Foster + Partners Inaugurate Solar-Powered Masdar Institute!

Today Foster + Partners officially inaugurated the solar-powered Masdar Institute, the first phase of their ambitious carbon-neutral Masdar City. The net energy-positive institute represents Abu Dhabi’s contribution in pioneering sustainable technologies, and it showcases a multitude of efficient systems and design strategies that allow the development to run without carbon-based fuels.

Rising from the archetypical desert landscape are two opposing styles of buildings. Laboratories are housed in modern concrete structures covered in a strong translucent plastic called ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene topped with photovolactic panels. On the other hand, residential buildings are clad in an undulating terra-cotta-like latticework based on traditional Arabic <a href="http://inhabitat.com/2010/09/17/jean-nouvels-stunning-museum-facade-dilates-to-let-in-daylight/">mashrabiya screens</a> that mimic an architectural vocabulary indigenous to the area.