Emergency Response Facility

This development comprises the emergency operations facilities for the newly commissioned nuclear energy programme in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and was completed in November 2015.

Passive, traditional, sustainable practices are incorporated and the desert sand is sculpted to raise the buildings off the ground and maximise the wind infiltration from the nearby shoreline, across and through the complex.

The scheme is a culmination of decades of practice, research and reinterpretation of local and traditional design and building techniques and practices, that emphasize and promote a built environment that sits within and works with its surrounding natural environment. Designs that create spaces that respond to traditional and cultural requirements along with local customs and beliefs, whilst offering sustainable solutions to the growing complexity of contemporary end-user needs.

Sandra is a passionate environmentalist, architect, urbanist, and researcher, who has lived and worked in the UAE for over 25 years. She is a Fellow of the RIBA, the RSA, and the AoU. She is an award-winning designer who leads tangrams’ MENA region studio who were recognised as the “2019 MENA Architecture Firm of the Year” by the Middle East Economic Digest and who have received many international accolades including six sustainable design awards for five different projects in four years.
She founded, curates and presents the RIBA Gulf Chapters’ ongoing Sustainable Development Series.

Over 50 international awards and recognitions over the past decade, notably including 6 sustainable design awards for 5 different projects in 4 years.