I don’t even know what to say about this photo.  Wow, just wow.

(That’s Shanghai, by the way, in case you hadn’t guessed.)

All text and photos taken from the Tianjin Eco-City Development’s official website:

The Master Plan of Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city lays down the guidelines for the Eco-city’s development as a scaleable, practicable and replicable model for sustainable development for other cities in China and around the world. It was jointly developed by the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, the Tianjin Institute of Urban Planning and Design, and the Singapore planning team led by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. 

The basic building block of the Eco-city Master Plan is a single cell, or “Eco-Cell”, that serves to integrate the different land uses within a modular 400m by 400m grid. Educational institutions, commercial areas, workplaces and recreational areas are distributed within these Eco-Cells and located close to the residential areas to minimize commuting. Together, these Eco-Cells add up to form neighbourhoods, districts, and eventually the urban centres.

Another highlight of the Master Plan is an “Eco-Valley” running through the Eco-city as a north-south connector. It serves as the main ecological green spine and incorporates water-sensitive urban design elements, such as eco-swales and dry streams. The Eco-Valley will connect the major transit nodes, residential areas, community facilities and commercial centres. It will be a key public open space and focal point of the Eco-city. 

See this post from a couple of days ago for Part #1 of this interesting interview with a Shanghai Urban Planner.  It provides an interesting perspective on China’s current approach to urbanizing the country.

Here is the second part of the interview and the following are some of its best quotes:

The issue of reconstruction aside, China’s cities are also too big and there’s a real problem with urban sprawl. All the cities in the Yangtze River and Pearl River deltas are expanding outwards, and if you include industrial zones, villages and towns, plus all the highways and rail lines, human construction may have already reached an ecological limit. 

…There are underlying errors in the government’s understanding of cities. For example, there is a misconception that bigger cities are better cities. But it isn’t a question of size, it’s a question of comfort, efficiency, environmental quality, liveability and, in particular, suitability for different types of people to flourish.

The appearance of many European cities hasn’t changed for a century, but internal and underground facilities have been modernised in order to save energy, protect the environment and increase comfort. When Europeans design new areas, they do so on a human scale, as far as possible using pedestrianised zones, cutting down on car journeys, reducing energy use and making the city diverse and green. Although China also has slogans about putting people first, it doesn’t happen that way. 

The marker of liveability for a city is its human scale. The biggest issue for Chinese cities is the roads – they are too wide, and the density of the network is too low. In Shanghai’s Lujiazui [a major financial district], the roads are too big, the huge buildings leave people feeling alienated, the space is badly organised and living and travelling are extremely inconvenient. 

The following line is a very enlightening interview with a Shanghai planner Zhang Song about China’s rapid urbanization:

http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/3722

I have picked out some of the best quotes.  

China is currently urbanising very rapidly – the number of urban dwellers isapproaching half of the country’s total population and there is a significant rural population that is temporarily resident in cities. Despite China’s massive efforts, there are still many problems with cities of all sizes, even in the “New Villages”. There’s a real need for an examination of how urbanisation in China should proceed. 

China’s cities are becoming ever less habitable, there’s no debate about that. It’s due to overdevelopment of urban areas… large scale rebuilding programmes have transformed the appearance of old cities. For years we neglected preservation of older areas, and so the environment declined and facilities decayed. China’s approach to development is also extremely backward. Developers take a piece of land they believe will be profitable and then completely rebuild it as they see fit…

If the government’s main function cannot shift toward the social – concentrating on things such as housing provision – then it will be led by the market. Currently, a completely commercialised mode of development is gaining strength and the quality of urban spaces is declining. And, of course, the government makes no small income from land development. 

A city isn’t a mechanical thing, but an organic life form with history and culture that needs to grow… but China views cities as machines to be dismantled and put together at will

“Zhang Song is professor and PhD supervisor at Tongji University’s College of Architecture and Urban Planning. In 1996, Zhang was awarded a PhD in urban design and historical preservation from the University of Tokyo. He is also a member of the China Urban Planning Association’s Historical Culture Preservation Committee and Shanghai Building Association’s Historical Building Preservation Committee”

China has adopt a relatively aggressive campaign to lower its carbon emissions through the creation of various eco-cities across the country.  The first of its kind will be Turpan, located in Western China.

I found the following from an article in the China People’s Daily:

In the face of industrialization and fast urbanization, Chinese cities are now working on cost-effective ways to protect the environment in a sustainable way based on previous experiences and national conditions while gaining more benefit and producing less emissions.

On May 5, urban-rural Turpan model zone, the national new-energy model city, broke the ground. Turpan plans to change 8.8 square kilometers of barren land into a new green oasis in 10 years. The new Turpan zone will strive to adopt a low-carbon policy to build every plot of the land from urban planning, industrial presence, to architecture and design as well as energy use. 

For example, electricity will be generated by PV power, heating and cooling will be provided through ground source heat pumps, and the architecture will adopt natural ventilation and natural light.

I tried to find pictures of Turpan’s masterplan with little success so far.  I will continue the search and post them if I find any.