Looking straight from a sci-fi movie, Downtown Circle is an ambitious project of a self-sufficient vertical city which hovers 550 m above street level. The project is designed by ZNera Space, an experimental architecture studio from Dubai. According to the concept revealed by the studio’s founders, Najmus Chowdry and Nils Remess, Downtown Circle is an enormous (550 m tall and 3,000 m in circumference) ring surrounding the Burj Khalifa, the world’s largest skyscraper.
Supported by five huge pillars, Downtown Circle comprises two main rings with the Skypark (a green belt) between them. It vertically connects the floors and forms an interconnected 3D urban green ecosystem. In the Skypark, different natural microclimates and scenery are recreated: swamps, canyons, waterfalls, dunes, and various flora. It serves as the building’s lung, offering clean fresh air. A mixed-use green space, the Skypark “act[s] as a space to rethink how agriculture is going to happen in the future, especially in cities.”
Downtown Circle’s five floors are divided into smaller units to create a full range of amenities. The building features public, commercial, and residential spaces: offices, research centres, luxury apartments, lofts, townhouses, terraced houses, patio living, and others.
While working on the Downtown Circle’s design, the architects paid particular attention to sustainability. The project involves sanctuaries for wild plants and food production, rainwater harvesting, and using solar power. Such technology as solar hydrogen cells is also planned to be implemented: solar energy is used to convert water into hydrogen, and it can power the air conditioning and provide energy to the whole structure. Besides, the Downtown Circle’s plan includes an electric tram which can reach speeds of 100 km/hour to carry passengers around the Circle.
Although Chowdry and Remess admit that for now the Downtown Circle is practically and financially implausible, it is “meant to be […] something that could trigger people to rethink urban development, to rethink city congestion.” In their project, the architects suggest their own solution to Dubai’s rapid urbanisation and population growth: turning to sustainable vertical urbanism.
You might also be interested in reading our article about other mega architectural projects in Dubai to come.
