Central Plaza Masdar City

A focus on sustainability and urban integration

Masdar City is a ground-breaking sustainable urban development and a world-class business and technology hub featuring a thriving free zone, innovative, energy-efficient architecture, autonomous electric vehicles, and much more. With a growing population, the need for vibrant open spaces and activated public realm is becoming an increasingly important part of the city’s development.

The recently completed Central Plaza is the latest addition to Masdar City. It has been designed as a placemaking gesture using the relocated 2015 Milan pavilion by Foster + Partners. This iconic building now hosts the UAE Space Agency. In addition to the design of its high-profile client and architectural pedigree, the development of the adjoining Central Plaza was seen as a strategic move for Masdar City.

Design approach

Building on the architectural design narrative, the public realm is inspired by a modern interpretation of UAE landscapes. A series of linear spaces incorporate topography and vegetative mounds that assist in channeling the prominent local breezes that flow through the site. The raised mounds define social and civic areas, while ensuring human-scaled spaces. Key features of Central Plaza are the three iconic shade structures that are the focus in terms of both architecture and programming. These impressive structures shade key gathering areas, and together with the local breezes, provide a distinctly noticeable passive-cooling effect that extends the usability of the plaza into the summer months. To further assist with outdoor thermal comfort strategies, consideration has been given to light-colored materiality and white seat walls that reduce the urban heat island effect.

Equal to the design considerations, sustainability has been an overarching focus of the project, and considers the cultural, social, economic, and environmental aspects of every design decision. At a casual glance, the public plaza, with its clean modern lines and high-quality materials, does not appear to differ significantly from business-as-usual projects, but therein lies its strength.

How is this achieved? Central Plaza offers the following approaches to landscape design, and is an exemplar for other projects within the industry, especially as cities worldwide face issues related to water scarcity, heat mitigation, and efficient use of both energy and resources.

Materials and sourcing

Locally and regionally sourced materials were used for the project, meaning that materials were procured and manufactured within 500 km of Masdar City. Not only did this reduce carbon associated with transportation, it also supports the local economy.

The landscape architects and engineers considered the full life-cycle operations when specifying materials and construction techniques.

Waste and recycling

The project was supported by Masdar City’s Materials Recycling Centre (MRC). This on-site facility is used for a variety of initiatives including steel salvaging, cementitious substitutes, and re-use of aggregates, both decoratively and as road base. Future initiatives of the MRC include research projects with local universities for exterior rated tile production, rammed earth blocks, and more. These initiatives continue to evolve and will be further developed within upcoming park projects.

Masdar City’s philosophy is to treat waste as a resource, which allowed the project to divert 70 percent (by weight) of material from landfills.

Planting design and water conservation

The plaza was designed without lawns to achieve the most significant water consumption savings; however, this raised challenges in designing “softer” spaces. The solution to this was the vegetated mounds, which also assist with various other design issues.

The mounding creates hydro-zones with more moisture at the lower sections and a more defined xeriscape treatment at the top. This ensures the most efficient water usage possible. The mounds are also a way of visually angling the ground plane relative to the user and visually emphasizing the layering and density of planting in a way that is not possible in flat landscapes.

By using species that are climactically relevant to the UAE, we have created a public realm that is attractive and appropriate to the growth conditions. Planting selection does not have to be a challenge in the sense that many desert adaptive species in this region offer a broad range of colors, textures, and scents. Not only do they grow quickly, but some species also flower most of the year, providing ongoing horticultural interest.

Shade and micro-climate

The impetus to ensure shade resulted in the iconic shade structure as a central feature. In conjunction with the tree and palm canopies, the open space supports a shaded area of 70 percent.

Solar PV was considered for canopy, though in this case it was deemed less suitable from a cost/ benefit analysis, especially given other highly efficient initiatives that Masdar City has established within the city and other upcoming public ream initiatives, which are specifically designed around solar efficiency.

There is a growing trend towards sustainability in public realm design, spearheaded by awareness of environmental issues, legislative compliance, and the desire to establish landscape designs that break the mold. In that regard, Central Plaza offers meaningful sustainability approaches that are an important component to the wider built form and contribute to a healthy living and working environment. “The fact that Masdar City is able to achieve quality environmental design and construction with the same economic and delivery considerations as other projects and developers is a testament to our vision, experience, and ongoing commitment,” said Mohamed Al Breiki, Masdar City’s Executive Director of sustainable real estate. This future-focused design and delivery approach continues to position Masdar City at the forefront of innovation in urban design.