By Sam Lubell
With its booming economy and often unchecked development, China has raised concern about the health of its environment. But the country is starting to move in a different direction, as seen in a plan being developed by Arup to build what it calls the world’s first sustainable city.
The firm recently signed a contract with the Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation (SIIC) to develop the city, called Dongtan, located near Shanghai, on the third largest island in China. Three-quarters the size of Manhattan (about 88 square kilometers), the site is now mostly agricultural land. But by 2010, when the 700-hectare first phase is expected to be completed, it will be a mixed-use city with 50,000 residents living, shopping, and working in mostly 5-to-8-story buildings. Three villages—each with its own housing, shops, schools, and support services—will converge at a city center.
Minimizing the environmental impact of all this development is essential to the project's mission. "If growth in China continues as it has until now, they’re going to permanently damage the place," says Arup principal Peter Head, who is leading the project. "They hope that by ignoring the way the west has industrialized they’ll find this new solution and keep growth growing while reducing the impact."
Sustainable development runs through practically every element of Arup’s master plan, which is a work in progress. Many streets will be arranged as small local roads, not large through roads, to promote walking, biking, and public transportation. Cars and trucks will use hydrogen or fuel cells, rather than fossil fuels. Buildings will harness energy from wind turbines, photovoltaic panels, and converted waste. They will also be constructed using organic, and biodegradable materials, so refuse can be either converted into energy or turned into compost via a machine called an anaerobic digester.
The city will be built using a strict ecological footprint analysis, which measures how much resources each inhabitant consumes. The city will call for a footprint that is about one-fifth that of the average U.S. city, and about one-fourth of a major Chinese city. And while heavily developed, the island will remain about 40 percent farmland and thus self-sustaining. Most of the residents, adds Head, will live and work nearby to reduce commuting.
Design guidelines have not been developed yet, says Head. But the city will have a tourism and leisure center, targeted to be completed in time for the 2010 Expo in Shanghai. The SIIC plans to build a tourist attraction and iconic buildings here and to have architects compete soon for the commissions.
Dongtan should become a model for future development in China, says Head. But it will also allow the Chinese to develop environmental expertise and green products that they can then sell to the rest of the world.
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