“Two countries will lead the world in eco-cities: China and Britain.” The words of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown lingered in the cold Shanghai winter air long after he had given tacit approval to the Dongtan ‘eco-city', set to be constructed on the formerly preserved wetlands of Chongming Island, near Shanghai. Dongtan was initiated by Shanghai Industrial Investment Corp, which contracted British engineering firm Arup to work on the development.
The heavily hyped, and controversial, development is being marketed as
the world’s first “self-sustaining eco city” – designed to house up to
90,000 people by 2010, with 90 per cent of all waste to be recovered,
recycled or reused. Last November, it was recognised as one of the
“most innovative and outstanding buildings in Asia” by the MIPIM Asia
Awards in Hong Kong.
However, speculation persists about the yet-to-be-constructed Dongtan’s
actual ecological credentials, and rumours have surfaced that its
near-neighbour may be a Disneyland theme park (reported here).
Speaking in Shanghai the day after PM Brown’s comments, two leading
urban planners questioned the objectives of the Dongtan development.
“Everybody now is trying to get on the green ‘fast train,’” said Prof.
Albert Speer, Founder of AS&P, one of Europe’s leading urban
planning firms, which has a China-incorporated office based in
Shanghai. “But, for sure, we are not doing projects of this scale in
Britain or Germany. It is a huge possibility for the future if it’s
done in reality, but not as a marketing instrument. The architectural
thinking behind [Dongtan] seems very secondary.”
Martin Zhou, Architect and Chief Editor of Urban China magazine, also
challenged Dongtan’s planning processes. “All development projects in
Shanghai since 2005 have been part of a branding strategy for the
city,” Zhou said. “The political and ideological intentions are very
strong. Shanghai’s place-making strategy is to compete [globally] as an
ecological city.” He added that integrating Chongming Island into the
fabric of an expanded Greater Shanghai was evident. “Already, the
underwater tunnel and bridge linking Chongming to Shanghai are nearly
completed,” he said.
The ultimate verdict on Dongtan will be determined by more tangible
factors than marketing value, concluded Speer. “The success of
ecological architecture must be judged on whether running costs for the
city are lower, despite the higher development costs. The technologies
are already known, they are not new. Our experience from working on
Anting New Town [also in Shanghai], is that, ultimately, the
development costs were higher and so were the running costs.”
Last update : Tuesday, 22 January 2008
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