Car Free Solar City In Gulf

[Dover]

When I saw this headline I thought first of the U.S. Gulf Coast. Maybe New Orleans?! But no, it's a half a world away in the Middle East. Why not here?




In an ever more crowded world facing environmental limits, the push is on to create entire communities with reduced needs for energy, water, land and other resources.

The latest effort comes not in some green hub like Portland, Oregon, but in the Gulf, fueled as much by oil wealth — and the need to find postpetroleum business models — as environmental zeal.

Groundbreaking is scheduled for Saturday for Masdar City, a nearly self-contained mini-municipality designed for up to 50,000 people rising from the desert next to Abu Dhabi's international airport and intended as a hub for academic and corporate research on nonpolluting energy technologies.

The 2.3-square-mile community, set behind walls to divert hot desert winds and airport noise, will be car free, according to the design by Foster + Partners, the London firm that has become a leading practitioner of energy-saving architecture....>

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/05/healthscience/05city.php

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Another article about this from Inhabitat:


http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/02/06/plans-unveiled-for-worlds-first-zero-carbon-zero-waste-city-masdar-city/#more-8162