Inside Dubai’s Sustainable City community: What makes it different

Gulf News

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00:00The Sustainable City is ultimately a community that is designed and built with both the people

00:18and the environment in mind.

00:20Very early on in the process, we established and realised that it's not enough to just

00:25focus on the environmental aspects of design.

00:29It was very important to design and build cities that were commercially viable for us

00:33and for the end users, and also socially engaging, and cities that promoted the people's well-being

00:41and the residents' well-being.

00:42I've been living in the Sustainable City for six, seven years, coming on seven years now.

00:48So I was one of the first residents.

00:50There's something magical, I'd say, about this place.

00:53The vibes that it gives you, it's a very happy place.

00:56It's a friendly family community, safety, and everyone is friendly.

01:03The neighbours, the nature, I mean, it's just everything.

01:07We have a relative, which is the creator of Sustainable City, Mr Faris Saeed, he's my

01:13brother as well.

01:15So wherever he's living, for sure we have to live in the same atmosphere.

01:20We saw multiple benefits, including our children growing up here with no traffic, so safe,

01:29so many playground areas.

01:31Average in Dubai, knowing your first neighbour by first name is zero to one.

01:37In Sustainable City, it's 15 plus.

01:39People here are, this is like literally a city itself, where people help each other.

01:47There are events that are organised, where people get to gather, get to meet.

01:59In terms of components, the city provides the residents with all the sorts of amenities

02:04that they would need.

02:06We are trying to promote a live, work, thrive lifestyle.

02:09We want to encourage residents to put their children in the school that we have in the

02:13city and to minimise their need to leave the city.

02:17By doing so, we minimise their dependencies on fuel-run cars and we promote a more socially

02:25engaging community because your neighbours become your friends, your colleagues, same

02:29with your children and their friends that they have at school.

02:32Everything we can say in the hand distance, we have the swimming pools, we have the gyms,

02:36we have the domes where we can grow our own vegetables, which usually we do in front of

02:43our villa, where is the palm tree, we grow last winter tomatoes.

02:48This year we will do some, maybe a little bit more project.

02:52I'm thinking to take the, besides the dome, we are having the, we can take some portion

02:59of the land, we can do more vegetables, which it will be good for my son to more learn how

03:07does it grow, how to harvest, how to look after it.

03:12During the pandemic, we didn't have a lot to do, so sitting with one of my friends from

03:15the community as well, we both had a passion, we still do, for cycling and we saw an opportunity,

03:20so that was the birth of psychology.

03:22It has a sustainable aspect to it, so all the bikes that we sell are refurbished bikes,

03:26so we get used bikes, we change them, we refurbish them and we sell them as refurbished bikes

03:30by psychology.

03:31And biking is big here, it's nice, it's satisfying in so many levels and it's fun, most importantly.

03:35My HIVE programme related to the honeybees and adopting the hives.

03:40We have a sustainable programme actually, related to the sustainable city as well.

03:45So we did it like something to continue the other story, which is initiated by a sustainable

03:52city as well.

03:53This supported by the developer actually, we are not profitable businesses open it,

04:00but we are making the concept or the idea what they initiated for that, since we are

04:06living in a sustainable city.

04:07This idea actually, it's like you are adopting a hive, you need a huge amount of hives to

04:14be adopted, so it will be a profitable one.

04:17Our clients bring their bottles, they can refill there on the spot or they can get bottles

04:22from us.

04:23We really, really made sure that we look after the environment as much as possible, even

04:28when it gets to gym.

04:29Even what is used for cleaning and disinfection, it is all natural products, we don't even

04:36have those tissues and stuff, it is all biodegradable kind of cloth that is reused.

04:43So our cleaners are using only environment healthy friendly products.

04:52There was a lot of sustainability strategies that were implemented on both the design and

04:57the operation of the development.

04:59The way in which the houses were designed was in a very energy efficient manner, results

05:03in lower utility bills for the residents.

05:06Other components that we have are food production, so we have biodomes in the city where residents

05:12enjoy leafy greens and herbs that are grown within the city.

05:16We have an animal sanctuary, the city is essentially car free, so cars are restricted to parking

05:23lots and the ring road and everything else is fully pedestrianized, so the entire development

05:28is connected through an extensive network of pathways, cycling tracks, jogging tracks

05:33and buggy pathways.

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