Sync

Designing a Cultural Center for 21st century eco-cities

Tianjin, China

Brief Grants Schedule Awards & Fees Jurors Partners Discussion Entries (8)Leaderboard Rules & Guidelines

OVERVIEW

Img 1: Vision for Maidar Eco-City proposed by RSAA l Source

Eco-Cities

Richard Register first coined the term ‘Eco-city’ in 1987 as "a human settlement modelled on the self-sustaining resilient structure and function of natural ecosystems".

Eco-cities can be understood as cities that adopt integrated urban planning and management tools to create self-sustaining living for the citizens that aim towards the least impact on the natural environment such that they’re preserved for future generations.

**As per a global survey*China was found to have the largest number of eco-city projects equaling 25, followed by the USA with 17, and Japan and the UK with 17 each.**

*conducted by the University of Westminster in 2011

Img 2: Current view of the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City. l Source

Sino-Singapore Tianjin City

Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city is considered to be the first citywide testing ground for environmental standards relating to air quality and carbon emissions. The scheme began in 2007 and is a collaboration between the government of China and Singapore.

The city is envisioned to be a place that is socially harmonious, environmentally friendly, and resource-efficient – a model for sustainable development. In order to achieve this, the entire planning and development of the city are guided by a comprehensive set of 22 quantitative and 4 qualitative Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Through this project, they intend to create a model for an eco-city that is practical, replicable, and scalable.

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Img 3: Lifestyle of people living in SSTEC.

Current Scenario

The construction for SSTEC began in 2008. It’s been over a decade since the project started, and the city is now a home for 100,000 people and 7,700 registered companies and institutions.

The city has successfully adopted eco-friendly buildings, uses renewable energy, efficient waste and management systems, smart transportation, infrastructure, and services. In fact, the schools in the city use this opportunity to teach the eco-friendly way of living to the kids as they believe that sustainability needs to be taught at the grass-roots level.

This city is an excellent example that truly demonstrates how eco-cities can work.

, greenhouse gas emissions, quality of life, urban planning, sustainable city, urban ecology, energy consumption, energy technologies, carbon waste, human settlement,

Img 4: Traditional jars for tea- an example of the deep-rooted Chinese Culture.

Issue

Eco-cities aim for creating an eco-friendly place for the citizens just like the Sino Singapore Tianjin Eco-city. However, the Key Indicators that drive these cities often lack the larger idea of it belonging to a particular location and its inhabitants, in this case- China. Ceramics, music, literature, martial arts, cuisine, visual arts etc are some of the important components of Chinese culture.

It is important to inculcate practising sustainable living at a grassroots level. However, it is equally important that the culture of the community that dates back to thousands of years ago is not forgotten.

How can architecture be used as an important tool to imbibe this ancient culture in the 21st-century eco-city?

culture of singapore, design for singapore, community of singapore, socio cultural, eco-living, eco-design competitions, chinese culture, tianjin city, architecture competitions Img 5: This embroidery produced by the Chinese dates back to 1875-1900

Brief

Design Challenge - Propose a Cultural Center for Sino Singapore Tianjin Eco-City that aims to encourage citizens to keep the culture of the community alive within this new kind of living.

Objectives

Participants can use the suggested objectives to begin their design. However, this is not an exhaustive list.

Accessible: Design should be accessible for people from all age groups and cater to special needs as well.
Sustainable: The proposed intervention must abide by the Key Indicators of this eco-city.
Tourists: The center would also become an important tourist location. Thus, the design must cater for this accordingly
Cultural: The proposed intervention should aim for becoming an enriching point of the city for everything that Chinese culture has been known for.

architecture and design, eco-districts, green capital, green spaces, public transportation, zero waste competitions, Sino, Singapore

Img 6: Location of the SSTEC with respect to the neighbouring cities.

Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City

The SSTEC zone is located in an important strategic coastal region for China’s national development, 45 kilometres from Tianjin’s urban areas, and 150 kilometres from Beijing. It is sited on non-arable land. Prior to development, the site of the Eco-city was one-third saltpan, one-third deserted beach, and one-third water, including a 270-hectare wastewater pond.

A key concept in the Master Plan for the Eco-city is the Eco-cell system. Eco-cells are basic building blocks and each of them is about 400 m by 400 m. Four Eco-cells make an Eco-neighbourhood, and several Eco-neighbourhoods form an Eco-district.

There are four Eco-districts in the Eco-city. The Eco-cell system encourages walking as 400 m is generally accepted as a comfortable walking distance.

Site Plan

The site for intervention lies in the Eco-core area which lies in approximately the center of the city. The site shares one side of its boundary with Jinghu Lake. As per the master plan, the chosen site is allocated for Culture and Recreation.