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Pop-Up Cities: China Builds a Bright Green Metropolis

Being rather sceptical about large companies' commitment to environmental sustainability, it took me a while to admit that there is a lot to learn from this article. Learning from other cities and the local people is a good starting point in my view - and a few cities are mentioned here plus a wealth of diverse professional knowledge has found their way into this project.

Pop-Up Cities: China Builds a Bright Green Metropolis
Douglas McGray 04.24.07 | 2:00 AM
But how many more people? Double? Triple? The team found research on energy consumption in cities around the world, plotted on a curve according to population density. Up to about 50 residents per acre, roughly equivalent to Stockholm or Copenhagen, per capita energy use falls fast. People walk and bike more, public transit makes economic sense, and there are ways to make heating and cooling more efficient. But then the curve flattens out. Pack in 120 people per acre, like Singapore, or 300 people, like Hong Kong, and the energy savings are negligible. Dongtan, the team decided, should try to hit that sweet spot around Stockholm.
(...)
..."It's all very nice to have little houses in a green field," Gutierrez says. But that would be an environmental disaster. If neighborhoods are spread out, then people need cars to get around. If population is low, then public transportation is a money loser.
(...)
Next, they had to figure out how high to build. A density rate of 50 people per acre could mean a lot of low buildings, or a handful of skyscrapers, or something in between. Here, the land made the decision for them. Dongtan's soil is squishy. Any building taller than about eight stories would need expensive work at the foundation to keep it upright. To give the place some variety and open up paths for summer wind and natural light, they settled on a range of four to eight stories across the city. Then, using CAD software, they started dropping blocks of buildings on the site and counting heads.
(...)
"Shanghai will grow," Gutierrez says. "The question is how it will grow. We can program into its DNA a sustainable growth pattern. We have to make cities, as much as we can, future proof ."

Source: originally found in ArchNewsNow.org
Published in: WIRED, "Pop-Up Cities: China Builds a Bright Green Metropolis"
An article writen by the architect Alejandro Guti
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