Spaceship in the Desert

In 2006 Abu Dhabi launched an ambitious project to construct the worlds first zero-carbon city: Masdar City. In Spaceship in the Desert Gke Gnel examines the development and construction of Masdar City's renewable energy and clean technology infrastructures, providing an illuminating portrait of an international group of engineers, designers, and students who attempted to build a post-oil future in Abu Dhabi. While many of Masdar's initiativessuch as developing a new energy currency and a driverless rapid transit networkhave stalled or not met expectations, Gnel analyzes how these initiatives contributed to rendering the future a thinly disguised version of the fossil-fueled present. Spaceship in the Desert tells the story of Masdar, at once a utopia sponsored by the Emirati government, and a well-resourced company involving different actors who participated in the project, each with their own agendas and desires.