From vision to reality: Masdar city redefines sustainable urban development with UAE-first 5 Pearl

Masdar City achieves UAE-first Estidama 5 Pearl office rating as Abu Dhabi's Vision 2030 takes shape. Last week, at the second edition of the Abu Dhabi Infrastructure Summit (ADIS), Masdar City announced Its M19 A&B Office Buildings becoming the first commercial office development in the UAE to achieve a 5 Pearl Estidama rating, the highest sustainable building certification in Abu Dhabi. 

The announcement landed against a backdrop of Abu Dhabi committing Dh42 billion to infrastructure and community projects in 2025 alone, with a further Dh 240 billion pledged over the next decade. 

Gulf News sat down with Dr. Mohamed Al Breiki, Executive Director, Masdar City to ask what nearly two decades of building a sustainable city actually looks like in practice, and what comes next.

The following is the full interview with Dr Al Breiki: 

Nearly two decades on, Masdar City has been described as a place to live, learn, work and play. What does that actually look like in practice?

-. Masdar City today is home to more than 15,000 people living and working across the city, with over 2,000 companies from more than 90 countries operating within the freezone. Tenants include IRENA, the UAE Space Agency, Siemens Energy, the Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), and the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence(MBZUAI). What makes it a city rather than an office park is how those pieces connect. 

The Masdar City Podium runs around ten degrees cooler than downtown Abu Dhabi because of how the city is oriented and built, pulling North-West prevailingwinds through shaded walkways and between buildings positioned to block direct sun. Buildings across the city use 40 percent less energy than the Abu Dhabi average through passive design. In 2024, the city saved nearly 31,000 cubic meters of water and diverted 56 percent of waste through recycling. 

The lived experience of that is not captured in statistics alone, It is simply a more comfortable, more functional place to spend a working day.

Abu Dhabi accelerates its dh240 billion future vision

Abu Dhabi has committed Dh42 billion for infrastructure and community projects in 2025, with a further Dh 240 billion over the next decade. Where does Masdar City fit into that picture?

Masdar City's role is to demonstrate what that investment should deliver. We have spent 20 years stress-testing sustainable urban models in this climate at real scale. 

The city produces 17,500 MWh of clean electricity annually from solar infrastructure on site. It has achieved LEED Communities Platinum certification, the highest-scoring and largest certified LEED Platinum community in the UAE. This year, M19 A&B became the first commercial development in the UAE to achieve Estidama 5 Pearl, the highest rating achievable under Abu Dhabi's sustainability certification system. 

Alongside this, Masdar City now has three completed net-zero energy buildings, demonstrating that net-zero is not a future ambition here, it is already being delivered. As Abu Dhabi moves forward with its Economic Vision 2030, the question is not whether sustainability and commercial viability can coexist. Masdar City has answered that question. 

You spoke at ADIS on Humanising Cities and Infrastructure for Health and Wellbeing. How does Masdar City embed preventive health into its urban fabric?

-. The principle is simple: the built environment should make the healthy choice easier. At Masdar City, that means designing spaces that encourage movement, shaded walkways, cycling connections, active ground floors -- so that physical activity is woven into a normal day rather than something people must carve out time for. 

It means prioritizing indoor air quality, natural light, and thermal comfort, so that the places where people spend most of their hours are genuinely restorative rather than merely functional. Masdar City manages over 206,147 square meters of parks and open spaces, with Connect Park and Falaj Plaza both achieving Exemplar status under the Estidama Public Realm Rating System – the highest possible designation – making Masdar City home to the first and highest number of Exemplar-rated public parks in Abu Dhabi. 

The WELL Gold certification that M19 A&B is targeting reflects exactly this philosophy. Health is not a feature you bolt onto a building. It is a consequence of every design decision you make, from orientation and materials to how people move through and between spaces.

Until this week, no commercial office development in the UAE had achieved the highest level of Estidama certification. What did it take to get there, and what does M19 A&B mean for the future of sustainable development?

-. It required pushing performance across every system simultaneously from the earliest design stage. M19 A&Bachieved 91.8 percent energy savings beyond ASHRAE 90.1-2010 baselines through passive design and solar photovoltaic integration. Indoor water consumption was reduced by 45 percent through high-efficiency systems and smart controls. Heat insulation gain was cut by 56 percent, and cooling load reduced by 63 percent. 

These are not marginal improvements. .. They demonstrate that the Estidama framework, applied rigorously, can deliver buildings that perform at a fundamentally different level from standard commercial development. What the 5 Pearl rating also shows is that this level of performance is commercially viable. 

M19 A&B is also targeting LEED Platinum. Sustainable buildings are increasingly what occupiers demand, what investors price, and what regulators will eventually require.

How does that translate into what tenants and residents actually experience day to day?

In practical terms, it means working in a building that is significantly cooler and better ventilated without driving up energy costs, that uses far less water, and that connects you to the broader Masdar City network of cycling infrastructure, shaded walkways, and EV charging. 

Across the city, buildings already use 40 percent less energy than the Abu Dhabi average. M19 A&B goes well beyond that. Companies choosing Masdar City also gain access to a free zone with research institutions, and a clean-tech ecosystem that includes The Catalyst, a start-up platform backed by Masdar City and BP. But the experience goes beyond the technical. 

There is a quality to these spaces, the light, the air, the way the building relates to the street and to the people inside it, that reflects the care taken at the design stage. Tenants tell us that it affects how they feel at work. That is not an accident. It is a deliberate design decision made to enhance the experience of everyone who lives and works here. 

What is the single most exciting opportunity you see ahead for making cities healthier and happier places to live?

-. The most exciting opportunity is the convergence of data and design. For the first time, we have the tools to understand in real time how a city is performing -- not just in terms of energy or carbon, but in terms of how people feel, how they move, how healthy they are. 

With 70 percent of the world projected to live in cities by 2050, and global infrastructure investment requirements estimated at $106 trillion through 2040, the decisions being made now will define quality of life for the next generation. 

At Masdar City, that vision is already operational, a complete live, work, play environment where world-class research institutions, residential communities, parks, a school, sports facilities, and a food hall are integrated into one urban environment built around how people live their lives. Sustainability and quality of life are not competing priorities here. 

They are delivered together, every day. We are operating in a context, here in Abu Dhabi and across the UAE, where there is both the ambition and the resources to act on that insight at scale. Masdar City has always been a place where ideas on-sustainable urban living are tested and proven before they are upscaled. The opportunity ahead is to accelerate that, to take what we have learned here and help shape the next generation of cities, not just within Abu Dhabi, but regionally.