Abstract—Abu Dhabi is highlighting the importance of moving towards sustainable design and planning, through its strategies and policies that are supported by Estidama and the Abu Dhabi 2030 Vision. The effect of Masdar City is quintessential on and educational level as many of the new designs in relation to sustainability can be better explained to students, since Masdar is a living example of how sustainable workspaces and architecture can be developed in an oil rich state. Masdar’s diversified façade designs represent a living of how traditional building screens can be developed within a contemporary context, and explored using different materials, to revisit the mashrabiya screen as an architectural veil that shapes the identity of the spaces behind it. The screened facades of Masdar shaped by environmental design criteria such as the Siemens Headquarters, the Incubator building and Masdar Institute help explain the works of Le Corbusier and Hasan Fathy and how they approached environmental design contexts. Designed by Foster and Partners Masdar undertakes the role of disseminating sustainable design through a communal dialogue between its buildings and visitors that experience how sustainable building materials, as applied on buildings facades can improve spatial configurations and sustainable living. 
 

Index Terms—sustainable design, Abu Dhabi, Masdar, perforated screens

Cite: Mohamed El Amrousi, "Masdar City: As an Example of Sustainable Facades and Building Skins," International Journal of Structural and Civil Engineering Research, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 40-44, February 2017. doi: 10.18178/ijscer.6.1.40-44