ID :
55163
Mon, 04/13/2009 - 15:02
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/55163
The shortlink copeid
Out of the sea, a city is rising
Just a year ago, Sowwah Island was an empty patch of desert off the waters of the Beach Rotana hotel shaped like a pair of lips.
Now the 117-hectare island is a hive of construction activity, with towers starting to jut out of the ground and a constant stream of lorries.
“It’s a Manhattan in the making,” says John Thomas, the executive director of Mubadala Real Estate & Hospitality, the master developer of the project, told the Abu Dhabi based daily The National. “This is the heart of the new central business district.”
Sowwah is planned to be a kind of nerve centre for the “new Abu Dhabi” that is taking shape in large part on islands near the north-eastern corner of the main island. It will have more than 30,000 residents and 80,000 office workers by day.
The Abu Dhabi Plan 2030 calls for it to be the “focus of the skyline profile and the summit of office density” in the constellation of projects that includes Al Mina and Reem Island.
A testament to Sowwah’s centrality for the capital are plans for 13 bridges to connect it to Reem Island and Abu Dhabi island on either side.
Two are scheduled to be finished by the end of this year and beginning of 2010. Mubadala is hiring architects to give each one a distinctive design.
Initial drawings show one bridge with an arch in the middle and another with a pointed sculptural flourish that rises into the sky.
“A lot of the inter-Abu Dhabi traffic will come through the island,” Mr Thomas says, adding that the bridges were positioned to connect with the grid layout of the main island. “The island plays a broader function for Abu Dhabi as a whole.”
The first bridge, for instance, will connect directly with Al Falah Street.
The part of the island that can be seen rising from the ground is Sowwah Square, a group of four office buildings and the new home of the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.
Some of the buildings have already reached the ninth of an eventual 30 storeys. They will be ready for occupation by the end of 2010.
The towers will have automatic shades on the outside that adjust according the angle of the sun, and double-glazing to keep offices well-lit but not overheated.
At the centre will stand the stock exchange, resting on four concrete stilts 20 metres above a pond and surrounded by shops, restaurants and cafes.
Nearby, foundation and piling work has started for the Cleveland Clinic, which will be one of Abu Dhabi’s most advanced health care centres.
So far, says Mr Thomas, the global financial crisis has not had a major impact on the development of the island. Mubadala is still working out its strategy for selling plots of land and through its partner, John Buck International, finding companies to lease the space that will become available in the short term.
A year ago, the available space had all been pre-reserved, but the economic downturn of the past year has presented problems for some of the potential clients.
“I’d be lying if I said the financial crisis hasn’t affected our leasers,” he says. “We are focusing on these tenants. Some of them are having to re-evaluate.”
For all the towers and scaffolding, the most dramatic work is being done out of sight, at the infrastructure level. On Sowwah Island, for example, a 14-metre-high concrete platform at Sowwah Square and Cleveland Clinic will conceal parking, service roads and utilities.
“We are not so much focused on the individual buildings that will populate this island, but with the long-term evolution of the island,” Mr Thomas says.
There will be air-conditioned passageways, allowing pedestrians to walk around the island during the hot months. Underground roads are intended to ensure the island does not get too congested and reduce air pollution for those at surface level.
The island also fits into Abu Dhabi’s larger transportation plan. It will have stops on the metro system and light rapid transit line, as well as bicycle lanes and pedestrian walkways along the boardwalk and throughout the middle of the island. The goal, says Mr Thomas, is to keep the island from being overrun with cars.
Sustainability is a theme for the project, according to the developer.
Mubadala announced yesterday that it had been awarded the Leadership in Environment and Environmental Design gold pre-certification for its infrastructure work. As the master developer, it will require other developers on the island to meet similar standards for water, energy and waste.
“If the bones of the island make sense, then the rest will be functional and sustainable,” says Mr Thomas. “We are interested in the efficiency of the design as opposed to the egos of the developer.”
Sowwah Island will also have a “spine of greenery that runs throughout the island”. The developer has hired Martha Schwarz, a Massachusetts-based landscape designer, to come up with a “complete landscape philosophy” for the island.
She has previously crafted landscape masterplans for the Baltimore Inner Harbour in Maryland, Blackfriars Road in London and the Detmold Redevelopment in Germany.
“We don’t want something ad hoc,” he says. “We want this to be the best office space in the Middle East, period.”
Now the 117-hectare island is a hive of construction activity, with towers starting to jut out of the ground and a constant stream of lorries.
“It’s a Manhattan in the making,” says John Thomas, the executive director of Mubadala Real Estate & Hospitality, the master developer of the project, told the Abu Dhabi based daily The National. “This is the heart of the new central business district.”
Sowwah is planned to be a kind of nerve centre for the “new Abu Dhabi” that is taking shape in large part on islands near the north-eastern corner of the main island. It will have more than 30,000 residents and 80,000 office workers by day.
The Abu Dhabi Plan 2030 calls for it to be the “focus of the skyline profile and the summit of office density” in the constellation of projects that includes Al Mina and Reem Island.
A testament to Sowwah’s centrality for the capital are plans for 13 bridges to connect it to Reem Island and Abu Dhabi island on either side.
Two are scheduled to be finished by the end of this year and beginning of 2010. Mubadala is hiring architects to give each one a distinctive design.
Initial drawings show one bridge with an arch in the middle and another with a pointed sculptural flourish that rises into the sky.
“A lot of the inter-Abu Dhabi traffic will come through the island,” Mr Thomas says, adding that the bridges were positioned to connect with the grid layout of the main island. “The island plays a broader function for Abu Dhabi as a whole.”
The first bridge, for instance, will connect directly with Al Falah Street.
The part of the island that can be seen rising from the ground is Sowwah Square, a group of four office buildings and the new home of the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.
Some of the buildings have already reached the ninth of an eventual 30 storeys. They will be ready for occupation by the end of 2010.
The towers will have automatic shades on the outside that adjust according the angle of the sun, and double-glazing to keep offices well-lit but not overheated.
At the centre will stand the stock exchange, resting on four concrete stilts 20 metres above a pond and surrounded by shops, restaurants and cafes.
Nearby, foundation and piling work has started for the Cleveland Clinic, which will be one of Abu Dhabi’s most advanced health care centres.
So far, says Mr Thomas, the global financial crisis has not had a major impact on the development of the island. Mubadala is still working out its strategy for selling plots of land and through its partner, John Buck International, finding companies to lease the space that will become available in the short term.
A year ago, the available space had all been pre-reserved, but the economic downturn of the past year has presented problems for some of the potential clients.
“I’d be lying if I said the financial crisis hasn’t affected our leasers,” he says. “We are focusing on these tenants. Some of them are having to re-evaluate.”
For all the towers and scaffolding, the most dramatic work is being done out of sight, at the infrastructure level. On Sowwah Island, for example, a 14-metre-high concrete platform at Sowwah Square and Cleveland Clinic will conceal parking, service roads and utilities.
“We are not so much focused on the individual buildings that will populate this island, but with the long-term evolution of the island,” Mr Thomas says.
There will be air-conditioned passageways, allowing pedestrians to walk around the island during the hot months. Underground roads are intended to ensure the island does not get too congested and reduce air pollution for those at surface level.
The island also fits into Abu Dhabi’s larger transportation plan. It will have stops on the metro system and light rapid transit line, as well as bicycle lanes and pedestrian walkways along the boardwalk and throughout the middle of the island. The goal, says Mr Thomas, is to keep the island from being overrun with cars.
Sustainability is a theme for the project, according to the developer.
Mubadala announced yesterday that it had been awarded the Leadership in Environment and Environmental Design gold pre-certification for its infrastructure work. As the master developer, it will require other developers on the island to meet similar standards for water, energy and waste.
“If the bones of the island make sense, then the rest will be functional and sustainable,” says Mr Thomas. “We are interested in the efficiency of the design as opposed to the egos of the developer.”
Sowwah Island will also have a “spine of greenery that runs throughout the island”. The developer has hired Martha Schwarz, a Massachusetts-based landscape designer, to come up with a “complete landscape philosophy” for the island.
She has previously crafted landscape masterplans for the Baltimore Inner Harbour in Maryland, Blackfriars Road in London and the Detmold Redevelopment in Germany.
“We don’t want something ad hoc,” he says. “We want this to be the best office space in the Middle East, period.”
