Experiment in the desert

Masdar, a new ambitious city plan funded by an oil rich Abu Dhabi government is currently underway in the UAE. Their goal is to build a city ground up that will house ~47 000 people, have no carbon emissions, no cars, and no waste by 2015. Combining the brightest researchers, scientists and technology they have planned what the sustainable city of the future should be.

The ideas in the initiative a refreshing way to re-create the cityscape. I would love to live in a place with no cars. Just think  the decrease in stress and accidents if no one had to drive. As great as this new Carbon Zero city sounds, we have to remember things work differently in reality. This environmentally utopian city really isn't dealing with our current problems of existing infrastructure. It's ignoring a massive problem our generation needs to face: the millions of people already living in suburbs. 

Masdar initiative has an immense budget to work with. By building everything from scratch with a virtually unlimited budget (so it seems) relieves the designers of a huge restriction. It gives them freedom to implement all the ideas they have. Rarely does this ever happen in reality. Masdar may be environmentally sustainable, but is it sustainable socially and economically? I mean how many countries can build a city ground up when they aren't happy with they existing ones? So many new materials are being used to create this city, are they ALL made from recycled materials? When they say Carbon Zero do they take into consideration all the energy and resources needed to build Masdar in the first place? In a bigger sense this reminds me of the disposable mentality we have today, that when we don't like something or get bored of it we just buy a new one.  Building a city from ground up isn't solving the problems of current infrastructure. By building a walled city where only those who can afford it is gentrification and creating large social divides. The situation to me seems like rich people get to enjoy clean air and the freedom from environmental guilt, while the poor remain in the polluted, decaying cities.  

Land is such a precious resource, the answer is not to use more of it. I think we need to work with what we already have. Instead using more land we should stop building and figure out ways to maximize land with boundaries already set. 

Masdar is a great and interesting experiment. It's also great that people are trying to be new and innovate about the ways we go about building our cities. But I feel (for now) this is all it ever will be, an experiment that includes 47 000 wealthy people. We've already invested so much in our current cities, how can we afford to build new cities? I think Masdar should be taken as an incredible experiment from which we can learn from, but to create all new cities like this seems somewhat unrealistic.