Malak Ali Hassan did not like the fact that her family’s villa was carbon-guzzling and bad for the environment.
So the Emirati designer decided to create a new one.
Set to be unveiled this month at the Cityscape Abu Dhabi property show, Ms Hassan’s environmentally friendly villa designs are built from insulating blocks, make innovative use of shade and include a garden on the roof irrigated with “grey water” collected from the sinks and the shower.
Buyers have two options: to buy the designs and build their own eco-friendly home; or to take a so-called “turnkey” option and allow Ms Hassan’s quantity surveying and architectural firm, 3Dimension, to build it all including interior design and space planning. Villas take about eight months to build.
Last year, National Gulf Investments and National Gulf Construction signed deals with 3Dimension for design work on a labour camp and an office building.
For the year, 3Dimension had Dh3 million in contracts, which it hopes to increase to Dh10m this year.
To give more of an objective indication of how “green” her villa plans really are, Ms Hassan is hoping to persuade Abu Dhabi’s Urban Planning Council to give an Estidama rating for her designs. Currently Estidama ratings are only given to completed buildings.
She says that even though her villas stretch to 4,757 square feet for the three-bedroom option, and a huge 8,446 sq ft five-bedroom option, the space includes garden areas inside the villa complex, allowing Emirati families to retain privacy while staying outdoors more, thus reducing air conditioning usage.
3Dimension hopes to sell its designs and services to individuals and property developers at the exhibition, which takes place from April 22 to 24 at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.
Ms Hassan says despite the hefty price tag of Dh2m to Dh3.3m for the turnkey villa (a price that includes no land costs), she believes the properties should be for all UAE society.
“Our company has a social responsibility to educate people how to live greener lives,” Ms Hassan said. “The costs of building a green villa can be the same as that of building a normal villa, but it is much better for the community. People need to see this in action.”
Informa, the organiser of Cityscape Abu Dhabi, said last month there has been an increase of visitor pre-registrations of 26 per cent year-on-year for the show, “thus indicating a positive sentiment in the market at the moment”.
This year, Aldar Properties said it aimed to develop 1,000 new apartments across Abu Dhabi from Al Bateen to Al Raha Beach and could launch for sale “any one of these developments” at Cityscape Abu Dhabi.
Aldar has disclosed full-year profit of Dh2.25 billion, 67 per cent higher than a year earlier, before it merged with its rival Sorouh.
That is in contrast to the lead-up to the event last year when the outlook for the property sector in Abu Dhabi remained soft. However, Knight Frank data show prices jumped 15 per cent in premium areas for 2013 as a whole. Prices in the first quarter of this year have shown further growth, according to Asteco.
lbarnard@thenational.ae
