Dubai Gets Less Dubious with Xeritown by SMAQ and X-Architects
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.15.08
Finally, after years of criticizing just about everything going on in Dubai, even the so-called green twisting tower that everyone else seems to love, a project that is not, well, dubious. SMAQ and X-Architects have designed Xeritown to be "a novel example of man and nature working in harmony, an entire town is to be built along a north-south axis to take advantage of cool breezes blowing in off the sea." It is sort of like Foster's Masdar in Abu Dhabi, but a little more down to earth.
“Cities in the UAE aren’t growing in a way that their design respects this environment, this climate,” Architect Ahmed al Ali told Dubai's National. “We want to do urban design in such a way that is as if it grew here naturally. We want to create an identity here.”
“The strategy was to maintain the existing landscape, to preserve it in its most original form,” Mr al Ali said. “This hasn’t been done in Dubai. Most of the buildings here could be anywhere in the world. But we have a unique climate, it makes sense to design with it in mind.”
"The buildings will be tall enough to provide shade for the streets below, say the architects. They will provide shade without using palm or other trees, because most vegetation in the UAE is not native and is energy intensive.
Large flat circles will hang over the walkways on streets that are not shaded by buildings and photovoltaic cells will collect solar energy."
Finally, a Dubai project with buildings of modest scale, that use traditional techniques such as perforated screens to control the sun, channeling the wind, and such a simple idea as providing shade. :Dezeen and the National via ::Inhabitat
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Those buildings could benefit from some solar cells to shade part of their roofs and walls.
Wonder if they've done any CFD to see how the wind will really perform.
Looks like it could create a good neighborhood, but maybe not well linked to the rest of the city.