I wouldn't mind living in that cluster of skyscrapers, only if I live over the 50th floor, since from there under natural light decreases floor by floor quite rapidly, due to the vicinity of the other tall buildings.
By the time you get to the 10th floor or under, if you switch off the artificial light you are in total darkness, so you are forced to live with artificial light 24 hours a day, not a very nice or healthy prospect.
A fantastic neighborhood for psychoanalysts, since the cases for depression will run into the thousands, but then they should take a sunny penthouse apartment for themselves, or end up as depressed as their own patients.
Like many Chinese cities, Chengdu is growing at “breakneck speed.” The city has over 7 million people and the metro region is home to nearly 15 million. But as growth continues, thanks to its fast growing economy, it will come at a cost: overburdened infrastructure.
To take some pressure off the city’s infrastructure, Chengdu is building a new satellite city, known as Great City, outside of Chengdu. The design of the new development — just released by Chicago-based architecture firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture — sounds like the most sustainable suburban development you can imagine.
With a goal of building a new development that doesn’t contribute to the “high energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with suburban sprawl,” the 3 square-kilometer, high-density satellite city will house 80,000 people. The area is so compact, in fact, that the average person can walk anywhere in the city in 15 minutes, with all residential units a two minute walk from the nearest public park. At the center of the city is a transit hub that connects Great City to Chengdu.
According to the designer, compared to a typical development of a similar population, Great City is expected to use almost 50 percent less energy, 58 percent less water, and create 89 percent less landfill waste.
Of the 800 acre development, people will only work and live on 40 percent of the land area. The rest will be used for open space and agriculture. Here’s the bird’s-eye view:
“For the first time in China’s history, more people live in cities rather than rural areas, which means that the country is in real need of examples of dense, mixed-use sustainable urbanism,” says AS+GG partner Robert Forest in a statement. “Our design for Great City is a shining example of what the urban future could and should look like, both in China and elsewhere around the globe.”
Great City, which is being developed by Beijing Vantone Real Estate Co., is expected to be complete in the next eight years.
[h/t dezeen]
Images courtesy of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
