A Dubai developer is forging ahead with plans to create a huge green project reminiscent of Abu Dhabi's Masdar City - after warning Dubai must find a cleaner way of building its future.
Dubai Sustainable City - a 500,00 sq ft project planned for near the emirate's Arabian Ranches development - is set to be formally launched next month at an event devoted to sustainable real estate in Dubai.
The project is the work of the company Diamond Developers, and the company's CEO, Faris Saeed, yesterday laid out a simple motivation for pursuing the project.
"We have to stop doing what we used to and start a new way of building," he said. The project - designed to accommodate 10,000 people - was first mooted back in 2011, but little had been heard of its progress. That's set to change when key details are revealed at the Arab International Sustainable Real Estate Conference - a new event launched yesterday by Dubai Land Department - when it opens in Dubai on May 1.
Diamond Developers boss Saeed was yesterday happy to sketch an outline of the project before next month's reveal.
Dubai Sustainable City will contain homes, offices, schools, a university and an organic farm, he said. A "green belt" of cultivated land will be planted to protect the development from sand blowing in from the surrounding desert.
The city will produce 50 per cent of its own electricity from solar farms including panels mounted on parking bays, with Saeed adding: "Each house will produce its own electricity by using solar panels. We have a sustainable transportation system to be used by the residents and their visitors to go around the city."
Reacting to the suggestion that the project sounded similar to Masdar City - albeit on a smaller scale - he said: "There is no doubt we have learned from what Masdar has done". He's confident the project won't be an isolated example of sustainable best practice in Dubai.
"We feel that what we are doing should be an example for not just Dubai developments but should also be a benchmark for most of the developers in the region," the developer said.
© 7Days 2013
