SPACESHIP IN THE DESERT
ENERGY, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND URBAN DESIGN IN ABU DHABI
By Gökçe Günel
Duke University Press, 2019, 256 pages
Reviewed by Michael Beach
Success or Failure?
This book recounts the history of an entire community created in the deserts of Abu Dhabi based on renewable energy approaches. The idea was to create a campus in which new energy technologies could develop to help the country become less dependent on petroleum revenue. The name of the new city is Masdar.
Günel notes how Bruno Latour referred to technology as a system (p.139). Where most of us see only the portion we interact with, that portion is supported by an entire network of interconnected parts. For example, at Masdar people in general noted the pod cars of the Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system as if they were one and the same (p.142). In fact, the pod cars are of no worth without the supporting system known as the undercroft, the controlling software, and an army of maintenance crew, often made up of workers from Asia. These workers were not allowed to live in the city, nor even use the pod cars once up and running.
How does one describe project success or failure? Exactly! The fact that this is even a question points to how criteria (official and unofficial) varies with every beholder’s eye.
The PRT was not successful in that it could not handle large numbers of passengers efficiently. It was not cost effective. The undercroft requirement caused increased indirect expenses for the buildings which had to be lifted by 20 feet to accommodate the required space. One could simply walk the short distance the PRT served. It went not faster than a bicycle. Eventually, when a new executive took over the Masdar facility, the PRT was cancelled.
Despite the pessimistic view, others saw how people who came to visit the facility lined up to ride the PRT despite the availability of a shuttle bus during large events. Even jaded academics who pointed out issues still used the system because it was fun, making functionality a secondary consideration (p.142).
Günel makes the point of how the Masdar PRT is just one in a string of PRT projects that all end essentially the same. Although the system in West Virginia is still in use, it does so with a $120M price tag and an annual cost of $5M, and has stayed essentially small scale. It only goes between West Virginia University (WVU) campuses and downtown Morgantown.
In his 1994 book The Anti-Politics Machine: “Development,” Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho, Jame Ferguson argues whether or not original project goals are realized, something is accomplished. The project goals represent an entry point of development efforts, but whatever effect comes about, stakeholders think of some outcomes as desirable, and others as undesirable.
ENERGY, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND URBAN DESIGN IN ABU DHABI
By Gökçe Günel
Duke University Press, 2019, 256 pages
Reviewed by Michael Beach
Success or Failure?
This book recounts the history of an entire community created in the deserts of Abu Dhabi based on renewable energy approaches. The idea was to create a campus in which new energy technologies could develop to help the country become less dependent on petroleum revenue. The name of the new city is Masdar.
Günel notes how Bruno Latour referred to technology as a system (p.139). Where most of us see only the portion we interact with, that portion is supported by an entire network of interconnected parts. For example, at Masdar people in general noted the pod cars of the Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system as if they were one and the same (p.142). In fact, the pod cars are of no worth without the supporting system known as the undercroft, the controlling software, and an army of maintenance crew, often made up of workers from Asia. These workers were not allowed to live in the city, nor even use the pod cars once up and running.
How does one describe project success or failure? Exactly! The fact that this is even a question points to how criteria (official and unofficial) varies with every beholder’s eye.
The PRT was not successful in that it could not handle large numbers of passengers efficiently. It was not cost effective. The undercroft requirement caused increased indirect expenses for the buildings which had to be lifted by 20 feet to accommodate the required space. One could simply walk the short distance the PRT served. It went not faster than a bicycle. Eventually, when a new executive took over the Masdar facility, the PRT was cancelled.
Despite the pessimistic view, others saw how people who came to visit the facility lined up to ride the PRT despite the availability of a shuttle bus during large events. Even jaded academics who pointed out issues still used the system because it was fun, making functionality a secondary consideration (p.142).
Günel makes the point of how the Masdar PRT is just one in a string of PRT projects that all end essentially the same. Although the system in West Virginia is still in use, it does so with a $120M price tag and an annual cost of $5M, and has stayed essentially small scale. It only goes between West Virginia University (WVU) campuses and downtown Morgantown.
In his 1994 book The Anti-Politics Machine: “Development,” Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho, Jame Ferguson argues whether or not original project goals are realized, something is accomplished. The project goals represent an entry point of development efforts, but whatever effect comes about, stakeholders think of some outcomes as desirable, and others as undesirable.
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