Urban Dunes at sunset, bathed in golden light

Urban Dunes – 3D-printed bioclimatic design roof in Abu Dhabi

A 3D-printed desert sand structure that transforms a public space into a passively air-conditioned urban oasis.

2020 · Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates · Public space · 3D-printed design + sustainable design

Lifting desert sand to create an urban oasis

In Abu Dhabi, extreme temperatures render outdoor public spaces unusable for much of the year. The city’s Department of Transport launched the Cool Abu Dhabi Challenge, a global competition to design urban roofs capable of mitigating the heat island effect. Barberio Colella Architetti, in collaboration with Angelo Figliola, responded with Urban Dunes: a project that does not add technology to the urban space, but rediscovers the principles of traditional architecture from the Arab world and reinvents them through digital fabrication.

The underlying idea is straightforward: to lift, as it were, a thick layer of sand to create artificial dunes beneath which an urban oasis takes shape. The roof is a complex vault (arches, central columns, three large oculi) composed of stereotomic blocks 3D-printed using binder jetting technology, which solidifies local desert sand with a binder. The 55-centimetre thickness gives the vault high thermal inertia: the mass slows the transfer of heat from the outer to the inner surface by hours, keeping the space below cool even on the hottest days.

Beneath the vault, an integrated passive cooling system amplifies the roof’s effect. Geometric grilles inspired by traditional mashrabiyya accelerate the flow of incoming winds via the Venturi effect and direct them over water basins filled with cool water. Four towers capture the prevailing winds and channel them into earth-pipe heat exchangers buried three metres deep, where the air releases heat to the ground before rising back up through the central perforated columns. Two cascading fountains and a group of palm trees (free to grow through the central oculus until they rise above the dome) complete the microclimate with evaporative cooling. The only active system is a high-pressure misting system that lowers the perceived temperature by up to 20°C.

The result, measured using UTCI simulations, is a 1,000 m² public space that reaches a perceived temperature of 26°C in August, comfortable for an outdoor environment in Abu Dhabi’s desert climate. The project received an honorable mention at the Cool Abu Dhabi Challenge, out of over 300 entries from 62 countries, and has been featured on various specialist websites, including 3D Printing Industry, 3DNative and Parametric Architecture.

Renders & Photos

Exploded axonometric view of Urban Dunes components

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Technical specifications

Location: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Year: 2020
Client: Department of Municipalities and Transport, Abu Dhabi
Typology: Urban coverage
Area: 1,000 m²
Status: Award-winning concept, Honorable Mention
Designers: Maurizio Barberio, Micaela Colella (Barberio Colella Architetti) with Angelo Figliola (design and environmental analysis)
Awards: Honorable Mention, Cool Abu Dhabi Challenge. Golden Trezzini Awards, Special Mention (2021)
Publications: 3D Printing Industry, 3DNative, Parametric Architecture
Main materials: 3D-printed desert sand (binder jetting), heat-reflective cool pigments, water

Technical drawings

Urban Dunes: daytime exterior view, Abu Dhabi

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How can a public space be cooled in an extreme climate without relying on active climate control?

In desert climates such as Abu Dhabi, summer temperatures regularly exceed 45°C, rendering public spaces unusable for much of the year. Conventional solutions (active climate control running at full capacity) are energy-intensive and unsustainable on a large scale. Urban Dunes demonstrates an alternative approach: reinterpreting traditional Arab architectural elements (massive vaults, mashrabiyya, water basins, wind towers) through digital fabrication and 3D printing, creating a roof that harnesses the thermal mass of the sand, natural ventilation and evaporative cooling to achieve comfortable outdoor conditions with minimal energy consumption.

Frequently Asked Questions

The process is called binder jetting: a large-format 3D printer deposits layers of sand and solidifies them with a chemical binder, creating large blocks with complex geometries and a high level of precision. Desert sand, an abundant material at virtually no cost, becomes the primary building material. The stereotomic blocks are then dry-assembled to form the vault, following the logic of traditional stereotomy (the same used to build stone vaults) but reinterpreted using parametric modelling tools.

Urban Dunes incorporates five passive strategies: the thermal inertia of the 55 cm-thick sand vault, which delays heat transfer by hours; the mashrabiyya (traditional geometric grilles) which accelerate the wind via the Venturi effect and direct it over water basins filled with cold water; wind-capturing towers connected to ground-coupled heat exchangers buried 3 metres deep, where the air transfers heat to the ground; cascading fountains and vegetation, which cool through evaporation; and cool pigments mixed with the sand, which increase surface reflectance. The only active system is a high-pressure misting system.

Stereotomy is the art of cutting solid materials into blocks that interlock to form self-supporting structures, it is the construction principle behind the stone vaults of antiquity. Digital stereotomy draws on this principle but updates it with parametric modelling and digital fabrication (3D printing, CNC cutting), allowing for more complex geometries and forms that are impossible to achieve with manual cutting. In Urban Dunes, the stereotomic blocks of the vault are parametrically designed and manufactured using 3D sand printing, combining traditional construction logic with the precision of additive manufacturing.

Binder jetting technology for sand is already used industrially for the production of foundry moulds and large-scale components. Companies such as ExOne, Voxeljet and D-Shape have demonstrated the feasibility of 3D-printed architectural blocks. The Urban Dunes project was developed with realistic technical parameters: the 55 cm thickness is structurally plausible, the block dimensions are compatible with existing industrial printers, and the dry-assembly process follows a construction logic proven by traditional stereotomy. The main challenge remains the regulatory certification of the printed components, an area where research is evolving rapidly.

Urban Dunes was designed by Barberio Colella Architetti (Maurizio Barberio and Micaela Colella) with Angelo Figliola for the environmental design. Barberio is the author of the ‘Manifesto for Stereotomy 2.0’ published in the Nexus Network Journal, the theoretical foundation of digital stereotomy applied to additive manufacturing. The practice has published in Springer Nature (Digital Wood Design, Architecture 4.0) and has experience in digital fabrication with the Hypar Gate pavilion in Troyes (2016), a double-curved stone structure that has actually been built.

The design principles of Urban Dunes (thermal inertia of mass, natural ventilation, evaporative cooling) are applicable to any hot climate, including the Mediterranean. The designers themselves have suggested that an Apulian version could use waste materials from the local stone industry instead of sand, creating locally sourced architecture. The challenge of summer comfort in public spaces in Southern Italy is less extreme than in Abu Dhabi but still very real, and the passive solutions integrated into the roof would work effectively even at more moderate temperatures. ---

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