Check out this cool article on the front page of the New York Times today:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/arts/design/26masdar.html?ref=todayspaper
And check out all the multimedia, its really cool.
-Alex
4 thoughts on “Sustainable City”
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Alex,
This is super awesome. I liked how they dealt with the whole transportation issue (the electric cars). The city is probably not the most practical design for the future (as Hig said), probably because of high costs, but I think it will serve as an amazing model. It reminded me a lot of Middlebury’s Solar Decathlon houses. Even though we can’t expect every American to invest in one, they serve as a great example for the future- especially by incorporating different aspects.
This was really interesting and I think it’s cool that this is a possibility for the future. However, I couldn’t help but think that it really may be more of an experiment then a feasible alternative way of living. In terms of social exclusiveness, though, it’s not too different from the many gated-in communities that have been existent for a couple of decades. Like Cooper, I’m interested in finding out how much money it took to build Masdar and whether or not it’s likely we’ll see more of these cities or not due to cost and lack of profit.
-Nick
Obvioulsy I find the idea of creating a city like Masdar as a extremely good idea but is it really reasonable. Exactly as it said in the concluding paragraphs, it will become a society on a pedastool out of reach of the common citizen. There is no doubt Masdar will become a modern day country club. As well, I find it a little ironic that the only reason Masdar can be affordable is because of the profit of oil in the region of Abu Dhabi. So, as Mr. Foster is attempting to build the greenest city in the world he is obtaining subsidies from the sales of crude oil, in which is destroying our world. It seems a bit self-centered as Mr.Foster is using these profits to create his own utopia.
Hig
Alex-
Thanks for posting this, the article was really interesting. It’s a crazy idea and obviously took a lot of money but it looks like the outcome will be amazing. In addition to being total sustainable it will also be the clean and calm because the streets are underground and the people will be healthy because of all the walking. I wonder how much it took to design and build it.
Cooper