Learning from Europe's city designs could create sustainable urban areas in China

As a British urban planner and architect working and living in China, the issue of the country's rapid urbanization is something I experience firsthand. It is astonishing due to its sheer scale and is indeed a complex challenge that will continue to test us as architects and urban designers.

For hundreds of years our cities have continued to evolve and urbanization has been part of the natural progression borne out of the growth of our global population. In Europe, while there are concerns for urban sprawl, a troubling downside of urban living, the region still remains the most balanced and mature urban system in the world, a model from which we can learn lessons as we envisage and design our future cities.

China is perhaps the most striking example of how fast our world is changing. Only 65 years ago, the country was made up of 132 cities and an "urban population" of 27.4 million. Today China has some 652 cities that accommodate 600 million out of a population of 1.3 billion.

As we are tasked with further developing China's cities for the future, what is governing our designs and decision-making? Sustainable development is a term we are all familiar with and which embodies many aspects of our environment, both built and natural. As planners, architects and designers, we are charged with developing a vision for the city of the future that will accommodate greater populations who will live, work and play in a more sustainable environment.

But I also understand the concept of sustainable development as how we will create cities in which we will continue to thrive in. While Europe shows us world-leading examples with its cities consistently topping the livability rankings, China, too, due to its extreme and expeditious growth, continues to teach us lessons that will help solve the issues of other developing countries in the future.

What is "sustainable" design in China?

In the context of China, sustainability and sustainable development for me concerns the population. How do we house, move and power the 1.3 billion residents in an energy-efficient, resource-conscious manner? How do we utilize and develop the scarce and valuable land still available within China's cities to staunch the flow of urban sprawl? How do we alleviate the stress, both to the environment and the residents of these cities, of vehicular congestion as we attempt to connect the millions in these cities?

The overwhelming answer points toward integrated Transport Oriented Developments.

The concept for TODs is a positive step forward in how we think about the most efficient and sustainable models for the future of China and all our cities. Clustering high quality and high-density development around transportation hubs creates opportunity for attractive, compact, "walkable" and livable communities.

TODs can come in many forms, from evolving "airport cities" to high-tech vertical malls to mixed-use live-work-shop destinations - making them a versatile solution across many sectors. This is something we are already seeing realized in strength in established cities like Hong Kong and Singapore. For example, Singapore's international airport has started construction on a new retail and leisure landmark, Jewel Changi Airport, on the site of a former open-air car park, which will connect with existing terminals and hotels. The scheme will help to redevelop valuable land within the airport boundary to its fullest potential and at the same time serve the local residential population who use the airport as a place to socialize, shop and eat due to its connectivity, convenience and offerings.

The first wave of these schemes is coming to fruition in China, too, which is encouraging, with TOD projects like Shanghai ICC. Luxury residential and commercial office space has been integrated with an award-winning retail and leisure podium that all sits above a three-line metro station and prioritizes a pedestrian-friendly environment.

What all these variations of TODs have in common is an integrated, multimodal transportation hub that serves as the nucleus of the development. They are intelligently designed projects that neatly blend a mix of activities to form successful and convenient urban communities, within a framework of public spaces.

The benefits of TODs are huge - maximizing land usage; increasing access to public transport and in turn decreasing the reliance on cars; enhancing connectivity and "walkability"; reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions; and catalyzing the rejuvenation of declining neighborhoods. TODs also offer social, environmental and developmental benefits to our cities. They promote an attractive city profile, allowing varying density character zones to evolve, with green spaces between, rather than a monotonous urban sprawl.

The TOD model is still relatively new and something that lends itself well to rapidly developing areas like China and Southeast Asia - countries and regions that are attracting foreign investment to develop this type of scheme and that have the populations and density to support it.

While TODs provide the framework, the consideration does still need to go further, to ensure we are creating environments that people can thrive in. The lifeblood of our best cities, in my opinion, is their mixed-use quality. It is those raw ingredients that go together to create the places where we can live, work, trade and relax that enrich our lives. This is just as important to the sustainability of our communities as our conscious awareness to our environmental impact.

The answer is that it is all to do with place-making - understanding exactly the nature of the project, community or city we are trying to create. The fact is that our best cities have developed their perfect mix of uses over generations, constantly testing and re-evaluating themselves largely by a process of trial and error. Every situation is different and in crafting the right balance of uses and activities, we have to fully understand place, character, context and demographics.

In Europe, this is something they have managed to sustain over hundreds of years. By comparison, China, while still rich in its history and culture, has strayed from this quality in part due to its aggressive development over the past six decades. Quick solutions have meant the destruction of community areas as large mega structures and highway networks replace whole neighborhoods.

Another particularly vital topic that lends itself to the sustainability and place-making debate is the art of regeneration. The regeneration and adaptive re-use of existing buildings and structures within our cities helps to heal the broken pieces of our cityscapes. They depend on our understanding of the historic mix and help to realize an essential and sustainable mix for future growth.

We can approach sustainable design from many angles in China and indeed we need buy-in and support from each piece of the puzzle. The government needs to stay informed on their policy, and this is where China-Europe relations have been strong, with initiatives like the EU-China Urban Forum helping to influence China's outlook on sustainability.

Developers need to continue to commit to using sustainable building practices and materials, following schemes such as the China Green Building Three Star, the US Green Building Council's LEED system or the UK's equivalent BREEAM.

As designers, we need to keep reimagining what our cities need, and devising intelligent solutions. With experience from working across Europe, it is the cross-pollination of knowledge that is helping to conceive our rapidly developing cities in the East. The approach we need to take is to marry the knowledge of how Europe has championed concepts such as "walkability" and adaptive reuse with the understanding of China's history, culture and local context.

It will be our solutions to accommodate new trends and new thinking in regards to how we move, live, work, shop and socialize that will dominate the agenda for sustainable urbanization, and both China and Europe have a lot to learn from each other and a lot to share.

The author is global director of Benoy, an international firm of architects, master planners, and interior and graphic designers. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Li Min / China Daily

(China Daily European Weekly 01/02/2015 page11)