an urban forest in a desert city

Rasmus Astrup

Design Principal and Partner in SLA

Rasmus Astrup Abu Dhabi Desert Rasmus Astrup Abu Dhabi Desert

An urban forest in a desert city

Rasmus Astrup of SLA architects tells us how his team built the ‘coolest place in the UAE’ using a city nature approach.

SLA is a multidisciplinary internationally renowned architecture practice with its roots in Scandinavia. As it approaches its 30th year in business, its focus remains on nature-based design. “We call it SLADNA internally,” says Rasmus Astrup, Design Principal for international projects at SLA.

How has sLa evolved as a practice over the past three decades?

The only thing that has changed are the cities we work in, and the challenges they are facing. Besides our aesthetic design language, which always starts with inspiration from - and understanding of - nature we also bring a strong interdisciplinarity to our projects.

We believe that an interdisciplinary approach is necessary to solve the clients’ demands and cities’ complexity. When I started in SLA, we were more or less all landscape architects or designers, but now I work closely with biologists, anthropologists, planting experts, master planners, and forest engineers – all of which we have in-house in SLA. We need the anthropologists because of our strong focus on social values in our designs, and because all our projects fundamentally are about improving the life of people. We are currently experiencing a global demand from our clients towards more urban space and city nature. Basically, we see the urban space is the “social glue”, or the democratic fundament for cities and societies. We always use City Nature as a broad term for our approach to urban design, with focus on creating sustainable, resilient and healthy designs; but we also believe that the urban public realm is the most democratic place. It is the place where everyone can meet equally and engage - despite gender, age, social status and religious background.

Al Fay Park Planting nurseries replanting ghaf tree.

what was the inspiration for al Fay park design?

Nature is always the fundamental inspiration for us at SLA, but it is also an inspiration that is deeply linked with knowledge. The design of Al Fay Park consists of two main elements: An urban Activity Spine consisting of varied activities, diverse recreational programs, sports, outdoor cafes and food trucks and opportunities for both formal and informal social gatherings; and a green, lush Planting Frame consisting of a wide mix of local trees, shrubs and bushes, dense planting and a varied bird-, insect- and animal life – all designed to create a cool and sensuous ‘forest’ surrounding for the park’s many activities. Five years ago, when we made our first visit to the UAE, one of the key things we discovered was that we couldn’t find any fulfilling literature on the local plant species. Therefore, we spent a full year researching and writing our own internal book about all the local species of UAE. There was some material in Arabic, but we needed an English version with focus on habitats, biotopes and functionality, and not just a list of Latin names. Many people think that the UAE is only sand and palm trees, but the nature here is so rich and varied, and the book was driven by our desire to be inspired and learn as much as possible about the original UAE nature. Partly for our own need of hardcore knowledge in our work, but also because we believe that a nation’s culture is directly linked with a nation’s nature - and that is actually the inspiration for Al Fay Park.

will urban forests become the norm in cities around the world?

When we were invited by the Department of Municipalities and Transport to make a proposal for the site, we were given the design task to make an “activity park”. Instead of

Al Fay Park UAE Native Plant Book

jumping directly into designing, we instead thought of “the frame” of the activities. UAE has 6-8 months of the most desirable climate, but as you know, summers here can be very hot. The purpose of the urban forest had to frame and create an optimal microclimate for the activities. Our working title was “the coolest place in town”, meaning both in vibe and temperature. Urban foresting is a global mega trend, and it could easily be the frame for other programs. It is representing a paradigm shift in urban development and how cities can contribute to solving the biodiversity crisis, mitigating urban heat islands and promoting social inclusion. I mean, why is urban design normally so static, when nature constantly acts dynamic? An urban forest will change over time, it will become wilder and richer, but it will also enhance its capability to clean the air and lower the temperature plus - equally important – it will create an awareness of nature for the citizens. In Denmark, a science group recently monitored 1 million kids and discovered that growing up without a presence of city nature increased the risk of mental illness by more than 50 percent. We believe that every citizen should have an urban forest near their home.

Al Fay Park Microclimate Diagrams

How did you put your signature stamp on the park’s design?

In a way, our signature is to propose an urban biodiversity park in the first place – and then having it constructed. That required both deep inspiration rooted in the culture and nature of the UAE, deep knowledge of microclimate, biology, sociology, and then the ability to put all these elements into a cohesive design. That is SLADNA. But if I should point to a single ‘signature design’ gesture, I believe the “forest track” is quite unique and very signature SLA. The forest track is made of steppingstones zig zagging between the Ghaff trees, following the topography in the forest, giving you an intense feeling of being in the middle of nature while you are actually right in the middle of the city. Another signature stamp is that everything is growing, maintained and evolving on biodiversity’s terms, making it a quite unique ‘city nature ecosystem’ for both people, plants and animals. You can say that we have designed the park for both local residents and local birds – the two first bird nests came while the park was still under construction. In other words, our signature is not only about how the park looks, it is more about how it functions and how it makes you feel. Imagine walking around Abu Dhabi on a hot sunny day. You feel the heat and the city soundtrack from the cars. Then suddenly you come across a new park. A park like no other: Where the trees grow wilder, the wildlife is more prevalent, and the public life is more active. You start to smile, sense the surroundings, hear the sound of birds and fully feel the cooling comfort under the shaded tree canopies. You feel like… in a forest.

How did you manage to achieve 40 per cent less water than traditional parks?

Besides the complete lack of rain, another big learning curve when we first started working in the UAE was how rich and varied the soil is here. In the UAE, there are various sand types, rich in minerals, and we know how to add nutrients with peet for instance. However, the real challenge is that the sand does not retain water, making it very hard to create sustainable and effective irrigation. We designed a soil type with an added volcanic compound called Zeoplant and placed it around the trees in the park, allowing us to store the water around the roots. On top of that, the planting concept of Al Fay Park is devised to enhance biodiversity and empower the natural habitats of the park. Using only native plants, the planting creates a self-sustaining natural environment, drastically reducing the demands for irrigation and water consumption, while the use of the original and more ‘wild’ Ghaf trees reduce the need for traditional care and pruning in the park. Actually, we are testing to reduce the irrigation level even more over time to support the natural habitats and make them support each other.

what will al Fay’s legacy be?

We are already now getting a lot of attention from clients and collaborators about our city nature approach. I think that Al Fay Park will show that parks must be truly green – not just in color, but they must also strengthen biodiversity, minimize the use of resources, optimize microclimate, clean the air, etc. Right now, we are in the middle of a

global COVID-19 pandemic and we must of course take that very seriously. But I actually have much more fear of the global biodiversity crisis which will be the real test for us humans. It is my hope that Al Fay Park can contribute and inspire how cities can solve this most fundamental challenge of our time.

How long did the forest park take to design from conception through to realization of the project?

We made the first sketches in June 2019 and completed the park in February 2021. Speed is always a challenge in the Middle East and Asia, but we are more or less used to it. The fact that we also had to finish the construction during the COVID-19 pandemic was obviously unexpected. I made my last visit to Abu Dhabi at the end of March last year, and I haven’t been able to go back since. We have made site supervisions with live streams, daily photo registrations and endless online meetings. Luckily, we were quite far in construction and had solved all the major challenges before COVID hit the progress. And we had a strong and close collaboration with architect-of-record Parsons and couldn’t have made the project without them.

From my point of view, the biggest practical challenge was to figure out how to replant the 400 big and old Ghaff trees we have in the park. We knew from other projects how challenging replanting can be, but we had a great collaboration with the contractor al Barari and agreed on a method to replant big trees from dessert nurseries. It is such a delicate process, and it can only be made with patience, knowledge and handcraft. It takes up to 2 months from starting the process at the nursery until you have replanted a Ghaff tree at the site. We had many assumptions about the rate of trees that would die after replanting, but we ended with less than 5 percent, which quite frankly is impressive.

Have you any similar projects in the region?

I think it is super interesting when nature and technology can support each other. We are part of a climate strategy for Abu Dhabi where we very soon inaugurate a pilot project that combines mechanical systems with plantings, light reflective pavement and mist. In the project, we are addressing the fact that during the day the sun is heating up, so we need cover for shade, but in the evening the sky is cooling down and removing the hot air from the surfaces. Therefore, we have developed new shading structures with architects CBT and engineers Buro Happold that mechanically close for shading during the day and open for cooling during the evening. Tests show that we can change the temperature of a site with almost 10 degrees by combining nature and mechanical structures in such a way. I find this really promising and exciting and a great example of how deep knowledge of nature, culture, microclimate, technology and sustainability can create new and innovative solutions for the future development of the UAE.

Al Fay Park Tree Moving Diagrams