URB Reveals Design for The LOOP, a 93-Kilometer Long Controlled-Climate Cycling Highway in Dubai
To be built to plans by URB, The LOOP will be a 93-kilometer-long sustainable highway designed to encourage the people of Dubai to use a healthy mode of transport. The complex will include a climate-controlled environment to make traveling by foot and bicycle the premier mode of transportation in the city year-around. This is in accordance with the 20-minute city initiative for Dubai, which aims to have 80% of people walk or cycle to work. Although it is currently still in R&D.
The project is designed with a focus on reducing car dependency, creating opportunities for walking and cycling, and building in key amenities. It would represent a massive change for the auto-oriented infrastructure of a city that has grown fast, and organized along heavily urbanized networks. In addition to the climate controlled environment, the building is also being envisioned as a hub where vertical farms for food security, parks and recreational areas, a range of amenities and entrepreneurial opportunities would all connect.
Dubai plans to evolve into a so-called 20-minute city, where the residents of Dubai can reach their daily needs and other destinations within 20 minutes walking or driving by bicycle. This is part of its 2040 plans for both urban master plan and urban mobility strategy. The LOOP fits this vision, focused on increased connectivity and shared spaces in communities. Kinetic power will also be used in the project to provide a renewable energy source. The irrigation systems are also fitted to run on recycled water, which will reduce the dependence on resources even further.
The company recently announced that it will build the largest agro tourism destination in Dubai, as well as a master plan for food security to meet needs of local communities and jobs while restoring damaged and polluted land. It is the same office, based in Dubai Design District who has pledged to make South Africa's most sustainable city, as well as help build out Dubai with an innovation district for research and development.
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