A new female starchitect on the rise? BM Studios is an architectural firm bridging the East and the West. In this article, Balsam Madi shares her approach to climate sensitive design and discusses the role of architects today.

In the UAE, architects often have more influence than they realize, particularly at the early, conceptual stages of a project. How do they weigh that responsibility? How is the role of architects today influencing climate sensitive design? We speak with Balsam Madi from BM Studios to learn more.

Architectural teams are typically structured into distinct roles as concept architects, design development teams, specifiers, and project managers. But these roles frequently operate in silos, especially within large corporations, she tells Green Prophet.

Design managers, who liaise across teams and maintain continuity, are still relatively rare. This hierarchy has a direct impact on sustainability outcomes, notes the young, aspirational architect working between Berlin and Dubai at the firm she founded, BM Studios.

In Balsam’s former role as a senior lead designer at KEO, sustainability was not an add-on, she says, it was embedded in her responsibility. She was expected to introduce cultural research, emerging design trends, sustainable strategies, and even AI-driven methodologies into the workflow. Knowledge transfer was central to her role: staying ahead of global conversations and translating them into locally relevant design decisions.

Sustainability entered most powerfully during the concept phase, which she was leading, through storytelling. She reinterpreted vernacular architectural techniques using contemporary aesthetics that clients respond to today, while quietly embedding passive strategies, climate intelligence, and material efficiency. Referencing comparable cities and precedents helped position sustainability not as a risky experiment, but as a proven and aspirational solution.

She also naturally stepped into a design management role, coordinating day-to-day processes, aligning design development teams, specifications, and material research. Early decisions around modularity, prefabrication, and low-impact construction often made the biggest difference, long before sustainability became a checklist. This coordination allowed quality assurance throughout costing and specification stages—precisely where silos often form and opportunities for design integrity and sustainability are lost.

As independent practitioners, architects become translators, strategists, and sometimes marketeers of sustainability, not superficially, but by demonstrating how responsible design enhances value, longevity, and relevance.

After leaving the corporate world and working independently, she found more freedom to advocate for these ideas, she tells Green Prophet. As independent practitioners, architects become translators, strategists, and sometimes marketeers of sustainability, not superficially, but by demonstrating how responsible design enhances value, longevity, and relevance. They are expected to do it all!

Over the next decade, architects who can bridge vision, systems, and persuasion will shape the industry far more than those focused on form alone, she says. Having knowledge about LEED-building, or Estidama Pearls isn’t enough.

Where Architects Truly Influence Sustainability

Landscape design for a private Dubai client. Balsam Madi.

Architects genuinely influence sustainability at three critical points: concept design, advisory roles, and spatial intelligence. The greatest constraint, however, remains resistance to change.

Balsam once proposed a flexible housing strategy inspired by open-building principles and early Japanese residential models, homes designed to evolve with families rather than forcing families to adapt to rigid layouts. The concept was profitable, socially progressive, and sustainable, yet it was not well received. The real estate sector, despite its creative veneer, often prefers familiarity over innovation.

Some of her most successful sustainability-driven typologies—projects that doubled developer yields—were led by developers who were architects themselves. Leadership mindset matters. Sustainability is not just about trees or technology; it’s about designing spaces that perform socially, economically, and environmentally over decades.

Cultural constraints also play a role. Ambition in the Middle East region is high, but often paired with impatience. Limited time for research, testing, and long-term planning undermines sustainable outcomes. Developers who have truly excelled invested in R&D and allowed innovation to mature, positioning themselves with distinct value propositions.

Architects also influence sustainability through advisory work: optimizing layouts for waste management, connecting developers with recycling or composting partners, and improving operational efficiency through better planning. These opportunities are frequently missed, often due to a narrow procurement mindset focused on either lowest cost or premium solutions, with little space in between.

Quality is another issue. First-time developers sometimes hire very young firms to reduce costs, resulting in poor layouts and dysfunctional living spaces. Sustainability, at its core, is systems thinking. When treated as isolated gestures rather than an integrated framework, it loses both meaning and impact.

From Designing Form to Designing Systems

Balsam says she loves concept design, “the iterative process, the moment when an idea clicks and demands to be built. That creative spark is sacred. But today, AI can generate iterations faster than entire teams once could. This raises an important question: if machines can explore form, what is the architect’s true value?

“For me, the answer is systems thinking and orchestration. Architecture is no longer about isolated objects; it’s about aligning structure, MEP, HVAC, materials, construction sequencing, and long-term operation from day one. Certifications like LEED touch on this, but the principle runs deeper. Designing holistically from the start avoids waste, redesign, and inefficiency later.

“One of my engineering management professors once said architects are ‘artists with rulers’ and ‘conductors of the construction orchestra.’ We don’t play every instrument, but we understand how they work together. That ability to coordinate, adapt, and guide is irreplaceable.

“This is why my practice spans architecture, interiors, landscape, and product design. Design is a universal language. If you can take an idea from concept to execution in one medium, you can do it in many. The future architect is a systems leader, strategist, and coach—someone who maintains the big picture while navigating complexity with clarity,” she tells Green Prophet.

“As a result, I developed a sustainability arm within my practice that connects businesses, end users, and service providers working on sustainable products. This includes integrating sustainable MEP systems and sensors into high-end heritage spaces—design work that is less conceptual and more coordination-driven, yet increasingly in demand as architecture moves beyond a unilateral definition.

Climate, Materials, and the UAE Context

If you are developing a dream in the UAE, “the biggest challenges in the UAE are climate and infrastructure, particularly mobility,” says Balsam.  “While Dubai’s metro is efficient, many communities lack shaded walkways, green corridors, and pedestrian-friendly design. This disproportionately affects lower-income areas and creates daily stress.”

Materially, many buildings are not designed for long-term exposure to heat and humidity, she notes. “Façades and systems often deteriorate within 20 years, reducing value and increasing vacancy. Rather than resisting the region’s appetite for renovation, we should specify materials with strong life-cycle performance, recyclability, and adaptability. Outdoor construction, in particular, needs stricter material guidelines. Initiatives like Colab in D3 advocate for sustainable material use, but ultimately this requires leadership-level commitment.

“Too often, sustainability manifests as confusion at the operational level and box-ticking at the corporate level. When it becomes jargon detached from empathy and responsibility, it loses credibility. Real change starts with environmental literacy and a shared sense of stewardship for place.”

Beyond Ratings: An Ethical Foundation

Balsam tells us, that there is a growing disconnect between global sustainability agendas and on-the-ground impact. While conferences consume enormous budgets, grassroots sustainability startups, the true innovators, often struggle to survive without access to capital.

Certifications and data have their place, she says, but when sustainability becomes bookkeeping rather than belief, skepticism follows, particularly around topics like Net Zero. “An ethical, zero-harm intention recenters sustainability around empathy—toward nature, communities, and future generations.

“When intention leads, capital can be distributed more holistically, allowing ecosystems to thrive across all roles, from change-makers to policymakers.”

About Balsam Madi, Founder of BM Studios

The post BM Studios is designing systems, not just buildings in the UAE appeared first on Green Prophet.

When Masdar, the space-age city in Abu Dhabi was in its planning stages, architects from Europe, building suppliers, advisors and energy creators were agog. A lot of purportedly “green building” was to take place and billions in contracts for wild dreams were to be awarded.

It was the same sort of energy surrounding Better Place the promised all electric car company that got almost a billion in investment which was squandered in all the wrong places. While Better Place was a good idea with a bad plan, Masdar was a bad idea with a good plan. With Masdar I always felt it was a story of the king not wearing any clothes, or like the meltdown of Amy Winehouse. All the players in the story were more than happy to go along with the lie because it was in their interest for the project to go ahead.

Masdar, an $18 billion experiment in sustainable living, was supposed to be the world’s first zero energy city. No building can be zero energy. Every building, village, town, city we create cannot be sustainable or perfectly environmental or zero energy. When we build on the environment, once a desert, forest or grassland, it is changed, maybe forever. 

Masdar was also supposed to be liveable. When we sent a reporter there some years ago no people were in sight. We had one dispatch once from a student who was staying there and when she talked with us it felt like she was talking to from a closet.

Green building technology in the eyes of the planet is a bit of an oxymoron in my opinion especially when the people running the technology show are coming in with Western Silicon Valley ideals that are really incompatible with how I think future cities should look in the Middle East.

Fast Company points out the problem: “The Masdar City model seems difficult to reproduce: too isolated, too expensive, too empty. The embryo town appears rather as a symptom of the obsession of a state with regard to its future. What will become of this territory, once the hydrocarbon reserves underneath its soil are depleted? In response, the frenzied builders attempt to inscribe life in a permanent fashion on a land that seems hostile to human existence. It is about facing the fear of death by building quickly (an “instant city”), to help transition to an Emirates that is a techno-ecological leader. Masdar City is meant to be the laboratory. Opening soon . . . one day.”

Or never?

If we want to create progress in the Middle East in green building, architects, planners and investors need to move away from trendy ideas (shipping containers – read why we think they suck!) to going back to relationships with local traditions and cultures.

A few good places to start building greener in the Middle East:

Hassan Fathy was an Egyptian visionary architect who used local building materials to create relatable, affordable, comforting green buildings.

Mashrabiya is an aesthetic concept in the Middle East which creates shade and privacy and mitigates heat islands passively in buildings.

The Windcatchers of Yadz offer a fabulous, local solution to cooling rising temperatures that can go up to 50 degrees C in the Middle East.

Start with these few resources for a more modest approach before a layer of green technology or western ideology approaches Middle East architecture. 

The post The future of green building in the Middle East looks backward appeared first on Green Prophet.

An online real estate  company listed a seven bedroom villa in Dubai’s neighboring Emirate Abu Dhabi for $95,300 a year, which amounts to nearly $8,000 a month. Anyone who can afford to spend that much money on rent probably has little incentive to turn off the lights in order to conserve energy or shorten their showers, which may explain why the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council sometimes has to meet with villa owners six times before they grasp the minimum requirements of the country’s mandatory Estidama green building code.

Energy and water guzzlers

Government subsidies keep energy and water costs unrealistically low in the Emirates, despite its dubious distinction of having the world’s largest per capita carbon footprint. And many foreigners who have flocked to the Emirate to help the country exploit their enormous resource wealth live behind tall walls in self-enclosed villas.

So it’s hardly surprising that they are perplexed by the Estidama Pearl Rating System that was established in September, 2010 as a mandatory means to reduce the carbon and water footprint of all structures built in Abu Dhabi.

In order to help them find their way, the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council has launched an online tool that villa owners on a step-by-step journey through this unknown landscape. Appropriately called the “e-villa configurator,” this platform demonstrates to new builders what techniques can be used to save “precious water” resources, according to The National.

Pampering the un-green

“When users click on a category, they can learn how it will affect their final design and what the environmental benefits will be,” the paper reports.

Despite this serious pampering, people aren’t catching on as quickly as the UPC would like. Only 50% of the 1500 applications for Estidama have been approved since November, 2010, and these aren’t strident requirements. Although Government Buildings are required to achieve at least two out of five pearls, villa owners only have to earn one.

An adviser for Estidama, Edwin Young told the paper that it “once took applicants between four and six attempts to get through the process; now the UPC aims for two.”

The building requirements for villa developers have been simplified; hopefully they’ll get the hang of going green soon.

:: The National

image via World Property Channel

More on Green Building in The Emirates:

A Greener Space Planned Between Abu Dhabi and Dubai

Dubai Ends Cheap Local Gas

Former Masdar Director Says the UAE Must End Subsidies

The post Gulf Municipality Pampers Villa Owners Who Don’t Get Green Building appeared first on Green Prophet.

Masdar City is an experimental clean tech and research hub located 17 kilometers outside of Abu Dhabi. One day, it is expected that up to 40,000 people will call the car-free, pedestrian friendly, energy-efficient city home. Plus, since it is a special economic free zone, foreign companies and startups can take advantage of 100 percent  ownership of their firms, zero import tariffs and taxes, and zero currency restrictions.

But Abu Dhabi has already forked over billions of dollars to realize Masdar’s current achievements, which include doubling the size of the Masdar Institute of Technology (MIST), which has already produced 40 patent-application disclosures and graduated top tier students according to Wired, attracting over 100 companies to its new incubator building, a new headquarters for IRENA, and the recent completion of Siemens’ groundbreaking LEED-Platinum headquarters.

Such an inspired green development, Masdar has already had ripple effects across the Gulf. Ostensibly realizing that solar and other renewables make economic sense, both Saudi Arabia and Qatar are pursuing ambitious plans to wean their own population off oil in order to ensure long term export earnings.

But what about Tunisia, or Algeria, or Jordan? Given that they have less disposable income than Abu Dhabi, how can these countries possibly replicate the Masdar model? How can they be encouraged to pursue green development?

“With the financial crisis and the realization that if you’re going to be a model for sustainable development, you have to recognize not only environmental sustainability but social and economic as well,” said Mallows. “With that came the realization that you build cities not within the realm of governments that have a lot of money to invest in R&D, but you build it with the private sector… that build pieces of cities or parts of cities for profit.”

“We re-calibrated the development strategy for Masdar City to allow specifically third party investors and developers to participate in Masdar City’s development on long term land leases and all we do is we say here are development regulations based on Abu Dhabi 2030 and Estidama regulations and sustainability criteria that if you build in Masdar City we expect you will conform to.”

In other words, Mallows notes, a third party developer on a long term land lease could build a sustainable project anywhere in the world, not just in Masdar City, without massive financing from government. They can make a profit, but building sustainably depends on the will to do so.

Which means that municipalities in other cities could mandate that all future builds or retrofits fit a certain standard – in the same way that Abu Dhabi has mandated that all new residential projects should earn at least one pearl under Estidama guidelines, while government buildings are expected to achieve at least two.

In Masdar City, all future builds are expected to achieve at least three pearls under Estidama, according to Chris Wan, who spoke during a breakout session in Abu Dhabi about the economics of sustainability and the process that lead to the Siemens building’s success.

“We’ve taken a look at Masdar City and said OK, what are the building blocks of a city,” says Mallows. “And the building blocks of a city are actually not huge districts or downtown cores or things the size of Masdar City, they are in fact neighborhoods.”

“But neighborhoods are not necessarily just residential, they are also working neighborhoods, live-work neighborhoods, mixed-use neighborhoods, R&D neighborhoods – how do you do this?”

“So now we’ve re-organized Masdar City into nine neighborhoods – starting around Masdar Institute as an R&D neighborhood … where in fact there are different kinds of facilities and then straightforward residential neighborhoods, shops, amenities – but, and here’s a big but, they are all linked by a network of mobility and that’s the key and that’s replicable.”

Mallows says that a sustainable city must have public transportation and it must be pedestrian-friendly. This not only reduces the number of cars on the roads, but by extension energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. It also provides a more pleasant social atmosphere – especially if the neighborhoods are designed for an optimum microclimate that takes advantage of passive design and natural cooling.

The post Can there be more Masdar eco-cities in the Middle East? appeared first on Green Prophet.

Just three years ago, when I started writing for Green Prophet, a project like this was virtually unheard of. While  murmurings about clean technology, renewable energy and maybe even recycled materials had begun to emerge, there existed no supply chain of more earth-friendly materials to support any fledgling green initiatives. This I saw with my own eyes.

Now so much has changed, in large part thanks to government-sponsored Masdar (see photos of our trip to Masdar here), which among its many accomplishments established The Future Build, a brilliant platform that allows architects, designers, contractors and clients in the construction industry to source materials rated to the highest environmental specifications.

This in turn encourages suppliers to improve the quality of their product and enables Abu Dhabi to push their widespread “greening” initiatives even further.

The emirate’s Department of Transportation (DoT) has teamed up with the the Urban Planning Council (UPC), the Estidama program team and the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, along with an international consortium of road planning experts, to design and plan a new green road to link the UAE capital and Dubai.

(Related post: Abu Dhabi: biggest polluter turned green police)

Devised as a template for future roads, the new highway will be constructed with state of the art materials designed for optimum safety and security, including recycled materials such as asphalt and aggregate and rubber tires, and it will require less maintenance in the long run.

Part of the DoT’s Surface Transport Master Plan, the E311 will also be illuminated with renewable energy such as solar power, in order to reduce the project’s overall carbon footprint.

“The DoT has undertaken several studies to guarantee that the best possible approaches are being utilised ensuring that the project will bring the defined objectives,” according to local paper Emirates 24/7, “one of which is building modern and environment-friendly roads as opposed to the traditional ones.”

Construction on the pilot road will being in early 2015.

Image of Dubai/Abu Dhabi road sign / Shutterstock

The post The new road to Dubai will be recycled and green appeared first on Green Prophet.

Pioneering the sustainable and green building movement in a country with a growing population and dwindling resources seems like a smart economic move for any industry.

In addition to 191 houses with 11 house types, the residential campus boasts conference areas, a data center, four utility buildings and communal areas such as library, dining hall, recreation center, natatorium, mosque and supermarket.

The somewhat isolated community is meant to serve as a spacious and modern community for KAPSARC’s international employees and their families.

The 200-hectare site also includes a photovoltaic (solar) energy field and bio retention swales, which are meant as both functional and visual statements.

When the project was initiated, LEED for homes was not available outside the US.

KAPSARCs architects, the American design firm HOK, and the US Green Building council worked for a number of years to establish a pilot program. KAPSARC is among the first to participate.

In CityScape magazine, Roger Schweyer, project designer and senior architect at the American design firm HOK insists the sites benefits extend beyond its residents, “As an institution, Saudi Aramco (the world’s largest oil production company and the project’s developer) is interested in moving beyond the oil industry, and championing new business opportunities in the Kingdom.

“Sustainable design and construction is a major industry targeted.”

One question we are left with – why didn’t they go for the Middle East-friendly eco standard Estidama?

Images via HOK

The post Big Oil’s Saudi Aramco Builds LEED Certified Homes in Riyadh appeared first on Green Prophet.

We’ve collected a number of films from around the net on Estidama, a LEED-like sustainability rating for communities, villas and apartments in the United Arab Emirates. A system that makes sense for the challenges of the desert climate, and Muslim communities.

Environmental, economic, social and cultural aspects are woven into the rating systems to include homes, mosques, schools to meet the challenges of Abu Dhabi’s challenging environment: hot and dry!  Watch these films to learn more about this unique system developed to reduce the consumption of local resources. Any companies looking to work in the United Arab Emirates’ green space should watch these movies to get the basics.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0_GBt-0i5U[/youtube]

This film here offers a sales pitch to average people who may not know what a green rating system is:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxrefYbhXlY[/youtube]

Plan Abu Dhabi 2030 to regenerate Abu Dhabi neighbourhoods of Khalifa City A and B, central of which will be sustainability and Estidama:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPOGF4g_1YM[/youtube]

A tour around an Emirati eco-home: what your green home would look like if you live in Abu Dhabi:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3VYHTCRvfc[/youtube]

Abu Dhabi’s Urban Planning Council and its green vision for families? This organization builds the standards for Estidama.

What do Estidama communities look like? This video below shows the futuristic ideals planned by the Abu Dhabi government, which explains how the new communities will be built to encourage people to walk and cycle more.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiAKLfEFAjw[/youtube]

Learn more about Estidama here.

The post Estidama Is the Arab World’s Sustainability Rating System: Watch Films on Estidama appeared first on Green Prophet.

While Abu Dhabi tends to rely on the Urban Planning Council’s homegrown Estidama standard for new builds like the compliant eco-villa we toured earlier this year at the World Future Energy Summit, Dubai has been pursuing an increasing number of LEED-certified constructions, including the Dubai Electricity & Water Authority’s service center in Al Quoz.

The largest government building in the world to achieve LEED Platinum, the 340, 000 square foot DEWA building achieved 98 out of a possible 110 points.

But from now on, it will be mandatory for all developers who seek any level of LEED certification from the US Green Building Council to install water and energy meters in each new home or office, where it was previously optional to do so.

Talking to The National, one of LEED’s founders and the Director of Green Technologies, Mario Senevirtane said that installing meters is not very costly to developers, but doing so results in significant energy and water savings.

He added that it is crucial to have some kind of a benchmark to follow when it comes to sparing the consumption of vital resources – particularly in Dubai where both water and energy come at a premium.

Other new standards include reducing outdoor water use, and separating and recycling construction waste.

:: The National

The post Upgraded LEED V4 Version Demands Energy and Water Meters appeared first on Green Prophet.

For a perfect example, check out our photos of the Estidama-compliant eco-home that was displayed during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week where Green Prophet was part of the VIP media tour. Roughly equivalent to the government “eco villas” being installed in Al Ain and Al Silaa, this prototype home has all the trappings of a modern Arab home (including a falcon, of course) but consumes 20-30 percent less energy and water.

The Estidama-compliant eco home is fitted with energy efficient appliances and water saving devices that slash its energy and water consumption by up to 30 percent, said Hassan Yasser Ebrahim, Senior Manager of Planning & Design Sustainability at Sorouh Real Estate.

No volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were used in the finishings and the house is oriented to deflect most of the harshest solar gain. Water is heated using solar energy, windows prevent thermal loss and superior insulation also ensures that no energy seeps out of the home.

Whilst the prototype signals an important step in the right direction, the German-trained sustainability expert, Ebrahim concedes that the project is not as “green” as it could be.

In Abu Dhabi, where almost 100 percent of residential energy is subsidized for local Emiratis, it behooves the government to ensure that its own projects, like the 400 unit project in Al Ain and a 448 unit project in Al Silaa, utilize even more solar energy and greater water conservation techniques to ensure an even smaller carbon footprint.

At the inaugural International Water Summit (IWS) held in Abu Dhabi last week in conjunction with the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) and Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, leaders from around the world gathered to highlight the threat of diminishing water resources.

Speaking at IWS, her Excellency Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, Secretary General of Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD), warned that the emirate has reached a “tipping point” in its groundwater usage, adding that by 2030, the government plans to extend the life of existing groundwater resources to create some semblance of water security.

Within this context, it is critical that the government demand more rigorous efficiencies for their so-called eco-homes. Thanks in part to Masdar, there is a growing supply chain of eco-friendly appliances and materials in the United Arab Emirates, which means it is not nearly as hard to construct a smart, efficient home today as it was even three years ago.

Large and sprawling, the Estidama-compliant home is quintessentially Arab in its organization as it ensures a great deal of privacy for both residents and guests, and there are plenty of open spaces designed for socializing.

The post An Estidama Compliant Eco Dwelling for Next Generation Arabs (PHOTOS) appeared first on Green Prophet.

]]> https://www.greenprophet.com/2013/01/masdar-city-phase-b-photos/ https://www.greenprophet.com/2013/01/masdar-city-phase-b-photos/#comments Thu, 17 Jan 2013 06:19:00 +0000 http://www.greenprophet.com/?p=88750 On a VIP media tour of the zero-carbon city Masdar, Tafline unveils these new pics of the stunning green oasis in the desert A lot has happened at Masdar City since our first visit two years ago. Back then the “zero carbon, zero waste” development received a pile of bad press for falling short of […]

The post Masdar City Unveils Phase B For the First Time (PHOTOS) appeared first on Green Prophet.

]]> On a VIP media tour of the zero-carbon city Masdar, Tafline unveils these new pics of the stunning green oasis in the desert

A lot has happened at Masdar City since our first visit two years ago. Back then the “zero carbon, zero waste” development received a pile of bad press for falling short of its ambitions. The New York Times criticized the facility’s compound aesthetic and critics around the world predicted that the government-backed initiative would fail.

But… we were all wrong. In the seven short years since its launch in 2006, the many branches of Masdar – Masdar Institute, Masdar Capital, Masdar Clean Energy and Masdar City – have grown from a seedling of an idea into a full fledged engine of economic, social and technological progress. And we’ve been fortunate to see sections of the city never before unveiled to the press. Hit the jump for details.

We are attending Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week as part of a VIP tour sponsored by Masdar.

As part of the tour, we visited the 100MW Shams 1 CSP plant outside of Abu Dhabi that is now very close to completion, met with several senior managers to discuss the intention behind numerous local and international initiatives and attended the Zayed Future Energy Prize award ceremony at the Emirates Palace Hotel.

Additionally, we attended several panel discussions that have given us a new, in depth understanding of the direction towards which the North African, Middle Eastern and Gulf region is headed in order to combat the challenges of energy and water scarcity in the context of escalating climate change.

But far and away the highlight of the tour has been an escorted trip to Masdar City, where sections were unveiled to the press (that’s us) for the very first time.

When we were last there for the first organic market and street fair, the fledgling development was comprised of just a couple of futuristic-looking buildings that made it difficult to comprehend the master plan.

Now the special economic zone that will act as a hub for 100 clean tech companies, a la Silicon Valley, is nearing completion. So is Siemens’ regional headquarters, which aims to achieve a LEED Platinum rating from the US Green Building Council and three Pearls from Estidama.

The rooftop panels crowning the Masdar Institute provide 30 percent of the current 2-3 MW energy demand, while the rest is covered by the 10MW PV plant situated nearby, Head of Facilities Management Naser Marzooqi told us in an interview.

Everything else is fed into the national grid, which means that for now, Masdar City is a plus energy development.

The special facade, passive design and multifaceted energy and water conservation systems have reduced the existing buildings’ energy consumption by 50 percent, its cooling load by 40 percent and its water consumption by 54 percent, Marzooqi added.

In keeping with the sustainability ethos, the Siemens building by Sheppard Robson will also feature a host of energy and water conservation strategies, in addition to a cutting edge material palette that slashes the embodied carbon footprint.

All along confronted by a non-existent sustainable supply chain, Masdar  has led the charge to create one.

As a result of their efforts, a wellspring of companies have revamped their business model. And to make it easy for contractors and designers to source more environmentally-sensible building materials, the firm started thefuturebuild.com – a carefully vetted portal of local businesses that have met Masdar’s 15  sustainability criteria.

On its own grounds, Masdar has recycled 96 percent of its construction waste, Marzooqi explained. Concrete is crushed and used for roads, wood is shredded and aluminum and steel are recycled too.

All grey water is filtered through a Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) before it is recycled as irrigation water; unfortunately current health regulations prohibit this water from being used in plumbing systems, although we suspect that in the future, once the filtration system is more secure, the government will re-examine this policy.

Albeit just one small part of a massive organization that has spread its influence from London to the Seychelles, Masdar City is an exceptionally well-oiled machine that gives equal opportunity to both men and women to further Abu Dhabi’s mandate to ensure that at least 7 percent of the emirate’s energy requirement will be provided with renewables by 2020.

Stay tuned for more details about Shams 1, Masdar’s international projects, and more.

All photos by Tafline Laylin; please contact us if you would like permission to use them!

The post Masdar City Unveils Phase B For the First Time (PHOTOS) appeared first on Green Prophet.

]]> https://www.greenprophet.com/2013/01/masdar-city-phase-b-photos/feed/ 2