Magazine: Office building in Masdar City
Back in 2006 Masdar City in Abu Dhabi was hailed as one of the world’s most ambitious carbon-neutral cities. With a master plan by architectural giants Foster + Partners that conceived of an entire city built on a podium above a buzzing network of driverless cars, its lofty, but also costly, ideals came to a grinding halt during the 2008 financial crisis. In recent years construction has restarted, but Masdar City 2.0 is a far more pragmatic proposition. »If something is economically unsustainable then it is unsustainable full stop,« explains Masdar’s design manager, Chris Wan.
