Madinat Al Arab

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The ACE Group also developed Sustainable City Design Guidelines, which can be applied to different models of new buildings. The proposal for Madinat Al Arab included alternative transportation with bike storage and low-emitting and fuel-efficient vehicles, public transport within a ¼ mile of 1 or more stops for 2 or more public bus lines, vegetated open spaces, storm water drainage networks, shading, innovative waste-water technologies and the use of low-emitting materials.

The purpose of the guidelines is to indicate the process for the creation of environmentally responsible buildings and city planning that is in advance of current standards and practices for development. The buildings created by this model will be examples of healthier, responsible environments where occupants collectively enjoy the benefits of living in a fully integrated “green” community.

These guidelines provide the necessary governance keystone required to design, construct and operate the exemplar sustainable city from infrastructure to buildings. One of the core values was “what is good for Dubai”. The idea was to develop a building complex with state-of-the-art infrastructure systems, which demonstrate the high level of sustainability currently achievable. The buildings will be provided with Computational Fluid Dynamics to analyze building and site wind patterns, radiance for analysis of site delighting and building reflectance and building energy stimulation to predict the performance of the building – not only as a stand-alone energy consumer, but also as a part of the urban environment.