Featured in Turkish market at a crossroads – 03-2019

Masdar City’s change of tack, second wind

Cool air, funneled through the narrow streets of historic cities in the Middle East provide welcome relief from the heat during scorching summer days. This was one of the architectural principles deployed by the studio of Sir Norman Foster, when designing the central ‘podium’ of Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City. But after the ambitious development encountered dead calm, in the form of a lack of interest from investors in the wake of the global financial crisis, a change of tack was required for the project to catch a second wind.

By

Jonathan Gifford

12 Mar 2019

“Electricity [in Abu Dhabi] is cheap, building materials are cheap and there is no imperative to do it,” said Clark Davies, Head of Development at Masdar City. | Image: pv magazine/ Clark Davies

As pv magazine strolls around the podium, it is clear that 2019 sees the Masdar City project in Abu Dhabi bustling with activity, albeit on an altered timeline and with significant departures from its initial master plan. And the project’s gathering momentum mirrors in some ways that of the United Arab Emirates in terms of …

This article is part of pv+

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