In 2008 SERA was invited by the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council to create an infill masterplan for a downtown “superblock” in an historic area of the capital city, Abu Dhabi. As a prototype, the resulting plan illustrates how this city block (and by extension, other existing urban blocks) can be redesigned to create a vibrant, human-scaled, mixed-use infill neighborhood within the block’s interior.

SERA’s masterplan creates a complete neighborhood within the existing city fabric that features a variety of residential housing types intended to address the housing needs of all income groups, a mix of community-serving retail commercial uses, and an array of community facilities, including a mosque, a community center, a school, and a variety of public open spaces.
Key to the masterplan was creating a plan that reclaimed the public realm for people. In order to humanize the street and create a truly walkable urban neighborhood, SERA created a palette of infill street cross sections designed to maximize pedestrian comfort, increase network connectivity, and introduce a legible hierarchy of streets over the existing city grid.