For those unfamiliar with the problem of the last mile, it essentially means that although public transit is wonderfully efficient for moving people from transport hub to transport hub, there is not yet a clean, efficient solution for getting people from the hubs to their destinations—trains and buses cannot reach everywhere, and this distance is known as the last mile.)

To fill the goal of carbon neutrality, the entire city was to be powered on-site with renewable energy, the majority of which was to be generated by photovoltaic panels. These would be integrated into the rooftops of all buildings as well as located on a large on-site solar field. Excess power could be sold to the Abu Dhabi grid to offset any power drawn to fulfill the nighttime load at Masdar. Furthermore, solar would also be used for desalination of water for the city [7]. This is particularly important since Masdar (and Abu Dhabi) are located in water stressed areas (deserts).

Though for many architects and engineers worldwide, the name “Masdar” is associated solely with this city initiative, “Masdar” as conceived by Abu Dhabi was a much larger initiative. Under the direction of Dr. Sultan al Jaber, the idea behind Masdar was not just to create a city but to create both a living laboratory for creating new technology to propel Abu Dhabi to the forefront of the sustainability industry and an investment fund for new technologies in the clean tech field [8]. To this end, collaborations with a number of international partners were created. To provide an influx of knowledge and trained clean tech experts in the region, Masdar reached out to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to create the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MIST) [7]. The goal of the institution is to help observe and improve Masdar City through incubation of new technologies and partnerships with industrial players in the city. Graduates would then be poised to enter the clean tech work force in Masdar or Abu Dhabi themselves.

Other partnerships included Siemens, BASF, Hansgrohe, and Bayer, each of which agreed to locate a research and development center in the city and use the partnership with MIST to help advance clean technology and test their products in the city walls [9]. Through initiatives such as these, Masdar both became a global player in the clean tech arena and generated methods of identifying and testing technology to be used at the city in Abu Dhabi.

Back at the city, Masdar cemented its city’s importance on a world stage by securing the support of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). An agreement forged between the two bodies would move the headquarters of IRENA to the model city as a show of support for the project and its importance. Masdar and IRENA were to be housed in the Masdar HQ building, designed by Adrian Smith +Gordon Gill to be built second within the city. The design won numerous international awards and much acclaim for its climate responsive features including multiple chimneys to funnel hot air out of the space below and a canopy of photovoltaic panels that were to make the building the largest zero net energy structure in the world [10].

Construction began on Masdar in 2008 [11]. Rightly, in this author’s opinion, the first buildings to be constructed were those for MIST. Opening the university’s doors early would generate interest about the project and an on-site team to help solve problems that might arise in construction and management of the growing city. Slowly, the Middle Eastern style buildings rose from the sands atop the undercroft—their pedestal. Sandstone jalli screens undulated across the facades, letting light in while blocking much of the heat, and hiding modern laboratory facilities and dormitory rooms.

Photovoltaic panels atop the roofs generated electricity for university use with a large central tower using a color display to visually signal whether energy use was too high or just right. Creatively architected buildings formed a campus center and auditorium, and cafes were included to make student life in the remote desert more bearable. In 2009, MIST opened its doors to its first crop of graduate students, all Master’s level, with the Ph.D. program to be added in a subsequent year [12].

If things for Masdar had continued entirely on the original plan, we all would be eagerly awaiting the arrival of the carbon neutral city within the decade and marveling at the miracles rising from Abu Dhabi’s sands. Unfortunately, as the leaders of Masdar have said publicly multiple times, reality set in during construction, leading to some unexpected delays and changes to the plans.

What Happened
About the middle of 2010, a rash of news articles announced that Masdar was faltering a bit. Work was already reported to be behind schedule, tests of photovoltaic panels were not yielding the expected returns, investments from the private sector were behind schedule, and a wave of departures rocked Masdar’s internal appearance.

The first signal of trouble was an article by Joyce Njeri highlighting Masdar’s decision to delay the city’s launch by a year from 2017 to 2018 to allow investigation of geothermal energy as a possibility for the city [13]. The article stresses that financial constraints were not a factor in this decision and that it is about making the most optimal decisions for the city to provide stable, renewable energy. Within three months, however, Masdar’s official position on its own finances had changed. Speaking to the New York Times, Alan Frost, one of Masdar’s leaders, stated that the company had cut costs by laying off 34 staff members and was considering limiting the PRT to only the MIST campus. Furthermore, power was no longer to be generated entirely on-site but instead, Masdar would import “green” power from plants built further out in the Abu Dhabi desert, supposedly to cut costs and improve feasibility [14]. Yet despite this, in every official report, Frost and Dr. Sultan al Jaber insisted that Masdar was neither scaling down or reducing its targets [15]. However even with these public proclamations, the plan of Masdar quietly submitted to review in March, 2010, with a release of a revised plan scheduled for the summer [16].

During this time, however, the news for Masdar wasn’t all bad. In April, an association with the US Department of Energy was announced to share information and expertise on carbon neutral cities, attract clean tech firms, and use advanced solar panel technology for the city [17]. Yet right on the heels of this announcement came the mourned loss of the city-wide PRT and the car-free goal of the city. Believing it not to be technologically feasible, Masdar’s leaders unofficially sacked the PRT system in April (the official announcement did not come until October, but throughout the summer, Masdar shied away from the system in public comments) [18]. This was followed by an article in July documenting that Masdar was having trouble generating as much electricity as anticipated from photovoltaic panels because of the extremely dusty conditions and sandstorms in Abu Dhabi [19, 20]. Coupled with announcements pushing back the completion date to 2020 and beyond and the layoffs mentioned by Frost earlier in the year, many were wondering about the future of the city and eagerly awaiting the results of the internal review.

In October, several months later than originally anticipated, Masdar finally released its review of the city’s progress to date. It admitted that construction had fallen behind, but attributed this largely to extra time taken in identifying solutions and overcoming unexpected problems such as deficiencies in solar panel efficiencies due to sand and dust. The new plan revealed officially that the PRT would be confined to the MIST campus for now and that due to a shortfall of demand (likely partly attributable to the recession), the build out would be much slower, lasting until 2025. Furthermore, power generation would be diverted primarily to larger plants in the desert and not rooftop panels [21].

The rash of changes and new plan for Masdar’s expansion and construction prompted critics to proclaim the demise of the city and question the internal leadership. This prompted Dr. al Jaber to defend specifically Masdar’s spending and plan, calling them sustainable and long-term [22].At the same time, he reiterated once more that the city was neither scaling back nor scaling down despite the new plan and changes. Yet despite these proclamations, a similar article in the Gulf news source Construction Week highlighted that IRENA’s move to Abu Dhabi hinges on the successful completion of Masdar [23]. The timing of this article almost indicates questioning of the official Masdar rhetoric in the minds of the folks at IRENA.

With all of these recent changes to Masdar’s ambitious plans, it is easy to question the project’s success, goals, and strategies. In light of the failures of Dongtan and Huangbaiyu, it is not even a stretch to fear that Masdar may go the way of these predecessors. Yet is this a possibility or just an irrational fear? And what do Masdar’s changes mean to those around it? And perhaps most importantly, can Masdar set an example for the future in the Middle East and beyond?

Putting It All Together
I want to begin by weighing in on the possibility that Masdar may go the way of Dongtan and Huangbaiyu. Certainly it is possible that this city could fail in the next 15 years—such a long build-out could yet be wrought with financial and technological pitfalls. To shed some light on the possibilities, I want to go back to consider some of the factors of stakeholder networks I discussed in my posts on China’s eco-cities and use this lens to view the Masdar City project.

As a quick refresher for those who read my China posts a while back (or summary for my new readers), using the examples of failure in Dongtan and Huangbaiyu, I attempted to demonstrate that a necessary criterion (for my math and science professors out there, I don’t claim sufficiency as well) for eco-city success in China was a strong network of stakeholders at multiple levels of governance and across economic, social, and governmental sectors. I do not claim that this is a new idea in the realm of environmental projects—in fact I have to credit the thought to studies and papers I read as part of my environmental politics courses at Harvey Mudd. However, in both of the Chinese examples, I tried to show that one of the contributing factors to the downfall of the cities was a failure at a key level in the stakeholder network. Using this backdrop, I explained why Tianjin is progressing in a stronger manner than these two projects and projected why Caofeidian may too succeed in its aims. Using this framework, I now want to discuss Masdar.

As with the other cities, I will begin by examining the major stakeholders in Masdar City. Unlike Tianjin and Caofeidian which financially and politically are backed by two nations, Masdar is almost entirely backed solely by the Abu Dhabi government. Masdar is an initiative of the government, is owned by a government-controlled company (Mubadala), and has been financed solely with money from the Abu Dhabi government. Several residents of the UAE with whom I conversed indicated that strong political will from a top minister in the government has driven the Masdar project to date, though I cannot cite nor rely on these anecdotal accounts. Within the government, there is support from Masdar both through the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council and the Abu Dhabi Environment Agency, but this support is limited to joint efforts to gather knowledge and execute projects—there is no financial support from these agencies, nor is there regulatory or oversight support.

Masdar has attracted some international governmental support. During my visit to Masdar, I had the privilege of seeing US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton address MIST professors and students. She pledged US support for the project, and two weeks later, an initiative between the US Department of Energy and Masdar was announced to test solar panel technology developed in the US National Labs at Masdar City [24]. There were at one points reports of a Swiss Village within the city as well [25], but there are rumors that the plans have fallen through.

In the realm of commercial and economic actors, Masdar is heavily reliant on investments initiated through the start-up funds granted by the Abu Dhabi government. The project has invested in wind, solar, and other energy generation projects worldwide to provide long-term funding for the Masdar Future Energy Company, the overall executor of Masdar City. In the future, it is likely that these investments will help Masdar as a company become self-sufficient, but in the short-term they are not enough to finance the city development. Again, much of this funding to date has originated in the Abu Dhabi government largely because the projects have been institutional in nature (the MIST campus, for example, and now the Masdar HQ building which will house Masdar and IRENA in addition to some commercial tenants).

Much of the remaining development will be in different sectors (commercial and residential) and is predicated on interest from potential occupants. Sales and agreements for rentals of space will help finance the development and back loans for the project. For this, Masdar is targeting large companies with an interest in the clean tech space such as Siemens so as to create a “Clean Tech Cluster” to spur innovation and become a global center for sustainable technology [26]. Anchoring this will be research headquarters for GE and Bayer [27]. Though these companies sign agreements to occupy space in Masdar, planning of the buildings and construction is to be executed and overseen by Masdar with only some input from the tenant companies.

In the realm of social organizations and community stakeholders, there are yet to be homeowners with a vested stake in Masdar as the properties have not yet been developed in concept to the point of being ready for sale. As for NGOs and civil society organizations (aside from corporations), there is definitely interest in seeing the city complete but no financial or even political support to a significant degree. Certainly IRENA has a stake in the city’s completion in relation to its headquarters, but based on the statements from articles on the agreement, it seems as though IRENA could move elsewhere easily should Masdar fail to meet its goals—three other European countries were in contention before Masdar ultimately won out [28]. Certainly MIT also has a stake in Masdar through MIST as it invested time, energy, and some money into the programs at the new university. Beyond the campus confines, MIT likely has interest in the city as a test bed for new energy and sustainability initiatives, but it is not a development partner.

The result of all of this creates a very lopsided web of stakeholders with the majority of the links leading back to the Abu Dhabi government. Though it has partnerships with many other companies and groups, Masdar is primarily supported by the government of Abu Dhabi politically and financially. It is a city built on the will of an emirate to diversify its economy and create an image as a cultural center. While there is support from other governments for the project, it is not a significant stake in relation to the overall project size and finances. The interest from these governments is either technical (US) or to provide economic opportunity for indigenous companies (Switzerland) and is not sufficient to help support the project should funding or will from Abu Dhabi falter. Similarly, in the corporate sector there are several flagship companies which plan to locate in Masdar City, but like IRENA, the reason for choosing Masdar disappears if the project is not completed to its fullest extent (or close to it). Since there is market potential for these companies in the actual execution of the city they may be more willing to support the city in a technical consulting role should that be necessary. However I find it unlikely that a company such as GE or Siemens would help finance or drive the project should it begin to falter. NGOs and environmental groups supporting the project are even more fickle—reading through blogs and press releases shows that such groups are apt to change their opinion quickly from glowing reviews and optimism to pessimism at the first sign of failure.

However before comparing entirely to the case I argued in China, it is worth considering the strength of the political will behind Masdar and the level from which it comes. In both Dongtan and Huangbaiyu, which were backed by a single political figure on the Chinese side, the level of the official was much lower than that of in Masdar. In Masdar, the backing is coming from the highest levels of the Abu Dhabi government, not a city or district level official. Furthermore, the political system in Abu Dhabi is such that the backing of a top member of government carries much more weight than in China. Take the case of neighboring Dubai, for example. The reason that there are Palm Islands and a map of the world in the ocean is all the result of a vision by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum. Similarly, when he proclaimed that in January 2008 all buildings must be LEED Silver or better, suddenly everyone knew the terminology of green. (Note: Due to the recession and lack of codifying that mandate into the building regulations it has not been followed, but if you look at trends in LEED project registration in Dubai, there is a huge spike after 2008 because of the mandate.)

It was explained to me by several people that action in the UAE comes from the top. When a leader makes a proclamation, there is a rush to follow it. So, if His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan makes a statement that Abu Dhabi will be a center of culture and the future energy hub of the world, then supporting organizations will fall in line to make this happen. For Masdar, this means that the word and backing of the ruler could be enough to ensure that the project occurs successfully. However, for this to happen, two conditions have to be met: 1) the current ruler stays in power with the same objective and 2) Abu Dhabi’s financial success and ability to back the ambitious project continues uninterrupted.

Let’s take a look at the first point. It certainly seems likely that given the ambitious plans for Abu Dhabi that His Excellency Sheikh Khalifa has laid out until 2030, of which Masdar is a key part, his mind will not change any time soon. He has a vision for the emirate that, in my opinion, is to help elevate the capital above the prominence of its better known neighbor up the peninsula. Given the money already sunk into this ambitious plan (the construction of Yas Island, Al Raha Beach, and other areas), it seems unlikely that he will shift course. Given the sheikh’s age (63), it also appears unlikely that he will be removed from power soon and his authority reversed by the following ruler.

Now let’s consider the second factor—finances. Just in reading the news articles and following the development of Masdar, it is easy to see that the political and economic framework in place is not immune to external and market forces. The admission by top leaders that investments are not flowing in as predicted is evidence that the financial backing of Abu Dhabi alone is not enough inertia to keep the project on its originally projected course. Furthermore, Abu Dhabi recently had to bail out and refinance one of its major developers, Aldar; Aldar is now a partner in the Masdar project as well [29]. This signals that the political will from the Abu Dhabi government is certainly strong enough to liquidate funds when necessary in support of the ambitious projects but also that Abu Dhabi is not immune to market forces. Extended build outs and dropping demand have taken a toll on both Aldar and Masdar and are resulting in both groups reorganizing their plans. Because Abu Dhabi is financed predominantly on oil wealth (unlike Dubai which built based on an unsustainable real estate bubble until 2008) it is likely to have a stable source of income for the foreseeable future. The question only remains as to whether there will come a point when it is felt that the money is better spent on another project rather than Masdar. Thus the effect of a change in finances is not likely to end Masdar City but may scale it back as is currently being seen.

So, putting this all together, because of the political structure and ability to direct funds where the leaders of the government deem necessary, the fact that there is only one main backer of Masdar City may not be as much a problem as would be the same situation in China. However because of changing political and economic tides, it could result in a smaller or scaled down version of the city and in fact, may have already. Thus if the definition of success or failure is limited just to whether the city was completed as planned, then the one-party backing very well could imperil Masdar City’s success. However in the next section I will offer some collected thoughts and opinions on what the definition of success should be as it pertains to Masdar.

Too Ambitious?
Reading the blogs about Masdar following last year’s announcements about redoing the build out plan for the city, one finds a number of commentators feeling disillusioned and bemoaning the death of this city which had been seen as a model for the future and hope for carbon neutral urban living. Certainly these skeptics have reason to be disappointed—looking at the official wording on Masdar has seen it switch from a “zero-carbon” city to a “carbon-neutral” city (there is a difference between the two) to a “city powered by on-site renewable energy” to a “city powered entirely by renewable energy” not all of which will be on-site. The logical thought then becomes “if a place like Abu Dhabi with great oil wealth cannot achieve a carbon neutral city, what hope is there for the poorer nations among us?” The next step for many is then the disillusionment and feeling of failure on the part of Masdar.

At the same time that many sigh at the perceived failure already of Masdar, others shrug and offer that the plan was too ambitious from the start. Though the city had a very intelligent passive design, it relied heavily as well on new technology, much of which is largely unproven or untested on a city-wide scale. While Masdar was meant to provide this test-bed, trying to include all of these technologies at once may have just been too much. In an attempt to provide every luxury to residents in an environmentally-friendly manner, Masdar may have bitten off more than they could chew. This spirit seems to imply that the project was doomed from the beginning.

However there are other viewpoints. Many architects and engineers with whom I met shared some of the disappointment initially, perhaps guided by the idealist or environmentalist in them who really wanted the project to succeed. Yet this was quickly followed by saying that modifying the initial goals of the city is not failure on the part of Masdar. Many pointed to the fact that ideas from Masdar’s planning such as shading of sidewalks, passive design features, and the integrated design process have been strongly incorporated into Abu Dhabi’s Urban Plan 2030 and Estidama green building rating system as a sign of early success. These same experts were also optimistic that more developments would come from the living laboratory of Masdar on best practices for energy and water generation within the arid climate of the UAE. They saw the new goals as a smart reality check that could be used to fuel innovation in the right direction in Masdar rather than blindly following a plan simply because it was the originally stated goal. Thus, even though the city may not fulfill its original goals it may still yet succeed, these experts claimed. If it produces new research for the region, it will have succeeded.

However, to succeed on this level, Masdar will need more integration with the surrounding community. At this point, the city has developed to an extent within a silo. For example, some of the press releases about the city have proclaimed that one of the reasons for abandoning rooftop photovoltaic panels throughout the city was the discovery that sand in the air in Abu Dhabi inhibited power production. The press releases treated this as new research, when in fact similar studies or knowledge has been available in the region and around the world for years. Similarly, Masdar is proud of having developed lists of green suppliers of materials in the Gulf region, yet no other developer had seen Masdar’s list as yet. Furthermore, each developer or consultant with whom I met seemed to be developing their own list of green suppliers and materials. Therefore, for Masdar to be a success in this arena, it must break out of its silo and inform the broader community of its progress and achievements frequently and in an open manner. It is not enough just to influence the Abu Dhabi plan and norms—the architecture and engineering community must also be included.

The Sustainability of Masdar
The point I made in the last paragraph speaks, in my opinion, to the question of whether Masdar will be a “sustainable” city or not. Even if it had achieved its carbon-neutral goal, this question would still be a valid one in my opinion. Many get caught up in “sustainable” as it pertains to environmental impacts. The scope of the word can often be limited to the environmental impact as quantified within some bounds. However financial, social, and cultural sustainability must be included in any true assessment of the overall sustainability of a city or project. There is little question that Masdar will be environmentally friendly in some capacity, but consideration of the social and cultural factors must be independent of the environmental aspects of the city. Many online sources have questioned the financial sustainability of Masdar in terms of its replicability simply because it is a city built on money acquired from sale of a resource which few outside of the Middle East possess. Thus the capital required cannot be replicated easily on a broader scale. While this is important to note, I believe that many countries could find some mechanism for financing cities such as Masdar in stages should it be necessary. Therefore I do not want to address this question. Instead I want to turn to the question of social sustainability.

One author, Nicolai Ourossoff, blasted Masdar in the New York Times, claiming that the city was just a new form of segregation and social exclusion. His arguments of eco-exclusion (creating in the name of something good a city which is only accessible to the rich and condemning the poor to a higher impact lifestyle) has been echoed in reference to other eco-city projects worldwide [30]. Certainly Ourossoff has a point in that true sustainability within a city requires a cross-section of the population to be present and ideally should not include such features as perimeter walls which separate rather than invite. Importing 50,000 workers a day from nearby Abu Dhabi is not a sustainable solution, and unless the workers can be shown not to be emitting carbon on their transportation, also would make the city inherently miss its goal of carbon neutrality. Unfortunately because of the expense and image associated with Masdar, it had no choice but to make all residential space high-end. However this means that the city should not be copied wholesale as a sustainable model for the future. The Masdar model must be adapted to include lower-cost housing if it is to become a sample that can be adapted.

From my conversations, the exclusivity of Masdar seemed also to permeate into the professional world as well. Some architects and engineers felt it was hard to earn projects for the city or to have their voices heard by the decision makers and many had yet to see significant ripples through the region as a result of the project. Though all lauded its aims and strategies, in my opinion, sustainability means sharing knowledge with those around such that the whole region can support Masdar in its goals. The city cannot develop in a silo—it must rely on the surrounding infrastructure for people, finances, materials, and resources, and therefore it must work to improve this area as well as that within its walls. Certainly to maintain a financially sustainable business Masdar must withhold some knowledge, but that can be pertaining to aspects of the project’s execution, not to material availability, available technology, and design methodologies. Part of the community sustainability of any project must include enhancing and supporting the professional community around the project, and aside from issuing contracts, Masdar has yet to proactively do this. Such initiatives are starting, spurred in part by the Abu Dhabi Environment Agency, the Emirates Green Building Council, and the UAE Business Council for Sustainable Development, but they are slow in coming.

The Future of Masdar
For those who are feeling a bit of despair about the missed targets of Masdar, the beacon of urban environmental hope, do not fear—the project is not going away any time soon, or at least it does not seem so. Certainly it has faced some challenges and will have more, but with the focus of the world on the project it seems as though it will succeed in some form. Regardless of its final form, if it can inform the professional community on what it means to create an environmentally-friendly urban environment in the desert, it will be a success (Note: an important question to consider that I did not discuss and leave for you is whether “sustainable desert city” is an oxymoron—some would argue that it is, others point to historical precedent and say it is not—you decide). As for myself, I look forward to watching this project eagerly over the next 15 years to see how it progresses and changes (because it undoubtedly will change) with the hope that when it is finished, it will have developed into a smarter, more realistic city that has lessons which can be adapted to other urban spaces in the Gulf region and beyond. Many I have met in the UAE, India, and China see it as the most advanced city in the world at least environmentally, and I still share this optimism despite the changing plans for Masdar. I hope that the coming years will prove us right, and not the skeptics.

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References

[1] http://www.masdarcity.ae/en/index.aspx

[2] http://gsec.abudhabi.ae/Sites/GSEC/Content/EN/PDF/Publications/plan-abu-dhabi-mandate-and-executive-summary,property=pdf.pdf

[3] http://www.fosterandpartners.com/Projects/1515/Default.aspx

[4] “Why Is Masdar City Sustainable?” Pamphlet by Masdar, Revised March 2010

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_World's_Fair

[6] http://www.masdarcity.ae/en/Publication/PDF/MC%20EXPLORING%20TOUR%20BOOKLET_REV.pdf

[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masdar_City

[8] “What is a Cleantech Cluster?” Pamphlet by Masdar, Revision 2, March 2010

[9] http://www.hansgrohe-mea.com/cps/rde/xbcr//SID-EEE766DB-3784FA96/mea_en/publications/INT/press_091030_Hansgrohe_Masdar_City_Project.pdf

[10] http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=15714631