An Evaluation of Sustainable Urban Infrastructure
The Chinese Society for Urban Studies (CSUS), the Center for Design & the City at the American Architectural Foundation (AAF), and OTIS hosted the first Sino-U.S. City Design Summit in Zhuhai, China, July 16–17, 2013. The Summit was held in conjunction with the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development’s 2013 Conference on Urban Development and Planning. The Conference drew an audience of more than 1,500 Chinese mayors, government officials, developers, and city planners. At the Summit, delegate Frederick Wong of Arup considered the complex process of designing sustainable urban infrastructure.
Lots of green buildings have emerged in China in recent years that emphasize green design features and state-of-the-art green technologies. However, the results have been controversial for various reasons. The ultimate goal for designing a green building is to promote a green community and sustainable living environment for people, so the integration of building, community, and urban infrastructure is an essential design objective. However, cases exist where the green elements in a green building erected in the urban terrain are abandoned due to a lack of urban infrastructure support. Different from standalone green building design, the design of sustainable urban infrastructure is much more complex in terms of interface and implementation time schedule as well as the intricate characteristics of the ownership of maintenance responsibility. The evaluation of sustainable urban infrastructure requires thoughtful consideration of sequencing and collaborative supports from various stakeholders.
Arup has just completed an essential stage of an urban design evaluation project. While it is still an ongoing project under construction, it can nonetheless be utilized as a showcase.
Frederick Wong specializes in building sustainability studies and building environmental designs. He has more than 15 years of experience in green building design in the East Asia region. In leading the building sustainability teams of Arup’s Beijing and Shanghai offices, he is involved with projects throughout China. His experience includes leading several sustainable design projects, such as studies of low carbon emission strategies, energy conservation, natural ventilation and daylight provisions, renewable energy applications, and resources recycling systems.
Arup is an independent firm of designers, planners, engineers, consultants, and technical specialists offering a broad range of professional services. Arup’s recent work for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing has reaffirmed its reputation for delivering innovative and sustainable designs that reinvent the built environment. Arup brings together broad-minded individuals from a wide range of disciplines and encourages them to look beyond the constraints of their own specialisms. This unconventional approach to design springs in part from Arup’s ownership structure. The firm is owned in trust on behalf of its staff. The result is an independence of spirit that is reflected in the firm’s work, and in its dedicated pursuit of technical excellence for its clients. www.arup.com
Featured image of Vanke Center, Shenzhen by Steven Holl Architects courtesy of Trevor.Patt.
