Though the architects imagined an outdoor city center based on traditional European public plazas to encourage social interaction, the arid climate of Masdar prevented them from doing so. The resulting design is a comfortable place to gather and shop, incorporating adaptive building technologies, and efficient use of energy and water.
The design includes a central plaza, five-star hotel, long stay hotel, convention center, entertainment complex, and retail facilities. Wanting to break away from the tradition of having indoor air conditioned retail and public spaces in the Middle East, LAVA wanted to create a distinct outdoor public plaza modeled after traditional European plazas. The architects designed ‘solar umbrellas’ modeled after flowers to shade the plaza and keep the air moving through, which open up during the day and close up at night to keep the plaza cool.
The city center also includes other integrated sustainable design features, such as adaptive building facades that can adjust and angle themselves to receive more or less sun, wall surface materials that respond to changing temperatures and contain minimal embedded energy, underground water storage, rooftop gardens to grow food, reuse organic waste, utilize interactive light poles, interactive and heat-sensitive technology, generate its own energy and be very water-efficient.
