Monday, May 09, 2011

Our first visit to Masdar - The environmental city of Abu Dhabi

Masdar (Arabic: مصدر‎, maṣdar, literally source) is a project in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. Its core is a planned city, which is being built by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, a subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company, with the majority of seed capital provided by the government of Abu Dhabi.
Designed by the British architectural firm Foster + Partners, the city will rely entirely on solar energy and other renewable energy sources, with a sustainable, zero-carbon, zero-waste ecology. The city is being constructed 17 kilometres (11 mi) east-south-east of the city of Abu Dhabi, beside Abu Dhabi International Airport.


This was our first ride in the "pods" or PRT (Personal Rapid Transit) system :-)


Off we go ... to Sumo, the Japanese restaurant ...





Signs aren't the best at Masdar, we tried to figure out how to take a lift up (There is one hidden on the left side of the stairs!), when we saw this crazy stairwell!




This is the wind cooling tower at Masdar Institute, and more funky architecture ...




When will it all be ready? 2025! At a cost of nearly USD 20 billion, gulp!

4 comments:

witsandnuts said...

Never been there. Would it be worth the visit?

Julian Si said...

Yes, interesting place! Sumo is so-so for food ... but MASDAR itself is quite interesting. Its FREE anyway, so give it a go :-)

Anonymous said...

hi Julian, I love your blog and usually refer to your posts before hitting restos in AUH. :) Masdar City is interesting. how do we get there? thanks!

Julian Si said...

Located near Abu Dhabi airport, just look for the signs from the last terminal!

Or try ...

http://www.masdar.ae/en/contact/location.aspx

ENJOY!