DUBAI: An ambitious new project hopes to transform one of Dubai’s biggest roads into a green “sustainable corridor” in line with the country’s wider focus on urban regeneration.
The “Dubai Green Spine” will be a 40-mile highway along the coastal Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road, named after the current Emirati president, according to a statement from the firm behind the plans. The centerpiece of the project is mass afforestation, and its designers aim to plant more than a million trees of domestic and foreign species along the new highway.
Green Spine is the brainchild of Urb, a Dubai architecture firm that designs “netzero sustainable cities” in the Persian Gulf. Other notable Urbu projects include the Dubai Mangroves, a coastal restoration initiative focused on ecotourism, and the Alnama Smart City in Riyadh.
Baharash Bagherian, CEO of Urb, said Green Spine will make Dubai a “more livable and human-centric” city. He sees Green Spine as at the forefront of a wider shift in the urban planning paradigm that prioritizes “people and green spaces over cars”.
“It challenges conventional infrastructure standards and proves that our streets can do more than facilitate automobile traffic; they can greatly enhance the quality of life,” Bagherian said.
According to Urbo, Green Spine will combine “cutting-edge sustainability, better community living and pioneering green infrastructure to redefine urban mobility.”
