The proposed project for Masdar definitely has a lot of good points that could help the environment, but also many hidden flaws that may not be clear on the surface. Environmentally, the project looks to reduce all forms of different pollution and create city where cars aren’t even allowed to roam it, which is something you don’t see anymore today in modern cities. The ways Masdar is receiving its energy is also seemingly very self efficient, with most of the energy coming from the sun instead of traditional sources. One thing that really interested me was the personal rapid transit train cars, which looked liked a personal cart that could bring you to different destinations within the city. It is definitely good to find new ways of transportation and promote more healthy means of transportation like walking and biking, but I was just curious how the city would make sure there would be no cars. Would there be laws passed banning cars and how strict would the enforcement be regarding those laws.
Another part of the article that was interesting was the equity section, where the authors mentioned that the residents in Masdar would be relatively wealthy people, with many workers not being able to reside there because of their low income. This matches a trend in our class discussions this semester where we talked about how the environmentally friendly programs are usually implemented in areas where the wealthy live, and the poor generally don’t even emphasize green space or infrastructure in their neighborhoods. There was also some irony surrounding how the project would be funded because the article mentions that most of the money will be coming from oil being sold in the UAE, which is contradictory to the city of Masdar. It is just another cycle where you are selling fossil fuels to others to make money to try and help the environment.
Finally, the comparisons between Masdar and other popular sites in the UAE was very interesting because those sites like famous hotels, indoor skiing resorts, and the other eye catching structures needs to use a lot of natural resources to run because of how they operate. Once again, it is kind of ironic to have these environment consuming structures on one hand, and then you are trying to build a city to environmentally sustain itself. However, even with these doubts surrounding the project, it still seems that we need to do something to help the environment, and if we don’t take action, nothing will be done anyways. We might as well take the risk and implement the project, and if it works it will be revolutionary, if it doesn’t at least we tried.