In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Dubai’s Urban Tech District hopes to become a living laboratory where innovation & entrepreneurship in urban technology come together to thrive.
Revitalizing an old industrial site in the Al Jaddaf area in Dubai, the urban tech district will create 4000 jobs in green urban tech, education & training.
In an email to me (Storm Cunningham), Baharash Bagherian CEO of URB, the company behind the project said “The project is located on the Creekside of Al Jaddaf, which is well connected to key areas including Downtown Dubai & Business Bay. Historically, Al Jaddaf, which means “The Rower”, was used as a Dhow building area. The project looks at revitalizing the site into an Urban Tech District, which will create green jobs in various sectors, such as energy, water, waste, food, mobility & building materials.”
He added, “The district will revitalize the area to become home to innovators & entrepreneurs. Ultimately the new destination will enable an urban tech ecosystem to promote a more resilient & sustainable neighborhood.”
It will also be home to venture capital firms, to provide the fuel for entrepreneurs, thus empowering a unique collaborative urban tech eco system.
Bagherian says, “Dubai is best positioned to lead the Urban Tech Transformation than any other city in the world. The Urban Tech District will be a new global tech hub for urban innovation. With a total of 140,000 square metres of built up area, it will be the world’s largest urban tech district. Thus making Dubai the centre for urban innovation.”
URB says that urban tech will be at the core of all future cities.
Tech-enabled urban developments seek to provide solutions to the challenges created by urbanization in various areas such as zero-mile food production, food security, affordable & scalable renewable energy, low energy demand water harvesting, zero-waste management, and waste to energy solutions.
These are just some of the many challenges our cities our facing, URB explains.
The new district will provide facilities for conferences, training, research, seminars, business incubation as well as various amenities.
The building will also offset all its embodied carbon emissions from construction & operation.
As a net zero carbon district, the redevelopment will help to reduce the carbon footprint of its partner businesses, thus enabling a low-carbon workforce.
Innovation will be at the heart of the Urban Tech District.
The district will enable the growth of urban-tech solutions at a much larger scale, as well as provide investment opportunities to innovators that are tackling some of the most critical issues related to sustainable cities.
The district will provide opportunities for a new breed of innovative companies that require a platform to grow rapidly.
The district will also be home to the Urban Tech Institute, which hopes to foster the next generation of urban tech leaders.
The institute will provide opportunities to pilot new innovations based on applied research whilst driving public private partnerships.
All images courtesy of URB.