Vision Magazine Online Issue 1

“We wanted to provide the people of Abu Dhabi a clear
way to see how Abu Dhabi is developing and will look
in the future,” says Naser Al Junaibi, Communications
Manager in the UPC’s Corporate Communications team.
“Models are a fantastic visualisation tool. They have a
magnetic pull and enable people to really understand
how developments relate to one another,” adds Al
Junaibi.
The UPC commissioned UK modelling company Pipers
to build the model. Pipers is known for building the
model of Saadiyat Island and developing a number
of models of London, including a model to support
London’s successful Olympics bid.
The UPC first began working with Pipers in the
summer of 2007. Pipers originally built a triangularshaped
model of the new Capital District, which went
on display at Cityscape Abu Dhabi in 2009.
“The positive response we received about the model
of the Capital District gave us the confidence to build
something on a grander scale that would highlight all
of Abu Dhabi’s key developments,” says Al Junaibi.
The UPC has designed a purpose-built stand for
the model at Cityscape that will enable people to
clearly see the entire model from wherever they are
positioned. There will also be an opportunity to have
a bird’s eye perspective of the model with viewing
platforms on the first floor of the stand.
The model was hand-made using polyurethane board
and perspex, except for using laser-cutting equipment
for the villas, in the UK by a core team of 15 that at
times swelled to 30 people.
The model is broken into 262 separate sections
measuring no wider than 1.5 metres to enable the
model to be delivered to ADNEC or any other building.
The model is transported in a bespoke series of boxes
weighing in excess of eight tonnes when fully loaded,
and it takes eight people more than four days to
reassemble the model.
Despite the challenges of building, transporting and
reassembling the model, Matthew Quinn, Middle East
Director at Pipers, says that the most difficult process
was actually collating the necessary data to create an
accurate model.
“The UPC provided us with the information of about
100 development projects in Abu Dhabi. Each separate
developer then had to be contacted so that we could
get the details of profile and height of the buildings,
the precise location of the scheme, its relation to other
buildings and visuals of the project to help us create an
accurate model,” explains Quinn.
However, Al Junaibi says that the model will
continue to be updated. “It has been designed to be
a communications platform to inform our citizens
on work being progressed in their city. It is a living,
breathing model that will be updated and amended.
Cityscape will be the model’s unveiling, but it will also
be the first time that we will receive feedback from
Abu Dhabi’s real estate community and the general
public to help us to continue to update the model and
make it even more accurate.”
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