Chengdu Tianfu International Airport City Master Plan | 2017 

Lujia, Jianyang, Sichuan, China 
Master Architect: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
Consultants: Arup, CHS Consulting Group, Klimaat Consulting & Innovation, Land Econ Group, Moriyama & Teshima Planners, CityFi, and MIC
Client: Chengdu Tianfu International Airport City and Chengdu Hi-tech District Planning, Land, and Construction Bureau 

Planned for a 668-km2 site encompassing existing towns, forest preserves, and farmland, this long-term vision anticipates the construction of a second international airport serving Sichuan’s capital city of Chengdu.

Countering conventional urban design approaches in China, this new city advances an integrated, climate-responsive urbanism shaped by nature and scientific analysis. Rather than the typical skyline of skyscrapers, site analysis argued for a series of low-to-mid-rise districts that responds to the area’s unique topography of ancient sea beds, and its unusual ecology of natural waterways and irrigation infrastructure. Under this systems-based approach, all aspects of development—site ecology, infrastructure and architecture—work in concert: environmental resiliency supports economic vitality, individual wellbeing strengthens local identity.

Vibrant, varied mixed-use districts—still rare in China—define a human-scaled urbanism, walkable and social, yet dense enough to support transit and attract economic investment. Urban form, natural topography, and infrastructure work together to bolster cleansing wind flows, improving air quality. Open, screened architecture rendered in local materials supports a regional tradition of indoor-outdoor living. A robust multimodal transit system—including high speed rail, subways, and autonomous shuttles—connect the city, reducing carbon emissions. An open space network incorporating the Jiangxi river corridor, urban agriculture, city parks, high-performance infrastructure, mitigate flooding, improve air quality, provide abundant recreational opportunities, and sustain this unique urban habitat. The plan’s phased implementation is designed to provide early validation of this climate-responsive strategy, demonstrating the plans environmental, economic, health and cultural benefits and establishing a model for future development worldwide.

Sustainable Strategies: As a climate-responsive, systems-based urban plan, every aspect of this development works to advance far-reaching goals for achieving a carbon neutral city, protecting natural resources, and promoting healthy lifestyles. > The placement and form of new development preserve the site’s topography, watershed, and natural resources. > Parks, greenways and water management systems compose an extensive open-space network that promotes healthy ecosystems and healthy communities. The entire community is within a 5-minute walk of open space amenities. > A performative and productive ecological and infrastructure framework, captures storm water and grey water as well as energy. > Alternative energy sources, passive strategies and energy saving improvements reduce energy use by 30% > Varied building types and uses responds to the site topography, preserving open space and agriculture > Development patterns reinforce a multi-model transit system designed to serve 80% of trips made, while auto traffic is routed at the perimeter. > Urban form enhances wind flow through the site, increasing areas receiving cleansing air flows to 68% from the 30% provided under conventional planning > Building scale and design resonates with local character in scale, materiality, and emphasis on indoor-outdoor lifestyle; translates architectural traditions for new development.

1. Best practice standards: The stormwater masterplan incorporates a progressive Sponge City design approach by infiltrating and/or reusing the 80th percentile rain event landing on streets and parcels, which is ahead of the Chengdu City standard (which targets the 70th percentile) and more in line with UK and USA standards. The energy and stormwater management plans make use of future climate data published under IPCC to analyze and prepare these infrastructure systems for changing climate conditions at Airport City. The study analyzed RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 at Year 2090 and found Airport City will realize up to 38% more rainfall volume and up to 15% greater rainfall intensity. Drainage infrastructure has therefore been sized with provide additional capacity to reflect these future conditions, thus allowing flood control and water quality standards to be met under these future conditions. Likewise, the maximum anticipated warming is up to 7.0oC higher resulting in a shift in building demand to less heating and more cooling. The design provides spatial requirements that will be needed in each building to accommodate a change in mechanical equipment to meet the shift in demand as the climate at Airport City warms. Additionally, as the development uses a district heating and cooling strategy, the design provides additional capacity in buried thermal pipes to enable easy accommodation of increased future cooling demands at minimal future cost.

2. Design for Energy: Carbon neutral targets are being adopted in major cities around the world to mitigate the impact of global climate chance. As a greenfield site, the project has the opportunity to lead by example in this space, starting out with an aim toward carbon neutrality in 2020. This is well ahead of target dates set by other major cities. Energy infrastructure will be designed using a three-pronged Net-Zero energy strategy which together reduce energy use by up to 30% over the business-as-usual approach:

• Building Efficiency. Implement energy codes that reduce the amount of energy that buildings consume. Strategies include façade insulation requirements, natural ventilation and lighting power density limits.
• District Energy. Produce heating and cooling energy at a neighbourhood scale to improve efficiency and resilience. The benefits of district energy are enhanced when a variety of land uses are served from the same plant. By centralizing thermal energy production, Airport City will unlock cutting edge sustainable technologies of scale such as river heat rejection and heat recovery.
• Local Generation. Generate energy within the Airport City boundary using renewable sources, including waste-to-energy, small-scale hydropower, and solar power.

3. Design for Resources: The overarching goal of the solid waste management strategy is to minimize the volume of waste sent to landfill. A three-pronged approach will be implemented – first reduce the generation of waste as a whole, then encourage source separation to recover materials, then treat remaining non-recyclable waste in a responsible way. Waste is sorted by material stream so it can be treated appropriately – paper, plastic, glass and e-waste are recovered and delivered to a regional sorting facility for resale and distribution. Non-recyclable waste is treated – organic material, including food and yard waste, are sent to a regional facility for aerobic composting and anaerobic digestion. The remaining non-recyclable, inorganic “black bag” (landfill) municipal solid waste is treated using advanced thermal treatment. Thermal treatment produces heat that will be returned to the central thermal network, and electricity that will be returned to the power grid. The result of this process is nearly significant diversion of the waste stream sent to landfill, valuable recovered materials such as compost and fertilizer, and a local energy source of natural gas, biodiesel, electricity, and heat.

4. Design for Water: With an aim toward net-zero water, smart city components like rain sensor irrigation delivery systems and sub-metering will help to drive down demands. Operational performance is of primary concern to the municipality, so rainwater reuse and greywater recycling are part of a proposed demonstration net-zero neighbourhood aimed to test trial techniques that are relatively new to the region. Decentralized wastewater plants will treat wastewater.