Verde Residences
Verde Residences is part of a two-tower, mixed-use development in Dubai’s Maritime City. The sustainable, high-performance project, created to achieve a LEED Gold rating, will be the first-built of several new sustainable developments in a green community across from Port Rashid, one of the largest ports in the region.
Verde Residences is a 49-story residence tower, with a total built-up area of 1.35 million square feet, including luxurious two- and three-bedroom units, three- and four- and five-bedroom penthouses and four-bedroom duplex townhouses in the podium facing the harbor.
There’s also a related collection of select retail space along the harbor promenade, and four stories of offices along Ahmed Bin Majid Road enclosing the other sides of the parking podium.
The Verde Residences tower is shaped to open up panoramic views to the northeast toward the Persian Gulf. Shaded terraces and sky gardens throughout the residential tower and podium allow residents to enjoy the outdoors. Inside, residents enter through a soaring, six-story lobby.
The tower is also shaped to minimize the impact of solar and wind forces. Its orientation on the site allows the tower to shield itself from the strongest solar gain with its minimal west and east facades and to optimize wind collection for wind turbines. Other sustainability features include a green roof deck with indigenous landscaping to minimize water consumption; a district cooling system; roof-mounted and facade-integrated photovoltaic cells, which also provide exterior shading; solar hot water collectors for solar cooling; and environmentally responsive interior shading and lighting controls.
The project’s green strategies also include a green wall using indigenous vegetation; high-performance glass; energy-efficient lighting equipment and appliances; a gray-water collection and re-use system; a heat recovery system; and two trash chutes to pre-sort recyclables. Verde Residences will be accessible by light rail, water taxi and bus and bicycle lanes.
On-site-generated energy from renewable sources reduces energy demand in the residence tower by 90 percent compared to typical buildings of the same size. Energy produced by the Verde Residences will reduce carbon emissions by more than 18 metric tons, equivalent to planting about 300,000 trees or removing 340 cars off the road yearly.
Verde’s sustainable design features have been endorsed by the renowned environmental scientist Dr. R.K. Pachauri, co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize and chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, who participated in the project launch on March 26, 2008.
