I have a nice, eco-friendly end to the week – according to the BBC, building work has started in Abu Dhabi on Masdar (“the source” in Arabic and meant here as a reference to the sun/solar energy), the world’s first zero-carbon, and zero-waste, car-free city.

Designed by Norman Foster of London architects Foster & Partners, Masdar City will cost $22bn, take eight years to build and be home to around 50,000 people.

Sounding reminiscent of something from Blade Runner, it will be powered predominantly by solar energy and residents will travel in pods set on magnetic tracks. According to Evelyn Lee at inhabitat the city will be entirely car free. “Carefully planned public transportation will ensure that none of the city’s inhabitants will have to walk more than 200 meters before meeting some part of the transportation link.”

There are suggestions Masdar City may be just a token gesture, or distraction from the oil-rich Gulf emirates and Business Week were tickled by the “delicious irony that the Middle East, awash in oil and dollars” were investing “oil billions into a zero-emissions metropolis in the desert”

But this project is just part of the Masdar plan for “energy security, climate change and truly sustainable human development” and Masdar City is supported by global conservation charity the WWF.

This could be the dawning of a brave new world, but if it is I hope it’s a little less grey than the picture above!