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A drian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture won an international competition to design one of the largest buildings in the world that aims to generate more energy each day than it consumes. The tower—a mix of offices, condominiums, and retail space in Abu Dhabi—will cost about $300 million to construct and serve as the centerpiece for Masdar City, a 64 million-sf, vehicle-free city that strives to avoid polluting the environment.
AS+GG teamed with Chicago-based MEP engineers Environmental Systems Design and structural engineers Thornton Tomasetti on the design, which includes numerous systems that will generate a surplus of the building's energy, eliminate carbon emissions, and reduce liquid and solid waste. The complex will utilize sustainable materials and feature integrated wind turbines, outdoor air quality monitors, and one of the world's largest building-integrated solar energy arrays. Compared with typical mixed-use buildings of the same size, the headquarters will consume 70% less water.
In addition to being the first mixed-use net positive energy building in the world, AS+GG's Masdar Headquarters will be the lowest energy consumer per square meter for a modern Class A office building in an extremely hot and humid climate, and will be the first building in history to generate power for its own assembly, through development of its solar roof pier before the underlying complex.
