Wednesday, 13 May, 2009 Environment

In February the Dubai Chamber of Commerce gave its permission to develop a free zone that will be called Food City. The project was offered by Green Concepts Landscape Architects (GCLA), a firm of landscape architects. Its plan is to turn the city sector into a unique, self-sufficient metropolis.

The firm's futuristic urban quarter will include a variety of eco-friendly urban planning ideas such as vertically stacked landscape surfaces, synthetic roof landscapes, renewable energy systems, aquatic farms, as well as thermal conditioning.

The entire project was enriched with a lot of ideas to decrease energy use. Some of the proposals include the use of concentrated solar collectors, the construction of towers covered in thin-film photovoltaic cells, piezoelectric pads installed in pedestrian regions, and methane harvesting with the help of sewage percolation tanks.

In addition, the firm offers water preservation measures that are very important in water-starved Dubai. Some of the measures include atmospheric water harvesting, solar desalination via concentrated solar collectors, grey water recycling, as well as the use of hydroponic sand in order to reduce water loss.

GCLA is composed of professional landscape architects that work on master planning, design and supervision. At the moment the firm has divisions in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Singapore and Sydney.