Sustainable township vision for Nanjing
Background to the AUS
The Australian Urban Systems Cluster (AUS) was established in 2004 by three leading Victorian design and urban planning companies: LAB Architecture Studio, UrbisJHD and DesignInc., in close cooperation with the Victorian Government’s Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development (DIIRD). The aim of AUS is to develop and promote best practice in planning and design for sustainable urban development. These three globally-focused Australian architecture, urban design and urban planning firms were keen to build on their existing track record in China. The massive urbanisation programs occurring in key growth economies around the world, particularly China where there is an annual spend of AUD 180 billion in this area, present unprecedented opportunity for Australian firms with expertise in urban development. Australia’s lower production costs and expertise in sustainable technologies provide an edge, but the competition is fierce and government assistance can prove crucial in opening doors. The Government’s funding was directed towards the development of projects in China’s Jiangsu Province – Victoria’s sister state. Inter-provincial cooperation is coordinated through the Victorian Jiangsu Joint Economic Committee (VJJEC), for whom sustainable urban development is now a key focus.
From the initial three members, the cluster has grown to approximately 25 firms. AUS members include urban (master) planners and designers, architects, engineers, economists and technology product and service providers. Cluster members are currently working in the Middle-East on projects worth in excess of AUD 25 billion and in China on projects in the Yangtze river corridor that are anticipated to deliver around AUD 50 million in exports for Victorian firms over the next 3 years. Cluster activities have also included two exhibitions promoting Australian capability in urban design and development. The success of the early projects completed by the initial cluster members is now starting to have a flow-on effect to other firms in the cluster, with 15 - 20 further projects identified in China and the Middle East.
The first successfully completed AUS project was the development of an urban framework plan for Qilin, a new city in China, by a consortium led by Melbourne firm LAB Architecture Studio, well known as the architects of Federation Square in Melbourne.
Background to the project
With funds secured from the Victorian Government, LAB Architecture Studio approached the Nanjing Urban Planning Bureau (NUPB), the local government administration responsible for urban development in Nanjing. The NUPB offered three sites for consideration, from which LAB chose Qilin, a quarter of 20km2 in the key site of Xianlin, a new town of Nanjing. To create a new urban framework plan for the area, LAB established a consortium of Australian landscape architects, urban planners, economists and traffic and environmental engineers.
The site had been the subject of some development work within the NUPB, but a key official had determined that more was possible and presented a ‘greenfield’ site to the consortium. The NUPB was seeking a new definition for the Qilin quarter. The NUPB client group comprised roughly 20 diverse urban planning and architecture professionals, each with their own view for the site and their own professional preferences regarding approach. To achieve a new definition for Qilin, a major hurdle for the Australians was to challenge the thinking of the client group within the NUPB, who were accustomed to a particular approach to urban planning involving large areas of single use development.
Response – the design process
In keeping with the NUPB’s desire to explore what was possible for the site, the consortium did not receive a clearly defined brief. A process of iteration was used to establish the design brief. Over four months, a total of three workshops were held in China, one every six weeks, during which the consortium members presented options and worked with the client group to encourage them to embrace the underlying principle of the framework: an integrated approach to planning.
The key stages of the design process were:
- Initial research to ascertain the economic imperatives driving the development of Qilin
- Use of the research to inform the development of an overall vision for the site and key design objectives
- Development of the framework plan
- Delivery of the framework plan to the NUPB and negotiations regarding the next stage: creating development guidelines for each element of the framework plan
Stage 1 – economic research
To assist LAB to understand the economic drivers for Nanjing, and in particular the relationships between Nanjing, Xianlin and Qilin, a report was prepared by SGS Economics and Planning. The location of Qilin offers both proximity to Nanjing’s city centre and a bridge to Xianlin’s new universities. Exploiting this geographic advantage, the SGS report identified a key role for Qilin as an incubator of knowledge based businesses and a site for strategic industries. The model of ‘Advanced Business Services’ was used to create an economic framework to underpin the vision for the site. ‘Advanced Business Services’ are businesses which facilitate innovation in other industries. They operate as a knowledgeable interface between industries and between industries and universities.
The model of Advanced Business Services strongly influenced the design process, through the identification of opportunities to develop Qilin with the characteristics common to such urban areas, including eclectic, mixed-use buildings, vibrant cultural life, rapid connectivity and non-traditional business precincts. Qilin’s natural beauty (the site includes a mountainous region and waterways) was a further opportunity for the consortium to create a sustainable, livable city.
Stage 2 – creating the vision and the design objectives
Working with the client group, LAB and the other consortium partners developed a vision for the site as a major administrative and economic centre for Xianlin. The vision included strong civic and cultural elements, accommodation in the city centre and a non-traditional approach to the integration of mixed-use zoning. Importantly, the vision was practical and showed that the development could be realised within the timeframe of the NUPB.
To complement this vision, the consortium also developed a set of design objectives, statements that created a holistic image for the client group of the completed city, and encouraged them to visualise a vibrant, functioning city. Achieving agreement to these principles was crucial to the consortium as it underpinned the detailed work which was to follow. It was at this stage that a more sustainable vision for the site was secured, where the concepts of utilising the site’s natural features and creating a basis for mixed-use development were accepted.
The challenges of the project lay in having such a diverse client group. About 20 members of the NUPB were involved in the decision-making process for the Qilin urban framework plan, each a trained urban planning professional with ideas for the site and experience grounded in their own approach to urban design. Much of the process involved bringing along this client group to a new way of thinking about urban design, and in this the Australian consortium was much helped by the NUPB’s chief architect, who championed the consortium’s ideas to the rest of the group.
At the commencement of the project, the notion of using urban development to promote sustainability and creative economies was not a major driver for the NUPB, although an underlying desire to shift from ‘made in china’ to ‘created and designed in china’ was explicit. During the course of the project, questions of sustainability and creating a dynamic integrated urban area became more and more important. The NUPB set an aspirational target of 25% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, offering the consortium an opportunity to restructure road and light rail use and to work with the topography of the site to maximise water management.
The consortium used existing Australian examples to demonstrate certain ideas, and relied on Melbourne’s globally-recognised image as a livable city to promote certain concepts, such as smaller developments and a mosaic pattern of mixed land use.
This approach to urban development was new for the NUPB client group, who were accustomed to a more traditional type of ‘gated community’ with large areas devoted to a single use such as residential, commercial or industrial, and the government creating only the major roads encircling a development area, with individual developers responsible for everything internally. Such a system requires the site users to travel long distances by car from their homes to work, to study, to shop and to participate in daily life. The concomitant impact on greenhouse gas emissions is not the only negative effect of such development. Research shows that creative economies are those which achieve a close and dynamic interaction of all parts of the economy. Clusters of universities and creative industries promote innovation and attract highly skilled workers. Integration with residential areas and with cultural, sporting and social amenities further enhances the livability of the area and promotes a dynamic of further growth. These ideas were central to the final urban design and are key to the design excellence of the Australian consortium.
Stage 3 – designing the framework plan
Once the client group had accepted the overall vision and design principles for the site, the consortium then proceeded to develop the overall urban framework for the city: activity hubs, road and transport network, water systems, ecological parks and green areas, civic sites. Consortium members drew on their expertise in architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture, and traffic and environmental engineering to propose solutions to the development challenges of the site.
The Australians’ deep experience of managing water efficiently and effectively was highlighted in the creation of water parks to service residences and handle storm water. The original framework for the area created by the NUPB contained water systems based on a planning grid which ignored the topography of the site, including a significant mountainous area. The consortium proposed a model based on the site’s natural water systems, resulting in a more organic ‘grid’ twisting in response to the land. Ecological parks were created to help the city ‘breathe’, to create and connect distinctive areas of the city, to maximise water recycling and to shape the city more organically. The resultant plan will mean that more residents will live in proximity to natural landscape than under the original plan.
Design excellence was also demonstrated in the transport solutions proposed for the site. These focused on creating a pedestrian-friendly environment, diverting major roads to the outskirts of development sites and proscribing development guidelines for smaller roads, a major shift from the traditional Chinese planning approach. Cycle routes and parking locations to reduce vehicle movement were complemented by improvements to the original plan for a single train line, and the creation of a light rail loop enabling public transport access to the maximum number of areas within Qilin.
The consortium developed four primary urban hubs to form an interconnected network of mini-cities within Qilin. These hubs are proposed as seeds which will grow organically over time, each with its own characteristics and economic/cultural drivers. Development principles were proposed for each hub, addressing building height and density, interconnectedness to the other hubs, transport characteristics and economic characteristics. The hubs are the core of the framework plan, demonstrating clearly the central tenet in the consortium’s offering that multiple, smaller, mixed-use sites will drive economic development and sustainability.
Stage 4 – Delivery of the Urban Framework Plan
The completed urban framework plan was delivered to the NUPB in November 2006. The significant efforts spent on bringing the client group along at each stage of the project were rewarded by the NUPB’s acceptance of the plan. Work has now commenced on the next stage – drafting detailed development guidelines for each aspect of the framework plan. Meanwhile, having demonstrated Victoria’s expertise and experience in sustainable urban design through this and other projects, LAB and its consortium partners have worked on the designs for a further 6 projects in Jiangsu Province in the course of the past 12 months.
Facts at a glance
Challenge
Sustainable urban development of a 20km2 area known as Qilin, Xianlin New Town, China
Type of designer engaged
Consortium of Australian architects, urban designers, landscape architects, urban planners and economists, traffic and environmental engineers
Most important part of the process
Having someone in the client group who could champion the project to the rest of the client group
Most difficult part of the process
Being able to develop an alternative framework plan which could be embraced and realised through a system which was based upon different development values.
Solution
Urban design framework plan, comprising a coherent and unique, mixed-use vision for the site, principles underpinning the design approach, detailed plans of the overall urban structure and associated elements, and principles for moving forward
Outcomes
The urban framework plan has been accepted by the relevant Chinese authorities and work is commencing on the next phase of the project. Consortium members are currently in negotiation regarding their ongoing involvement and have also gained other projects in China as a result.
Approximate budget for project
Victorian Government funding AUD 150,000
Key players
Client
Nanjing Urban Planning Bureau
Industry sector: Local government
Project leader: Dr Lu Qinhao, Chief Architect
Australian Urban Systems Cluster
LAB Architecture Studio
Industry sector: Architecture
Project leader: Peter Davidson
Oculus
Industry sector: Landscape architecture
Project member: Mark Jacques
SGS Economics and Planning
Industry sector: Economics and urban planning
Project member: Marcus Spiller
Hyder Consulting
Industry sector: Traffic and environmental engineering
Project member: Jim Forbes
Related Links
Nanjing Urban Planning Bureau — ghj.nj.gov.cn
Australian Urban Systems Cluster
LAB Architecture Studio — www.labarchitecture.com
Oculus — www.oculus.com.au
SGS Economics and Planning — www.sgsep.com.au
Hyder Consulting — www.hyder.com.au
18 December 2007