ICE UAE Learned Event
Masdar City – a case study in sustainable urban design
By Chris Chi Lon Wan
Head of Design Management at Masdar City
Abu Dhabi Tuesday, 30th January 2018
Time 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Venue Main Hall, The Club, Abu Dhabi
Overview
Masdar City – a case study in sustainable urban design
In 2008, Masdar broke ground on Masdar City, which aspires to be one of the world’s most sustainable urban communities. Today, the city is a rapidly growing clean-tech cluster, business freezone, and residential neighbourhood – as well as an unmistakable Abu Dhabi landmark, just five minutes from the airport.
Masdar City contains one of the largest clusters of low-carbon buildings in the world. The orientation of the city’s streets and its high-density design optimise natural shading and cooling breezes, making the outdoor environment feel noticeably cooler than other urban spaces in the UAE.
Buildings use low-carbon cement, recycled aluminium and sustainably sourced wood, and they are designed to consume 40% less energy and water compared to American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) standards. The IRENA Building at Masdar City is designed to use around 64% less energy on average than traditional buildings in Abu Dhabi.
Masdar City is currently experiencing the most rapid development in its history. More than 176,000 square metres of completed buildings are fully leased and occupied; a further 740,000 square metres of projects at Masdar City have firm development agreements in place. These include schools, offices, hotels, shops, restaurants and private homes.
Chris Wan, Head of Design Management at Masdar City, will discuss the design and engineering principles of the existing and future developments, including key learnings for the Middle East built environment sector.
About the Speaker
Chris Chi Lon Wan is the Head of Design Management at Masdar City, where he adopts a holistic approach to guiding the direction of the building designs. Through briefing, goal setting, budgeting, team building and efficient processes, he directs the creation of blueprints of buildings, ensuring that these buildings are developed to achieve the best balance between environmental, commercial and social requirements.
Among his many contributions to Masdar City, Mr. Wan was instrumental in setting the vision and design parameters that led to the construction of the Siemens Middle East Headquarters building in Masdar City. The building meets some of the highest levels of energy efficiency and reduced water consumption as measured against international sustainability standards.
Mr. Wan brings 28 years of international and local architectural design experience to Masdar City. He has worked on numerous environmentally driven projects for Richard Rogers Partnership in London and for Rocco Design Ltd in Hong Kong. More recently, he moved into building development, working for Sorouh Real Estate in Abu Dhabi before joining Masdar in 2008.
Mr. Wan graduated from the University of Bath in the UK and is currently a registered architect in the UK and Hong Kong. He has participated in conferences and roundtables as an expert on sustainable development. He has also given lectures on this subject at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Paris-Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia and Khalifa University of Science and Technology.
Event Details
Abu Dhabi: The event will start at 6:45 PM with refreshments served from 6.30 pm.
Registration is essential and you will be required to bring along ID on the day.
Due to security reasons all attendees are required to register for the Event. If you wish to book a place for your friend or colleague please send them the registration link to register.
Please only register if you are making a commitment to attend.
CPD: This event may be considered for contributing to a recognised Continuing Professional Development (CPD) scheme as part of personal development. Delegates should check their individual scheme requirements.
Lakshmi S Modali
Operations Executive – Middle East
Institution of Civil Engineers
