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TECHNOLOGY / ABU DHABI DIARIES
Martin Valentine, Lighting Expert for the Municipality of Abu Dhabi City, continues his musings from the Middle East.
PROVING THE DETRACTORS WRONG
It has been an unbelievably busy few months for me since my last diary piece, much of it linked to the frantic pace of development on the ground here. So many things are running in parallel it can get quite confusing at times with workshops and meetings happening on a daily basis for projects ranging from a play ground and pocket park concepts or a single bollard/ post for a bespoke fence design, through to establishing the streetscape lighting blueprints for entire streets of new cities. Certainly the days and weeks fly by no problem at present. In amongst this have been the long-term larger initiatives rolling onwards through various official stages of approval. One of which I have mentioned previously: The Sustainable Lighting Strategy for Abu Dhabi has, I am extremely happy to report, received Executive Council approval which means its requirements are now nationally statutory. As of now every single street-category lighting design level has effectively been halved from current practiced design levels and Abu Dhabi is now on a par with most US and European levels and compared to many states or countries even lower. On top of this it is now statutory to utilise LED technology on all streets and the foundations laid to prepare for a further 50% stepped/dimmed reduced level across all roads after midnight until dawn. This is not just a pilot project or an initiative for a sector or two, this is for the whole of Abu Dhabi - all cities and parts of the Emirate. This encompasses all new projects, but also covers the remediation of all current roads through a staged replacement program over the next five to six years. It is an amazing achievement in such a short period of time and has been a great message to send to all the detractors (my new pet name for Contractors here) who delighted a year ago upon my arrival to all tell me “nothing will change, that is the way we do things here…” Well…tough, it’s changed and they have to adapt quickly now if they want to
carry on successfully tendering for the new projects. The national sustainable project rating/application system ‘Estidama’ has also been revised and Version 2 is due for release imminently. This includes a complete new statutory clause on Light Pollution standards as well as a tightening of efficiency requirements and controls. It was another thing I was happy to contribute on and ties in nicely with everything else happening. On a more architectural theme, I have spent a lot of time working at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque for the past year on many different issues, so much time in fact I even
have office space available there inside one of the minarets. One of the main things I’m heavily involved with is the new gatehouses and boundary wall project (pictured) for which the lighting is an integral part of the overall scheme and important to fit in with the whole site and, of course, the wonderful lunar lighting system for the Mosque itself designed by Jonathan Speirs and Keith Bradshaw. The scheme has been dramatically revised from the original proposals and now we have a scheme that I hope does the Mosque justice. The vast marble gatehouses are lit simply with cool
highlighting externally and warm lighting to the decoration internally. The boundary wall itself comprises large golden decorative arched panels with each of the smaller side fence panels fitted with a circular decorative plate with the 99 names of Allah incorporated. Bearing in mind the boundary wall is 2.8km long and there are over 300 fence sections, you can appreciate lighting it is some considerable undertaking financially and logistically as well as aesthetically. The solution was to incorporate bespoke warm LED uplight modules within a GRG panel under each arched central panel and LED modules inside every name plate for Allah. Only picking out these items rather than trying to light the whole fence. The solution is for both the inside and outside faces as the view is important from all aspects of the site. The project was handed over this week and, even after getting through the site walk round all of the 2.8km in 47°C and in full sun, I still managed to survive until the evening to see the finished result and am very happy with it. It looks like a beautiful golden chain around the Mosque, both elaborate and referential to the site and the status of the building. Hopefully when the last phases of landscaping work are completed in a few years the full impact will be enjoyed when visitors are wandering around. Actually it dawned on me just this week - I honestly have no idea why it took so long for the penny to drop as I have been doing this for decades, but we are all in the wrong business! All these engineers and designers can check everything from their side during the day, but we always have to come back after sunset again to check the lighting when they have all gone home! Maybe it was two days after the Grand Mosque visit that this realisation hit home, when I found myself again waiting for sunset (only a mere 39°C this time, tepid in UAE summer terms, cardigan weather) on site at one of Abu Dhabi city’s ‘mega- projects’ Al Salam Street. It is the most
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