The Institute campus has clean tech at its core. It has been built to consume 75 percent less in cooling demand than a conventional building of its size, as well as 70 percent less in potable water, 95 percent less in domestic hot water energy and a 70 percent less in electricity. The campus offers students a unique opportunity to experience what cutting-edge technology can do for the environment.

 The creation of shade routes encourages pedestrian activity at street level, while colonnades cooled by high thermal mass materials applied to soffits, walls and ceilings have been incorporated into the design in all buildings within the Institute.

The emphasis in the choice of sustainable materials and products for the Masdar Institute buildings has been to have them locally sourced and manufactured. Where possible, consideration has been given to sustainable factors such as recyclability, low embodied energy properties, low emission materials and finishes, within the building’s specification

The building’s façades have been developed to passively mitigate heat transfer while also being highly sealed to minimize the energy required when conditioning the internal spaces. Materials, with a low thermal mass, act as a fast responsive system, which cools down very quickly at night to avoid radiantly heating the public realm. Materials with high thermal mass, if strategically used in shaded location, can also help store “coolth” to radiantly cool shaded colonnades.

The second phase of Masdar Institute will double the size of the university’s campus, by adding 221 residential apartments in three blocks and three laboratory buildings. A sports and performance hall will have an open-air swimming pool adjacent to, and on the same level as, one of the green finger linear parks. Above this will be a building with sports facilities, a gym and a large multi-use hall suitable for conferences, sporting events, music and other cultural performances.