In early 2009 I was invited by a French NFP organization, Les Ateliers, to participate as one of 16 international experts in a two-week long International Workshop of designing an eco-city in Hu Lu Dao, Liaoning province, Northeastern China. It was exciting to learn more about China and its culture; to meet and work shoulder to shoulder with other architects, urban designers, planners, environmental, traffic and aeronautical engineers, professionally engaged all over the world. The Workshop ran through partnership agreements between the Scientific and Technical Building Center and Tongji University CAUP Shanghai, with support of the Hu Lu Dao Municipality, and was partly financed by a FASEP project of the French Ministry of Finance. Additionally, two other universities were participating as scientific supporting partners. One was Les Mines Paris Tech, Post-Master program in Environmental Management, focusing on environmental and energy issues, with three of the Environmental and Energy engineers working directly with the professional teams. The second was Cornell University, College of Architecture, Art & Planning, focusing on urban morphology.
The workshop’s aim was to create a zero carbon, zero sulfur model plan for an eco-city that could create a solution for urbanization of the existing region and serve as a model for the development of Chinese cities. According to Chinese State Statistical Bureau, as disclosed by the Dossier provided by the organizers, urbanization in China has increased over 43% in 2005. This growth was enabled by huge growth in Foreign Direct Investment, which made China the second largest country in terms of absorbed FDI, which was $60.33 billion in 2005 (Dossier, pg 23). The current projections are alerting on expected urbanization of additional 400 million people in the next few decades, and the possibility of such rapid development raises questions of tremendous social, economic and environmental consequences. The urbanization is planned for industrial coastal areas, and this particular region of Hu Lu Dao municipality is targeted to become the regional center and China’s gateway towards Northeastern Asia. The Chinese government has a “harmonious development” in mind and our ideas and proposals are to be used for further research by the CSTB and Tongji University as models for zero-carbon development.
It was amazing to go through the process of thinking about the most sustainable form, and within given parameters, to design an eco city. It was quite exciting to teach and learn at the same time, to learn about methods and areas I haven’t had an opportunity to explore before.
