Greenprint for the future: Dongtan, China

In the current issue, Douglas McGray’s “Pop-Up Cities” for Wired Magazine could be the most interesting read on the newsstands. The story follows the progress of creating an environmentally friendly city for 500,000 people on a small island across from Shanghai. Designing a complete city from scratch is usually the sort of academic exercise that civic engineers and architects go through without any hope of implementing their ideas. However because China has both the space and the demand for such developments, the Eco-city of Dongtan will be one of the most watched projects of the next couple decades. More important than it’s built-from-scratch status though is how the lead architect Alejandro Gutierrez and his team from Arup are able to leverage what is now known from centuries of civic development. The article talks about the trends and insight about building density, energy usage, flood control, and environmental symbiosis. A truly educational read.

Photo credit: Arup / Wired Magazine