Future Architecture: Made in the Shade
Smart structures artfully deflect sunlight and extreme heat.
 by Steffie Nelson
  The Capitol isn’t the only city obsessed with design that flatters the natural elements. At any time during the given day, you might see more than 1,000 star-shaped devices opening and closing like parasols on the “smart skinned” Al Bahar Towers in Abu Dhabi. Imagine a skyscraper winking at the sun. Completed this year, the awe-inducing buildings were designed to monitor sunlight and temperature and adjust accordingly—so much easier than raising and lowering the blinds! The 25-story structures, headquarters of the Abu Dhabi Investment Council and designed by firm Aedas, feature computer-controlled sunshades that allow the buildings to both utilize natural light and stay cool during the peak hours of afternoon sun.
 Although the system may be state-of-the-art, it actually takes its inspiration from an ancient Arabic design feature, the mashrabiya, a latticework window screen that offers shade and encourages airflow in desert dwellings. And the Al Bahar Towers aren’t the first modern urban buildings to employ the principles of the exotic and beautiful mashrabiya: Jean Nouvel’s Institut du Monde Arabe, built in 1987 in Paris, incorporates light-sensitive geometric apertures that provide shade and create stunning floor-to-ceiling kaleidoscopic patterns inside. Today, many contemporary architects in the Middle East are returning to such time-tested methods of “passive cooling.”
 Looking ahead, already in the prototype stage are self-ventilating metal alloys and buildings powered by photovoltaic cells embedded in their architecture—as opposed to solar panels stuck on the roof. Studio Gang’s Solar Carve Tower, a skyscraper planned for 2015 along New York City’s High Line park, will harness the sun’s rays in a different way, reflecting them back on the park and the streets below.
 With a faceted glass façade that narrows toward the base, the Solar Carve’s design is intended to allow for unobstructed Hudson River views and uninterrupted sunbathing. It’s unclear whether any rays will catch that other High Line institution, the Standard Hotel, but surely its notoriously exhibitionistic guests would welcome another chance to shine.
