2007 VA ASLA Awards

Analysis and Planning Professional - Guamtang Chuangye Park New Town Concept Master Plan

Merit Award 

Project: Guamtang Chuangye Park New Town Concept Master Plan
Landscape architect: William McDonough + Partners
Project facilitator:  China - US Center for Sustainable Development|
Project sponsor: China Real Estate Chamber of Commerce
Private developer: Liuzhou New High Tech Industrial Development Zone Administrative Committee
Environmental engineers: JFNew

The Guantang Chuangye Park Concept Master Plan outlines a framework for sustainable design and innovation. Working with a broad and inclusive client group that includes officials from Chinese ministries, agencies, and regional and municipal governments as well as developers and local design institutes, the designers led an integrated process to plan a new urban district in southwest China that demonstrates a more environmentally sustaining approach to land planning. The introduction of this process is also intended to establish a replicable planning template that can apply to new village and town developments across a broad range of scales and contexts.

The plan is grounded in a systems-based conceptualization process that seeks "cradle to cradle" approaches to development - rather than "cradle to grave" ones - that capture and reuse natural and man-made resources typically lost as waste. Incorporating an integrated analysis and assessment process, the work allows innovative strategies for water and energy supply to inform the organization and pattern of the community. Though renewable energy systems and technologies may not yet present cost-effective solutions for energy production, the long-term goal is for Guantang Chuangye Park to be a safe, healthy, solar-powered city, and the plan provides a framework for achieving that goal.

The infrastructure strategies outlined in the plan also provide short-term steps that anticipate a viable solar-powered future for a new urban district that 1) maximizes social engagement and community; 2) creates an urban structure that promotes walking and healthy activities; 3) effectively leverages the scarce land available for development; 4) promotes regenerative technologies through the economy of scale; 5) treats water as a precious resource; 6) cleanses storm water crossing the site; 7) uses biological resources to build and restore soil quality; 8) optimizes the use of the sun and the wind as primary fuel sources; 9) restores habitat and biodiversity; and 10) learns from and respects the qualities of the land of this unique place.