It Takes a Village, Masdar's Isolation Problem

On the surface the City of Masdar looks like an incredible city poised to be a key innovator in renewable energy sources and sustainable living. However I fear that until the City is able to attract citizens outside of the scientists at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, it will be unable to develop practical solutions for the world as we know it. Already some of Masdar City's innovations are either self-described as obsolete (solar panel), or impractical.

One of the first compromised projects mentioned in the article Inside the World's Most Ambitious Eco-City is the underground Personal Rapid Transit pods, which required the city be elevated, but due to cost concerns have been removed, and will now only work to transport commuters to Masdar Institute. This highlights some of the design problems the city will continue to face.

Masdar is different from other cities in that it's planning has been mostly from one source. However cities are built by it's citizens. They evolve only to meet the needs of the population. However a city pre-designed is going to be much more resistant to altering it's design once citizens begin living in the city. Sure Masdar may be incredibly efficient with no wasted in it's design, but this is done sacrificing the ability for it's citizenry to make Masdar their own. And without an involved citizenry Masdar will be unable to have a human centered design.

In the Popular Science Article this issue is addressed, "Until other residents beyond the students and faculty at the institute begin to call Masdar home, the place and its inhabitants will remain pretty isolated." Without a citizenry to test it's design and innovations it will be hard for Masdar's model to be exported to existing cities. As the title of this post suggests, it takes a village, and right now Masdar's village is filled with only one kind of citizen.

In our class we have often spoken with caution about a top down only approach to solving Social issues. This is Masdar's biggest challenge, and it is creating it for itself. Without involving others outside of academic institutions and technology fields Masdar cannot test it's major innovations. Instead the city is being built on a grand scale, saying that it will hold 40,000 citizens and have another 50,000 commute. While this is by no means a bustling metropolis, it may be too much too soon. While it is understandable that the designers of Masdar want to ensure the city is innovative and green, sacrificing input from citizens may make it difficult to ensure Masdar is able to meet it's population goal.