Sand Dune Clouds

The aim of proposed land art structure is to harmonize existing landscape formed by existing on site sand dunes and vegetation perturbed by presence of the road running along.

The depth of the sky in Abu Dhabi almost blue without any cloud during nearly all the year could be enhanced by the created cloud-like forms, producing for us electrical energy instead of the rain water. This energy based on natural resources (sun and wind) is as necessary for our every day life as the rain water is.

The natural forms of proposed “Sand Dune Clouds” shaped as a cocoon by several levels of optic fiber web fabric composing external skin should appear in the existing landscape as an ephemeral structure softening the hard and artificial image of the existing road.

Purposely we do not extend our composition to the water limits to respect the natural existing condition of the shoreline and aquatic ecosystems but we offer an opportunity of observation of this unique natural area from the integrated to the Sand Dune Clouds volumes and from the extended bridged timber footpath network.
Proposed functions:

1- Eco-Lab and Nature Observatory for UAE Students enhancing their sensibility to the environmental phenomena and the importance of the creativity in Arts and Science.
2- Observation platforms for researchers and visitors
3- Conference rooms and auditoria for both, students and visitors
4- Cafeteria and meditation spaces
5- Shuttle-eco-monorail stations connected to the urban area communication web.

1- Embedded energy required to construct the work:
1.1- Structures for the external envelop - laminated timber beams diam.0.2m:
71 400m x 0.0314m² = 2 242m³
2 242m³ x 7 920 MJ/m³ = 17 756 640 MJ

1.2- Precast concrete columns (826 pieces of diameter 0.4m):
933m³ x 2 780 MJ/m³ = 2 593 740 MJ

1.3- Foundations (826 pieces of 0.4m³ each):
0.4m³ x 826 = 330.4m³
330.4m³ x 2 780 MJ/m³ = 918 512 MJ

1.4- Steel profiles for timber/glass covered platforms:
77m³ x 251 200 MJ/m³ = 19 342 400 MJ

1.5- External skin (0.004m thick optic fiber fabric):
184 000m² x 1520 MJ/m² = 279 680 000 MJ

1.6- Inner skin (0.002m thick sand dust filtering textile):
184 000m² x 87 MJ/m² = 16 008 000 MJ

1.7- Piezoelectric glass walking platforms:
77 226m² x 0.3 x 0.02m = 436m³
436m² x 41 080 MJ/m³ = 17 910 880 MJ

TOTAL: 354 210 170 MJ = 98 391 MWh

2- Estimated amount of clean • energy that can be produced by the work:

2.1- Electrical energy produced by CPV mesh embodied in optic fiber fabric:
184 000m² x 95 kWh/m² x 1.4(**) = 24.472 MWh

2.2- 600 W wind turbines:
12 000 pieces x 3000kWh/piece = 36.000 MWh

2.3- Piezoelectric platforms (on 30% of area of walking area):
1/3 of 77 000m² x 20W/h x 3285h/year = 1.686 MWh

TOTAL: 62.158 MWh

TPD&A-Witkowski: Boguslaw Witkowski, Maciej Starewicz, Elmar Hess & Steven Chan

Sand Dune Clouds by Boguslaw WITKOWSKI in United Arab Emirates won the WA Award Cycle 19. Please find below the WA Award poster for this project.