The Sustainable City-Dubai
Faris Saeed, Chief Executive Officer of Dubai-based Diamond Developers, initially visited U.C. Davis as a supporter of the Middle East/South Asia Studies program. His host, Professor Suad Joseph understood that in addition to Mr. Saeed’s state of the art waste management business in Dubai, he was interested in sustainable community design and development. So when he visited in 2010, she introduced Mr. Saeed to the developers of the largest planned zero-net energy community in the United States, the U.C. Davis West Village.
Inspired, and after three years of preparations, planning and research, Mr. Saeed returned to U.C. Davis with architectural renderings of the Sustainable City, an eco-village in the outskirts of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Similar in size to the campus’s West Village, the Dubai Sustainable City is designed to provide housing for about 2,500 people on 120 acres while it aims to save 60 percent more energy and water than conventional structures in Dubai.
The Sustainable City will capture natural breezes, and will have solar panels on building and carport roofs, bio-swales to conserve water, frequent bus service and extensive pedestrian and bike paths, to minimize the use of cars. Like West Village, which includes a community college and is home to several of the university's energy research centers the Sustainable City also plans to incorporate living and learning. In addition to apartments, single family homes and retail space, the Dubai Sustainable City plans include P-12 schools and a university focusing on ecological engineering. They envision the community as a living laboratory where architectural students can learn about energy efficient design, and agricultural students can use the city’s bio-domes — geodesic greenhouses — as agricultural research facilities. The Dubai Sustainable City also will have something you will not see at U.C. Davis West Village: horses and trails for recreational riding ... and for manure to help fuel the Sustainable City’s biogas production plant. Other planned features include wind tunnels, community gardens and water recycling. First residents are anticipated to occupy the city in June, 2015.
In November of 2012, Diamond Developers signed an agreement of cooperation with the University of California Board of Regents, on behalf of the Davis campus, to formally collaborate in the areas of applied research and training related to each institution’s sustainable living community. The agreement included a vision for a UC Davis Sustainable Engineering Research Center and a Social Research Center in Dubai.
The collaborative relationship grew with academic exchanges, further visits and another agreement penned in February, 2014. This agreement was formally signed in March 2014, when a delegation from UC Davis which included Chancellor Linda Katehi, Vice Chancellor Harris Lewin, Vice Provost William Lacy, Professor Bryan Jenkins, and Professor Suad Joseph traveled to Dubai. In the agreement, Diamond Developers committed 2.9 million dollars over a three year period to launch the Sustainability Research and Training Program. The agreement will fund interdisciplinary research and study on the UC Davis campus and at the Sustainable City in Dubai. This will include research grants, development of indices of sustainability, and online sustainability training.
Diamond Developers point out features in the model of the Sustainable City. Pictured left to right are: William Lacy, Vice Provost of Outreach and International Programs, UCD; Emil Samarah, Chief Commercial Officer DD; Faris Saeed, CEO, DD; Chancellor Linda Katehi, UCD; and Professor Suad Joseph.