URBAN ABU DHABI

The presented concept was created as the idea of covering the whole city with a structure resembling a canvas waving freely on the curvature of the building height. Covering roofs, streets, sidewalks and parks will generate the necessary shade to improve the living conditions of residents and city users. The roofing of the entire urban layout has been subjected to the process of using natural assets and minimizing the adverse effects of city use. The presented urban interiors and the fifth façade of the city are the result of the transition through many operational processes presented below. Perforation of the cover in the east-west system is a response to improving the ventilation of city streets, by varying the altitude (generating a void between them) in order to create wind catchers. This solution supports the ventilation of streets and buildings, giving the possibility of minimal compression and expansion of air and thus lowering its temperature (at wind speeds occurring in a given location, the temperature change should be perceived individually). The lack of variation in the height of the north-south cover panels is conditioned by the limitation of the mutual shading of the panels at noon in the objectives of effective solar radiation collection and thus generating shade below in the hottest time of the day. The entire layout of the roof panels (fifth façade) of the city was conceptually extended to the entire urban planning as an invitation to use for streets, pavements and buildings. Roof panels will be equipped with photovoltaic cells as an effective and ecological use of the natural environment.

In order to allow light to the building sectors, some of the designed panels were reduced in order to add an openwork over the streets (25%). The openness of the city roof structure has been increased above the sidewalks (50%) in order to provide access to daylight for residents and building users. Differences in the percentage of clearances between streets and pavements result from the desire to limit the sun heating the finishing material of flat surfaces, where asphalt as road wear layer will absorb more calf energy than pavements, thereby generating an increase in ambient temperature. Its shade gives the opportunity to lower the temperature of the earth in the city during hot days. Due to the need for full access to sunlight and the sky for high greenery, the panels over the trees were abandoned. Orange cubes marked with the aim to mark the energy storage locations during the day. Of course, the method of storage can be differentiated, presented in the concept, mechanical energy storage (using gravity) to make observers aware of electricity generation from solar panels, during the day and at night to receive electricity for street lighting, pavements and parks through lamps fixed in the structure of the panels from the bottom. The energy storage mechanism will use reinforced concrete cubes filled with sand (to increase their weight) and lifted up through the elevator scrolls during the daytime supply of electric motors that drive the entire system. At night, the cubes will be released from their upper position in order to turn the scrolls in the opposite direction, thereby generating current through the same electric motors that raise them up. The electric power consumption obtained in this way should be used for lighting streets, pavements and parks from the lower layer of panels with installed LED lighting.

In order to provide ventilation at the level of 25% for the city raised panels up. In order to provide street ventilation at the level of 50%, some panels have been lowered down. Adapting the level of city panels to the city development will locally raise or lower their level in order to adapt them to the economic attachment to the roof structure. The desired side effect of using panels lower than roads gives a reduction in noise emission at higher levels of buildings, and on the roofs of buildings, it provides a natural shielding of air conditioning and ventilation devices. Additional advantages generated by the presented installation are: reduction of air conditioning costs due to reduced thermal emission of flat and vertical surfaces and significant shading of buildings, increased ventilation at higher levels and limitation of wind speed at the human level. The use of the city (buildings, roads, streets and parks) as electricity generators consumed on-site which reduces its losses. An additional advantage of the solution is the reduction of emissions (noise, heat island, power consumption) to the natural environment related to the use of the city. Of course, the installation presented on the boards is limited to the boundaries of the location of the contest conditions (all calculations of the estimated installation costs are given within the limits of the competition location). Its extension to the whole city is an invitation to use precisely shaped and subjected to adaptation processes to the living conditions of the fifth façade. As a source, it can start the process of thinking about the entire urban layout as a structure generating electricity for its residents, additionally giving shade, ventilation and screening of undesired emissions.

Technology used: photovoltaic cells

Device power: 600-800 W / m2

Energy generated annually: 876,000 kWh

Dimensions: panels: 4 - 16m2 (2x2m - 4x4m), columns: 7 - 24m high

Materials: foundations and cubes - reinforced concrete, pillars and brackets - steel, panel sheeting - sheet in the form of construction, LED lighting, screens absorbing sound

Cost: solar cells about 1 279 584 $, construction approx. 2 680 416 $ = sum of about 3 960 000 $ does not include the costs of the park below installation

Environmental impact can be described as a positive and minimizing impact of the city on the natural environment. Photovoltaic cells through the partial absorption of sunlight and their partial reflection into the environment will minimize the absorption of rays through the planes of pavements, streets and buildings. Through the full opening (no panels) in the places planted trees can be considered the lack of impact of the installation on the environment. Shadows in public spaces can be considered a desirable action for people's health and life, thus limiting the access of sunlight to hardened surfaces will not generate the effects of excessive heating them, maybe even undermine the effect of the urban heat island. Limiting the accessibility to the sky should not have a negative effect in the occurring winds and the openness of the structure should increase the ventilation of the city located at an angle in relation to the direction of the winds. The desired side effect is a significant reduction: noise emission, artificial light emission to the environment at night, reduction of the developed land area for renewable energy by using one place for the functions: power plant and park.