Timo Karjalainen
What's Happening?
While people in U.S.
and Europe are building and developing zero-energy houses, in China and United
Arab Emirates, they are building sustainable cities. That’s right, sustainable
cities, not just sustainable houses or small scale housing, but huge cities.
Masdar Project
Currently in Abu
Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, there is a completely new city being constructed
that will house 50000 inhabitants in an area of 6 square kilometers. After its
construction, it will be the first completely carbon neutral and zero waste
city in the world.
One of the biggest goals of the project is to make Masdar City into the global leader for renewable energy research, development, implementation and investment. This is a great start. The success or failure of this project will determine how willing we will be to construct more of these grand scale eco-cities.
One of the biggest goals of the project is to make Masdar City into the global leader for renewable energy research, development, implementation and investment. This is a great start. The success or failure of this project will determine how willing we will be to construct more of these grand scale eco-cities.
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| Masdar Project. Photo: Adam Dean |
Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city
Sino-Singapore Tianjin
Eco-city is a cooperative project between Singapore and China to build a
sustainable city in Tianjin, China. The area is located between Beijing and
Tianjin, 50 km from Tianjin and 150 km from Beijing. When completed in 2020,
the area will inhabit around 350000 residents. The project is based two sets of
three principles: Three Harmonies and Three Abilities. The Three Harmonies are:
people living in harmony with other people, people living in harmony with
economic activities, and people living in harmony with the environment. The
Three Abilities are: commercial viability, the project should be replicated in
other place in China and around the world, and the size should be adaptable to
any scale. The site was cleverly
chosen to be built on a non-agricultural area. This means that no potential
farm land was taken away. The site, however, is located in an area that
receives very little rain water and has no viable freshwater sources nearby.
This means that the only source of fresh water is to build a desalination
plant.
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| Sino-Singapore Tiajin Eco-city. http://architecture.myninjaplease.com/?p=1267 |
The Future
The Future
These eco-cities are
not being built just to show-off, but they are being built out of necessity. As
your might have guessed, the countries who are taking the first steps are the
ones who have the capital to try and fail. The United Arab Emirates have gotten
very rich by exploiting their rich reserves of oil, but they also understand
that the age of petroleum will come to an end and they have to start building
for the future.
Chinese economy is one
of the largest in the world and they also have the largest population in the
world and they are investing very heavily in new eco-cities. To build these
cities we need to discover new materials, techniques and technologies. If the
only thing standing in our way is our own lack of vision, then there shouldn’t
be anything standing in our way.
Sources
http://www.masdarcity.ae/en/27/what-is-masdar-city-/
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