Architects: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Client: Beijing Vantone CityLogic Investment Corp., Beijing, China PRC
Infrastructure Consultant: Mott MacDonald Group, Croydon, Surrey, United Kingdom
HR&A Advisors: Strategic Advisory Services, New York, New York, USA
Project Description
The goal of GREAT City Chengdu was to design a pedestrian-oriented city on 1 square-kilometer of land (+/-250 acres) that provides the daily needs of 100,000 people while addressing critical social and environmental issues endemic to China. The city was also designed as a prototype that could be repeated throughout China and seeks to successfully resolve the relationship between high-density urban living and sustainable development.
“GREAT” is an acronym created by the client, which stands for Green, Relational (i.e. mixed-use), Environmental, Accessible, and Transformative. Designed as a completely self-sustaining entity, the city provides all basic services to its residents through a sustainable infrastructure that supports education, commerce, culture and an improved quality of life. The city demonstrates how China can reduce its ecological footprint while creating economic conditions that are affordable for the majority of citizens and address contemporary social concerns.
GREAT City Chengdu will conserve farmland, with over 75% of the site area preserved as agriculture and open space despite a population of 100,000 people, or 30,000 families. The 1.30 square-kilometer (325 acre) “Urbanized Area” will be placed within the larger site, resulting in the creation of a Conservation Area surrounding the city of approximately 4.47 square kilometers (1125 acres) in area. This buffer landscape is intrinsically engaged with the topography of the site, and will be devoted to recreation, wildlife habitat and agriculture. Within the urbanized area, 20% of the land will be devoted to parks and landscaped space, while 60% will be parcelized for construction. The remaining 20% will be devoted to infrastructure, roads and pedestrian streets.
The development program within will include commercial, residential, office, light manufacturing and a medical campus which will provide health services to residents, as well as a larger regional and perhaps national constituency. The GREAT City Master Plan proposes to preserve the most productive agricultural areas and build primarily on the two major ridge lines that bisect the site. In addition to the conservation of farmland and the surrounding buffer landscape, the natural valleys adjacent to the urbanized area will also be preserved.
The city will benefit from vertical connectivity and short, walkable distances between districts. Organized around a regional transit hub located at the intersection of the ridges, a clear city edge is defined by a 10-minute walking radius. A network of pedestrian streets and roadways define 70 discrete development parcels. The infrastructure and public-realm networks include electric shuttles, plazas, parks and links to the recreation system. As a primarily pedestrian city, only half of the road area is allocated to motorized vehicles, and all residential units will be within a 2-minute walk of a public park. An extended recreation system connects the pedestrian network to trails that run through the green buffer and surrounding farmland, making it convenient for residents to enjoy the forest landscape.
Compared to a conventional development of similar population, GREAT City achieves the following sustainable benchmarks: 1. it will use 1/7 as much land; 2. it will use 48% less energy; 3. it will generate 94% less waste to landfill; 4. it will produce 69% less CO2; 5. it will use 64% less water.