Everyday there are buildings going up in the world. The construction industry is always growing and always changing. Now the industry has seen a large push to become greener known as "Green Construction." This type of construction is being used more and more everyday, and it is being modified and improved everyday as well. There is a hard push for green construction because the construction industry is one of the leaders in producing waste. The industry produces more than 135 million tons of waste from demolished sites and from new construction sites(Green Construction). This is solid waste and does not include all of the emissions that the machinery in the industry creates. The construction industry now has a rating system to rate how environmentally friendly a new or remodeled building is. This rating system looks at things such as storm water management, water usage and reusage, recycling of waste both during and after construction, use of local contractors and materials, and site sustainability. These are only a few items that are looked at. LEED certification is a great step forward in green construction, but the construction industry has now come up with a new idea that could change the industry forever. The new large step in green construction is the idea of zero-carbon cities. This idea of building was generated by the British Council to raise awareness of climate change and the problems of future energy usage (ZEROCARBONCITY). One big question still remains about zero-carbon cities. Are zero-carbon cities possible?
The world is soon to find out if zero-carbon cities are possible. There isn't an answer yet but there will be one soon. The location of the first complete zero-carbon city, Masdar City, is going to be in Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi sits on an area that is ranked in the top 5 of the world for oil and gas reserves. Abu Dhabi has made all of its money from oil and gas and is now being the first to build a
zero-carbon city. This city is going to cost Abu Dhabi roughly $22 billion and is being designed by the Massachusetts Institution of Technology (MIT). The 2.4 square-mile city is to be complete in year 2013(World's First Zero-Carban City). The first building to be built in the city is going to be a $350 million solar power plant. The city will be home to 50,000 residents and many company headquarters(eco worldly). All of the buildings will rely heavily on solar power for the everyday activities inside and outside of it. Transportation will be a light-rail system powered by solar energy and transportation will also be by automated pods. The automated pods will require the person using it to enter in a location and then the pod will take them to their destination kind of like an elevator(First Zero-Carbon City).
All of this talk sounds like a great idea for environmental reasons but is it feasible? That question still remains and may remain for several years if not decades. The only way to find out if it is going to be feasible is see how Masdar City does in Abu Dhabi. Masdar City is going to be a learning project everyday because with it being
the first of its kind there are going to be problems. It may not even be a completely zero-carbon city until 2020. It is going to be tough to predict what is going to happen. There is only one way for the world to find out if a zero-carbon city is feasible and that is by supporting Masdar City and seeing how well it actually works. The building of Masdar City is a huge risk both to Abu Dhabi’s ego and economically. They are known to have these very expensive buildings and if it is a failure then they are going to lose a very large sum of money and it is going to make them look very bad as far as their reputation is concerned.
For a more sci-fi look into the future, some environmental design companies in Dubai, namely Timelinks, are creating a 2.3 kilometer Ziggurat project that will be 100% carbon neutral and run solely on solar and hydro power. The solar panels can be seen on the outside of the pyramid as the hydro power will come from the two rivers it sits on. This project is planned to house 1 million people and will be designed in a 360 degree network where cars will be unnecessary (Pyramid). Additionally, biometrics will take care of the security with facial recognition technology. The communities inside the “Pyramid” will be almost entirely sufficient with additional aid from wind and steam power. Dubai states, “Whole cities can be accommodated in complexes which take up less than 10% of the original land surface. Public and private landscaping will be used for leisure pursuits or irrigated as agricultural land. If these projects were realized today the world would see communities that are sustainable, environmentally friendly and in tune with their natural surroundings.” Timelinks is even taking the steps to patent this idea because they believe in it so much that they believe it is the way of the future (Pyramid). They just have to convince the critics that this will be a worthy investment in which people will support and want to live. Nonetheless, people who want to support the environment should support even the unimaginary projects to set the bar high.
On the other side of the continent, China is doing its part to set an example of “green construction” for the world. A city by the name of Dongtan is believed to be the world’s first truly new sustainable urban development by Chinese designers. In a way, it is a race against Abu Dhabi’s Masdor City. Dongtan is located on the third largest island of China which sits at the mouth of the Yangtze River (Dongtan). The city is to be completely carbon neutral or free of fossil fuels. As we know it today, there are no zero carbon cities in the industrialized world, so this
experiment by the Chinese government is an attempt to craft a carbon-neutral city from nothing and set both an example and a platform for the rest of the world. Construction is believed to begin by 2010, and by 2040 the city is believed to be one-third the size of Manhattan and housing nearly 500,000 people. One-third of the island will be devoted to urban areas and the rest of the island will be devoted to agriculture. Dongtan will manufacture its power from solar, wind, bio-fuels, and recycled wastes from the urban area. Vehicles that run solely on electricity or hydrogen will be the only type of vehicles permitted inside the city limits (Dongtan). The engineers and architects from China are designing the island to attract employment from all different types of economic demographics. Chinese designers state that the important thing is that Dongtan does not restrict people, rather have the city encourage people to think about the way they live.
There are three main players in the design of a building. There is an architect who designs the looks and layout of the building. They look at how to use the space of the building most
effectively while also having an eye catching design. The next player is the engineers. They are in charge of the structural design, the HVAC systems, and the electrical components of a building. The last player is the owner of the building which of course pays for the project. It is the architects and engineers job to please the owner by designing and building what they want. In the zero-carbon cities it is going to be exceptionally important for the three players to work together. They are not building one single building. They are attempting to build a whole city at once. These cities are looking at using solar power as their main source of energy so designing the layout of buildings is going to be very important. They don't want to design it so one building is taller than another building and blocks its source of energy for part of the day. In order for the cities to be built without many initial issues, the owner, architects, and engineers are going to have to work very closely with each other to get things right.
All three of these potential zero-carbon city’s have a great chance of being a huge success, but they also have the chance of failing. With these city’s being the first of their kind it is only speculation on what will happen with them. There is always the phrase that everyone was told as a kid when they wouldn’t try something for the first time; “You’ll never know unless you try it!” That is the way that the world needs to look at these cities. Unless we give them a chance we won’t know if they are something that will be a huge success and “save the world” or if they are a huge joke where everyone laughs at the people that put all the money into the project. Zero-carbon cities could be the next big step in the “green” world. When cars were starting to be built as hybrids no one really knew how well they would work. Next thing you know they can now be seen in every city. This could potentially be the next hybrid at a much larger scale. Open minds is the only chance of zero-carbon cities surviving!
Bibliography
British Council, "Climate Change-Zero Carbon City" . March 5, 2009
"Green Construction Preserves Natural Resources". Do It Yourself. March 5,2009
Hart, Sara. "Zero Carbon Cities-Dongtan". March 5 2009
Hill, Joshua. "World's First Zero-Carbon City". Eco Worldly. March 5, 2009
McKenna, Phil. "First zero-carbon city to rise out of the desert". New Scientist. March 5, 2009
Ooko, Sam Aola. "Solar Powered, Carbon Neutral Pyramid to House 1 Million People in Dubai". Eco Worldly. March 5, 2009.
Unknow. "World's First Zero-Carbon City". Fat Knowledge Blog. March 5, 2009.
