Vision Magazine Online Issue 1

The final ‘C’, Community, relates to the new residential
districts, including Emirati Neighbourhoods covering
1,865 hectares, within the Capital District. The whole
district is designed to socially and culturally enrich the
lives of the 370,000 people that are anticipated to live
in the Capital District.
“We’ve drawn inspiration from the best capital cities
around the world, but it is a plan with deep roots
here, in the UAE,” explains Andrews. “The Capital
District is masterplanned in the context of the UAE
and its heritage and culture, but is influenced by best
practices from capital cities around the world.”
Andrews says that the Capital District is being
developed to help meet the goals established in Capital
2030. It sets out the sustainable urban development
vision for Abu Dhabi and is based on a rigorous
economic analysis of the Emirate’s projected growth
rates and demographic changes, and the sustainable
infrastructure required to plan for that growth. The
Capital District will be a driver for economic growth
and provide the necessary residential, office, retail
and leisure space required to encourage businesses
to grow or locate to Abu Dhabi and accommodate a
population forecasted to grow to more than 3 million
people.
To achieve its objectives, the UPC will play a key
facilitative role in the development of the buildings in
the Capital District. In the Capital District Masterplan,
the UPC has set guidelines regarding the size, usage
and design of buildings that can be developed within
each precinct. The UPC is taking a more direct role in
the design and construction of the infrastructure to
deliver it to the highest possible level of economic,
social and environmental sustainability and prepare
the parcels of land for development of the buildings.
“It is important to understand that although the UPC
is facilitating the Capital District development,” says
Andrews, “we will require the expertise and leadership
of the entire Abu Dhabi development community.
All of Abu Dhabi’s developers will have a significant
role to play in ensuring that the individual parcels,
like the infrastructure, are developed to the highest
possible level of economic, social and environmental
sustainability.”
Due to play a critical role in the growth projections
for 2030, the Capital District will be a significant
achievement for both the UPC as well as Abu Dhabi’s
real estate and development community.
And it will represent a triumph for Abu Dhabi as it
takes tangible steps to become the leading sustainable
modern Arab capital.
The objective of the
Capital District is
to create a leading
sustainable modern Arab
capital
Jody Andrews,
Director of the Capital District Development,
Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council
Progress
“We have moved from the masterplanning stage to
the engineering stage of the Capital District,” explains
James Reed, the UPC’s Development Manager for the
Capital District.
The UPC has begun the preparatory work to install
the necessary infrastructure for the Capital District.
Designed from a framework of sustainability, the
infrastructure will include roads, water, sewage,
electricity, telecommunications and the foundations
required to build an extensive transportion system.
“Preparing for the design and implementation of the
infrastructure for the Capital District began in the
second quarter of 2009,” says Reed, “and our goal is
to deliver the infrastructure in such a way as to allow
developers to begin work as quickly as possible.”
Reed expects the core infrastructure to be complete
by 2015, though certain infrastructure will be
planned to be strategically delivered at the “right
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