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Not satisfied with Dubai In a city that’s home to the world’s tallest building, deepest swimming pool and tallest hotel, urban planning firm URB wants to add another top accolade: the world’s “greenest” highway.
URB has unveiled conceptual designs for a 64-kilometer highway that will transform one of the city’s main transport corridors, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road, into a “green spine” with autonomous, solar-powered trams and smart traffic management.
Urban planner and URB founder Bahraash Bagherian believes this “first-of-its-kind project” will help make urban design more “human-centric.”
“Dubai is expanding rapidly, with its population expected to nearly double to eight million by 2040,” Bagherian told CNN in an email. “This growth requires creativity and innovation to meet both current and future challenges.”
“We need to see mobility as more than just the movement of people,” he added.
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Urban design firm URB has released renderings of its “Green Spine” concept, which would transform 40 miles of Dubai’s highway into a solar-powered tram line with lush elevated tracks. Check out the gallery to see more futuristic proposals.
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Once built, the Green Spine will integrate a range of smart technologies, including “internet of things” (IoT) sensors that can manage energy consumption and smart traffic control, as well as solar-powered, autonomous trams, like the one shown in this rendering.
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Building bike lanes along the tram route would further expand Dubai’s green transportation options. “Our most significant opportunity to make cities more liveable and people-centric starts with rethinking mobility,” said URB founder Bahrash Bagherian. “Seamlessly integrating accessible green spaces, efficient public transport and active transport with all the essential amenities addresses multiple challenges simultaneously.”
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In addition to public transport, the green highway could also include community facilities, helping transform Dubai into a “20-minute city”, reducing the need for residents to travel far from their homes to access daily necessities such as groceries, as depicted in this rendering.
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A network of walkways would run above the tramways and bike paths, allowing for easy public transport connections, and the gardens, parks and other green spaces shown in this rendering would be home to one million trees to provide natural cooling and clean air for the city.
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“Dubai is expanding rapidly, with its population expected to nearly double to eight million by 2040,” Bagherian said, adding that mobility is “more than just the movement of people.” While the Green Spine is currently on the drawing board, Bagherian hopes to see it move “from concept to reality” as part of Dubai’s 2040 urban master plan.
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This isn’t URB’s first design to make Dubai greener: the firm’s other futuristic concepts include Dubai Mangroves (seen in this rendering), a project that aims to plant 100 million mangroves along 70 kilometers (43 miles) of Dubai’s coastline.
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And URB’s smart bike infrastructure, “The Loop” (see this rendering), is another concept to make commuting within the city greener: a 93-kilometer indoor bike superhighway designed to encircle the city and be filled with trees and plants.
Smart Technology and Solar Power
Autonomous solar-powered trams are just one aspect of the proposed plan. A highway transportation system: A network of green spaces, parks and elevated roads above the tram tracks. It will improve connectivity and walkability in a city that is currently difficult to navigate on foot.
The highway It will also integrate smart technologies such as “Internet of Things” (IoT) sensors for traffic management and optimising energy use.
Bagherian’s design can accommodate 300 megawatts of solar panels. By embedding a battery storage system within the tracks, it is planned to power the trams and provide clean energy to an estimated 130,000 homes.
And there will be space to plant one million trees in parks and community gardens. It also helps cool cities and improve air quality.
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The green highway depicted in this rendering would also include a network of sidewalks and green community spaces.
But building the world’s greenest highway in a desert city is no easy task.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) already has one of the highest per capita water consumption rates in the world, with each person consuming around 550 liters per day (compared to the average of 310 liters in the United States, 150 liters in Hong Kong and 144 liters in the European Union).
Most of it is not used for drinking water, but for agriculture and landscaping. The country’s green spaces use huge amounts of water: Dubai Miracle Garden, a 72,000-square-metre park decorated with 150 million fresh flowers, for example, consumes 757,000 litres (200,000 US gallons) of water every day.
“Dubai presents unique challenges with rapid growth, a diverse population, urban sprawl and extreme climatic conditions,” Bagherian said.
To combat this, Bagherian’s concept includes “water-sensitive landscape design,” including native and drought-tolerant plants suited to arid climates and soil mixed with zeolite, an absorbent crystal that helps retain moisture.
These “passive technologies” are complemented by smart irrigation techniques that use real-time data to adjust watering schedules based on soil moisture levels, weather forecasts and plant needs, he added.
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Developer URB has designed renderings of a 93-kilometer (58-mile) indoor cycling superhighway that would circle the city of Dubai.
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Dubbed “The Loop,” the project would create a car-free, air-conditioned “green corridor” where residents could walk, bike or run throughout the city.
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It will provide paths for cyclists and runners, as well as areas for relaxing, playing and exercising.
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The enclosed design will provide green space with shade and shelter from the scorching heat of Dubai’s summers.
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Apart from the Loop, URB has proposed another eco-conscious design called the Agri Hub. The project, depicted in this rendering, would be a hub for sustainable agriculture and tourism in the desert outside Dubai.
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Both the Agri Hub and The Loop will use recycled greywater to irrigate green public spaces.
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URB CEO Bahrash Bagherian hopes the Agri Hub will help visitors understand sustainable agricultural techniques such as vertical farming – growing plants in vertically stacked flower beds without soil or natural light – which uses much less water than traditional methods.
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The Agri-Hub’s design combines working farm elements with visitor features. The approximately 40-hectare Agri-Hub will include education and research space, as well as an eco-lodge, a farm shop, and a restaurant and cafe serving farm-to-table ingredients.
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Bagherian previously led the design of Dubai’s “Sustainable City” Phase 2 and has also worked on similar green communities currently under construction in Iti, Oman, and Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. This rendering shows the blueprint for URB’s Nexgen sustainable city designed for Cairo.
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“The whole world is moving towards greener economies,” Bagherian says. “The strongest economies will be those that can make the transition to sustainability at the earliest opportunity.” Shown in this rendering is the design for a NextGen Sustainable City.
This isn’t URB’s first foray into utopian future city designs: its “Dubai Mangroves” proposal, unveiled earlier this year, claimed it would be “the world’s largest coastal regeneration project” if it goes ahead. Last year, it also proposed a 93-kilometre indoor cycling “superhighway” known as “The Loop” to help emirates avoid using cars.
Like the Green Spine, none of these designs are finalized yet, but Bagherian says turning these concepts into reality won’t be as hard as it may seem.
“A detailed analysis of the project’s components reveals that there is nothing new from a technical, structural or material point of view,” he said, adding that what is innovative is how these technologies are “creatively and seamlessly integrated to address multiple needs.”
Bagherian said the next step is to bring public sector organizations on board to provide the support, regulatory framework and infrastructure integration needed to make this ambitious project a reality.
He is optimistic that this will happen as the project is in line with the government’s 2040 City Master Plan and creative urban planning is key to achieving these goals.
“Dubai is uniquely positioned to realise this project,” he added.