Project Spotlight: UAE

The Mobility Pavilion, named Alif, was one of Expo 2020 Dubai’s three signature pavilions based on the sub-themes of Mobility, Sustainability and Opportunity. Its curved shape was designed to evoke movement, while the highly reflective stainless-steel cladding was inspired by chrome fenders and aircraft wings.

The pavilion has been designed to LEED Gold standard. It is a self-shading building, and its metal cladding reflects heat. Photovoltaic panels on the roof take advantage of solar energy and the landscape design is sensitive to water use.

As part of their brief, the client specified that the pavilion would remain on site after the Expo and should be flexibly designed to accommodate future uses. The practice responded by designing a structure that is divided into three key zones, each forming a petal in the tri-foil plan. This allowed the pavilion to be converted after the Expo, by infilling these volumes. Lugs, beams and lightweight flooring can easily be added to the structure’s steel frame, dividing up the spaces. The design team also considered how the pavilion would be split sectionally, with a generous floor to floor standard.

Gerard Evenden, Head of Studio, underlines the pavilion’s ability to flexibly accommodate future uses: “The idea of legacy is fundamental to the project. The design of the pavilion needs to be considered beyond its immediate purpose, something that is vital in terms of sustainability. When we calculate the impact of buildings on the planet, we have to think about the overall lifecycle of the building and how it can be extended and maximised.”

The Masdar Institute was the first part of the wider Masdar City masterplan to be realised and creates an educational focus for the entire programme. The Institute embodies the principles and goals of Masdar to create a prototypical and sustainable city and is the first building of its kind to be powered entirely by renewable solar energy.

The design incorporates a variety of passive and active environmental strategies.

The Institute’s residences and laboratories are oriented to shade both the adjacent buildings and the pedestrian streets below and the facades are also self-shading. Over 5,000 square metres of roof-mounted photovoltaic installations provide power and further protection from the direct sun. A 10-megawatt solar field within the masterplan site provides 60 per cent more energy than is consumed by the Masdar Institute, all of which can be fed back to the Abu Dhabi grid.

The campus also uses significantly less energy and water than average modern buildings in the UAE. Horizontal and vertical fins and brise soleil shade the laboratories, which have highly flexible ‘plug and play’ services to encourage interdisciplinary research. The laboratory facades are formed from highly insulative inflatable ETFE cushions, which remain cool to the touch under the intense desert sun.

Cooling air currents are directed through the public spaces using a contemporary interpretation of the region’s traditional wind towers, and green landscaping and water provide evaporative cooling.

ICD Brookfield Place is an office and retail development located in the heart of the Dubai International Financial Centre district (DIFC). The mixed-use development includes a 53-storey tower featuring world-class workspaces, set within an urban setting that celebrates its location and makes a positive change to the area around it.

The project has achieved a LEED Platinum rating. It also received the Healthy Spaces Project of the Year award and was Well Health Safety Rated in 2021.

The development offers high-quality spaces to live and work, as well as a unique 30 metre-high, 2,000 square-metre summer garden. The spectacular garden is an extraordinary public space and the social heart of the complex. Located towards the north of the tower, it is shaded by the office tower for most of the day, creating a vibrant, all-day open space to host events and forms a new social focus for the DIFC.

The Summer Garden recently hosted the ‘Change-Makers Hub’ at this year’s COP28. Chris Trott, Head of Sustainability, Foster + Partners, spoke at the ‘Navigating the path to net zero’ event in the garden.