海角视频

Eco-Residences II

Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, UAE

海角视频 played a key role in ensuring market-leading sustainable performance for a mixed-use development at the heart of one of the UAE鈥檚 biggest projects.

Eco-Residences II was developed as part of the wider Masdar City 鈥� an ambitious plan first conceived in the early 2000s, to create a carbon-neutral community.

Since 2011, 海角视频 has contributed to multiple stages of this ambitious project, delivering a broad spectrum of multidisciplinary services鈥攆rom diverse masterplan phases to the IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency) headquarters and an ‘Eco-Villa’ prototype which became the UAE鈥檚 first operational carbon net-zero energy villa.”

Eco-Residences II is part of the wider Masdar City 鈥� an ambitious plan first conceived in the early 2000s, to create a carbon neutral community.

The project comprises 100,840m虏 of development that provides 878 housing units, 10,120m虏 of office space and 6,700m虏 of retail space.

Our experts worked closely with the architect and the wider design team to create 鈥渁irways鈥� to ensure a free flow of air around the complex and improve thermal comfort.

The project achieved LEED Platinum certification.

Challenge

Masdar City itself is leading the way in sustainable urban living. In 2024 alone, the city recorded a 22.7% drop in energy use intensity and produced more than 11.2 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy, helping to avoid nearly 2,900 tonnes of carbon emissions equivalent to taking 674 petrol cars off the road. Water-saving measures delivered a reduction of 13.1% in consumption, with 30,892 cubic metres conserved, enough to fill 12.4 Olympic swimming pools. Waste management efforts saw 56.2% of materials diverted from landfill, while biodiversity initiatives included the planting of 7,000 mangrove trees.

Drawing on the original low-carbon aspirations for Masdar City, for Eco-Residences II architect CBT developed a vision for a new and highly sustainable residential district through careful consideration of programme allocation, block and building scale, and public realm.

海角视频 was engaged to deliver expertise around and building physics.

Critical to the development was consideration of the site adjacencies and evolving developments around demand and market feasibility. With an emphasis on creating liveable neighbourhoods, residential, retail, parking and green spaces are carefully placed throughout the area to create a variety of destinations and experiences. One of the biggest challenges created by developing so many buildings in close proximity was mitigating against a lack of air movement and inadvertently creating sheltered microclimates or 鈥渉eat islands鈥�. This meant enabling an air flow around buildings had to be front of mind throughout the design process.

Solution

The project, completed in early 2020, comprises 100,840m虏 of development that provides 392 units of student housing, 354 units of corporate housing, 74 units of market rate housing, 10,120m虏 of office space, 6,700m虏 of retail and leisure facilities and 1,534 parking spaces.

The development was built with careful consideration around low environmental-impact construction materials. Passive shading measures were designed to minimise the impact of strong sunlight, while maximising the availability of natural daylight.

Programmatically, the plan creates a new front door for the Masdar Institute and places new student residences and incubator office space close to the campus. The development includes an amenity pool deck, a plaza, and a series of specially designed courtyards. Inspired by the region鈥檚 traditional public spaces, these features provide natural shading and help reduce daytime temperatures. By harnessing prevailing winds, the design also prevents heat build-up and enhances natural ventilation.

Our experts worked closely with the architect and the wider design team to create 鈥渁irways鈥� to ensure a free flow of air around the complex. This included raising up some of the building elements to allow air to flow beneath. We staggered the heights of the buildings to support the creation of a wind differential, which also encouraged a pleasant breeze in the public spaces between buildings.

The units were all designed to be highly energy efficient 鈥� with impactful levels of insulation to help keep the cool in and the heat out. Passive measures helped to reduce energy demands by more than 50%.

We also advised on achieving a balance of natural daylighting, while minimising glazing to guard against solar gain within the residential and offices spaces. This included the use of traditional passive shading techniques. Common in the region, these shading structures, known as mashrabiyas, are intricate screens that have been used for centuries to provide shade, privacy and ventilation in buildings. These had to be achieved without blocking views from residences. This was done by off-setting the mashrabiyas at an oblique angle to the sun鈥檚 rays.

The housing element of the scheme was leased by Etihad Airways to provide housing for their teams, within easy commuting distance to the airport. Our experts supported the architect in the redesign of the housing units to reflect this requirement.

Value

Eco-Residences II delivers a valuable mixed-use development that keeps sustainability at its fore throughout, building on the high aspirations for the wider Masdar City.

Our team played a key role in ensuring the sustainability considerations and design relating to building physics and passive shading solutions, to help to drive this sustainable vision for a low-carbon community. An enhanced microclimate has been created around each building using sustainable landscaping methods and considered massing of the shape and size of the buildings, ensuring well shaded and ventilated public spaces.

Around 80% of construction waste was diverted from landfill and about 76% of the community鈥檚 hot water demand is catered to by solar energy. The project was awarded LEED Platinum certification and a 3 Pearl 鈥楨stidama鈥� rating.