Mott MacDonald lands key advisory role on Tianjin Eco-City, China
2010-01-20 from:NCE author:Mark Hansford
Mott MacDonald has been awarded a key role on a new flagship sustainable development in northern China, the ¥150 billion ($22 billion) Tianjin Eco-City for clients the Sino Singapore Tianjin Eco City Administrative Committee and Global Environment Facility.
The project is being constructed over a ten year period as part of an agreement between the Chinese and Singaporean governments. Once completed, it is hoped that the Eco-City, which will cover an area of approximately 30km2, will house up to 350,000 people.
Global management, engineering and development consultancy Mott MacDonald’s role on the project is to provide technical assistance in the development of a sustainability strategy for the Eco-City which encompasses green building, green transport, and industrial and commercial strategies all underpinned by education options and stakeholder engagement to encourage ‘low energy’ living. The consultancy will also lead on the design of two demonstration projects – a 20,000 square metre Middle School and a 600-apartment residential complex, both of which will be required to demonstrate a 65% saving in annual energy compared with the benchmark of the previous national standard.
Mott MacDonald will be working with local design teams on the demonstration projects to determine which sustainable design features and improvements can be adopted, along with their relative cost, in order to define the final, cost-effective designs.
Dr Anne Kerr, Mott MacDonald’s project director said. “Tianjin will have one of the world’s lowest per capita carbon footprints. To achieve this, we’re applying the latest thinking and the best available technologies, and bringing together different design disciplines in an integrated way to achieve trailblazing performance in sustainable living.”
The Eco-City is located in northern China in Binhai New Area, a region earmarked for rapid economic growth and well linked to Beijing and other major economic centres. The aim is for Tianjin to become an international centre for environmental expertise and green innovation, serving as a model for eco cities across the developing world.
Highlights of the Eco-City will include innovative public transport and pedestrian-oriented urban design to limit the use of private motorised transport (to less than 10% of journeys), a wetland to provide natural treatment for recycled wastewater, and the use of organic waste to produce heat and power, with 60% of the city’s waste being recycled. In addition, management of power and water consumption combined with clean and renewable electricity generation will be used to limit carbon emissions.
Mott MacDonald’s project coordinator, Jenny Jiang added, “One of the key factors in the development of Tianjin is to find sustainable solutions to deal with the challenges of high density urban living. The needs of China’s huge population and the country’s rapid growth require imaginative and sensitive approaches to urban building design. The establishment of the Eco-City is to explore how to demonstrate low carbon emissions in a brand new city in order to cope with the issue of global climate change.”
Construction of the first phase of the Eco-City, an eco-business park has already begun.