Pilot Project for Low Carbon Development

S U S TA I N A B L E CITIES CHINA

P I L O T PROJECT

FOR LOW CARBON DEVELOPMENT

The Energy Foundation China Sustainable Cities Program, Calthorpe Associates China Sustainable Transportation Center 2012. 5

Case I: Kunming Chenggong new town

Case II: Chongqing Yuelai Eco-City

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Case I: Kunming Chenggong new town Project background Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, has been the focus of tremendous urban expansion over the past decade. Chenggong, the largest of the four planned new towns, will become the new provincial capital and home to the new Yunnan University. The site for the new town, located 15 km south-west of Downtown Kunming with an area of 160 sq. km, will extend from the foothills of a mountain range on the east to the banks of the picturesque Dianchi lake on the west.

Dianchi Lake of Kunming city

Kunming city

Chenggong new town

Regional location of Chenggong new town in Kunming city

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At present, the population of Chenggong is estimated to be 300,000 but is expected to reach 1,500,000 over the next twenty years, with over 625,000 jobs incorporated into mixed-use districts. In recognition of the ecological wealth of the region, development principles for the region are based on promoting ‘Low-Carbon Cities’. A robust transit network comprising of several bus rapid transit (BRT) lines and two Metro lines will integrate Chenggong with the historic city and other planned areas.

An indication of the importance of Chenggong is its planned High Speed Rail Hub at Kunyu Rail Station which will ultimately serve an estimated 200,000 passengers each day. Its three High Speed Rail lines will connect Kunming to Shanghai, Chongqing and Guangxi. It is estimated that by 2020, the annual number of passengers would reach 31.2 million and by 2030, 44 million. There are also proposals to extend the rail network across the border to South East Asia.

Another key development for the new town is the proposed Yunnan University, a major new center for education, research and related fields. It will establish Chenggong as a knowledge base for the entire region. It will have a comprehensive mix of academic and research facilities as well as residences for teachers and displaced villagers. It will have a total student population of 150,000 with approximately 20,000 teachers in a number of colleges spread over 1,500 ha.

Kunming South Station

Kunming city government

Present situation and development plans of Kunming new town

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Yunnan University

Landscape in the administrative area

Super block development in Chenggong new town

The super block development in Chenggong has baffled the expansion of first-floor shops. But due to market demands, there remain operating a small number of shops, as shown in the street scene in the right picture.

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Prior to this plan, Chenggong was developed following the 2006 edition of the regulatory detailed planning. The regulatory detailed planning guided Chenggong to complete construction of parts of the projects, including the administrative center, Luolong park, the Central Park, civil servant quarter and some main roads.

However, in the course of construction, some problems relating to the regulatory planning emerged. These problems, universal in China’s new town planning, mainly cover the following aspects: The blocks have excessively large sizes, resulting in insufficient road network density. There are a large number of 300m to 500m long/wide blocks. The road network density is less than 5km/ km2.

The roads have too large dimensions, without sufficient attention to convenience of pedestrian and bicycle transit. The core area is planned to construct an 80-meter wide road and several 60-meter wide roads. The road crossings are too big for pedestrians and bicycle riders to cross.

The public space is not planned systematically. The new town is scheduled to construct a few big parks, but it has not paid enough attention to small and medium-sized public activity spaces, squares and green belts. In particular, there is a lack of specific stipulations on connecting these spaces and relating them to lands for commercial operations and residences.

Public transit planning is insufficient. The core area is planned with a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line less than 10 kilometers and two metro lines. They cover less than 40 percent of the core area in a radius of 500 meters.

The block and street control is not scientific. The block control mainly relies on a few traditional control indicators, which allow buildings to have very large setback distance, to the maximum of 50 meters.

It is necessary to re-examine the relationship between transportation and land use. The block development density is connected with the transportation system mainly through the regional position and grade of the roads. It has not paid systematic consideration on the relations of public transit and land use.

There is no explicit requirement on the mix of land use. As shown in the existing land use plans, each block basically keeps one function, and there are no clear methods or requirements to mix the blocks.

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Chenggong land use planning, 2006 edition

Working mechanism In terms of the visions of work, we take the opportunity of revising the regulatory detailed planning of Chenggong core area to analyze the problems in the existing program, point out the key elements that fail to adapt to city development. On this basis, we construct a work platform in line with the local government’s anticipation of low carbon city construction and the Calthorpe concept of low carbon city construction. We rapidly complete compiling of the core area concept planning. Following the “five combination� requirement of Kunming municipal planning bureau, we join up the conceptual planning with actual situations in Kunming and the core area, and make the planning more feasible.

The operation schedule is separated into five stages.

The first stage is to compile the conceptual planning. An international team, mainly constituted by Calthorpe staff, puts forward the conceptual planning for the core area with advanced concepts. The second stage is to argue, question and improve the reality and feasibility of the planning, mainly by the local team.

The third stage is to study the city height and skyline in line with local anticipation of the city. The fourth stage is to improve the control indicators, make the maps, legalize the regulatory plan and put them into the official database. The fifth is to extend long-term technical support for regulatory plan management in later stage land acquisition and project development, so as to carry out the plan.

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In terms of the work team, we adopt the mode of transnational and cross-specialty cooperation and multi-department alliance. The planning design team comprises six parties, which are Calthorpe Associates, Kunming Urban Planning & Design Institute, Fehr and Peers, Kunming Urban Transport Institute, Xi’an University of Architecture and China Sustainable Transportation Center. Among them, • Calthorpe Associates makes low carbon city conceptual design for Kunming Chenggong core area, determines the planning principles, road network framework and BRT network for the low carbon city core area; and proposes control ideas on land use, block division, main public service facility allocation, road section, block spatial combination mode, and building setback principles; • Kunming Urban Planning & Design Institute collects and supplies fundamental data on the sites, and assists compiling the conceptual planning.

It is mainly responsible for drafting the regulatory detailed planning code for the low carbon core areas, establishing demonstration project control and block development control guidelines, and supporting the planning management department to compile land transfer conditions; • Fehr and Peers mainly takes charge of the argumentation, testing and planning of the one-way couplet, a key technology in road network planning in the study area. It also puts forward conceptual plans for traffic control, and traffic capacity and level of service analysis in key road segments; • Kunming Urban Transport Institute takes charge of building the comprehensive transport model for Chenggong core area, forecasting traffic volumes, testing the road network transit capacity, planning the public transit network, compiling the road site plan and road network construction phasing plan, making the parking plan and indicators, and offering advisory service for implementation; • Xi’an University of Architecture studies the urban forms of the core area, including the city height and skyline control; • China Sustainable Transportation Center, the technical team of the Energy Foundation, assists international expert teams and the foundation to make project management, traffic analysis, site analysis, urban design, regulatory plan compilation, land transfer condition establishment and examination consultation.

It serves as a bridge among all teams.

The consignor of the project is Chenggong new town government and Kunming Municipal Planning Bureau. In the process of making the planning, the design teams join forces with Chenggong new town government, Kunming Municipal Planning Bureau, and the vice-mayor in charge of the affairs. The final blue print was reported to the Kunming Municipal Planning Committee for examination and approval in February 2012.

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Conceptual planning of Chenggong new town core areas Based on low-carbon eco city requirements, Calthorpe team proposed 8 principles to guide the planning: 1.

Develop neighborhoods that promote walking 2.

Prioritize bicycle networks 3.

Create dense networks of streets and paths 4.

Support high-quality transit 5.

Zone for mixed-use neighborhoods 6.

Match density to transit capacity 7.

Create compact regions with short commutes 8.

Increase mobility by regulating parking and road use

Planning map of core area in Chenggong

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At the Masterplan level thenew town meets the fundamental criteria for sustainable low-carbon design by creating an overall jobs/housing balance, and providing rich transit opportunities. What it lacks however are walkable, mixeduse neighborhoods and transit centers. Overall it is compact, dense, and served by multiple transit lines and technologies. These features facilitate its design as a series of TODs. In addition its physical footprint respects the natural environment, preserving and enhancing the lake edge as well as the natural topography of local hills and the surrounding mountains.

Given this basic framework, the New Town demonstrates how sustainable design can be applied to an ‘in-progress’ development area. First TODs are located within the masterplan: Several special use areas dedicated to the university and industrial use are excluded. Then the open space and areas dominated by existing construction are identified. There remain four potential TOD areas that meet the land-use and transit criteria defined in Section 2. Of these four one, the ‘Central District’, was selected for modification in the regulatory plan.

This ‘Central District’ is bounded by an expressway to the west, open space and existing development to the north, and the university on the other sides. It has two metro lines with 6 stations, one of which is a major multimodal station combining the two metro lines. In addition there are multiple BRT routes and stations along with the high-speed rail station. In all, this rich transit network creates one ‘Commercial Center’, four ‘Urban Centers’ and seven ‘Town Centers’ as defined by the Manual. These station areas and their transit capacity then sets the hierarchy of density and mix within the overall Central District TOD.

The Chenggong New Town plan with location of TODs and Centers highlighted

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The planned Caiyun Road with 10 lanes and 80-meter section (upper chart) and the proposal to adapt Caiyun Road and the street scenes (lower chart)

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Appealing to the one-way couplet concept, the new planning raises proposals to improve the urban trunk roads over 60 meters wide in the old planning. It adopts two methods to improve the roads traversing the core areas. One is to keep motor vehicle lanes in one direction in the original fracture sections, and develop the surplus space into bus lane, bicycle lane, pedestrian lane and green belts, or a combination of these elements. In the meantime, build motor vehicle lanes for the opposite direction in a neighboring block. The other method is to abolish most of the motor vehicle transportation functions of the original road, and keep only one motor lane and one bus lane. The remaining space is reformed into public activity areas, such as green belts. At the same time, construct one-way motor vehicle lanes in the blocks to both sides of the original road to supply motor lanes equaling those of the original road (but according to simulation research, one-way couplets have greater traffic capacity when the motor lanes are as much as the original road.) By redistributing the fracture surface of the original planned roads, we extend greater rights of way to bus rapid transit, pedestrian and bicycles, and increase green belts and public activity spaces of more use values. Most importantly, such a revision breaks the giant block pattern, compresses road sections, and makes non-motorized traffic more convenient. The following chart shows five one-way couplets in the new planning. These combinations break down the giant crossings in the original planning. As shown in the simulation analysis, when these giant crossings are constructed in urban areas, the level of service mainly reaches E or F when the traffic volumes mount to the peak. By adopting the couplets, the level of service will be E or better.

Layout of one-way couplets

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Another measure under the new planning is to densify existing road network.

The previous roads largely keep a distance of 300 to 500 meters between two neighboring roads. They have large dimensions and insufficient density. To this end, the new plan increases a large amount of access roads, to make the road distances range from 100-200 meters. The dense road network facilitates multiple choices for vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians, making streams of people and traffic flows distribute more evenly within the area, and improving the connectivity of the entire road network system. With the help of powerful signal control, the road network will have greater traffic capacity and flexibility.

The mass transit service will also be improved due to shorter signal cycle times.

In the aforesaid road network pattern, the core area has a format of small blocks and fine grids. The blocks are reduced from the original 9-25 hectares to 1-1.5 hectares. Pedestrians will spend less time to walk from one street to another in the area.

In addition to distributing vehicular traffic relatively evenly in the entire road network, the plan diverts non-vehicular traffic. It plans a non-motorized traffic only road network, comprising six bicycle and pedestrian lanes in the northsouth direction and four bicycle and pedestrian lanes in the east-west direction.

It also adds one corridor exclusively for buses, bicycles and pedestrians. These roads supply quality space for non-motorized traffic mode, and separate them from vehicular traffic based streets. They alleviate mutual interferences of traffic flows at crossings, simplify signal phases at crossings, and create conditions for signal coordination.

Non-automobile traffic only roads

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Metro/BRT plan

Following the aforesaid principles, the new planning gives priority to proper mixture and density in land use. The mixture comprises mix-use vertically within the blocks and horizontally among blocks. Under the control of fine grid roads, the blocks are small. The planning first defines the main use of each block and, on this basis, puts forward requirements on certain mixture. For instance, blocks mainly for residences are matched with a certain percentage of ground floor retail shops. Blocks mainly for offices are assorted with certain amounts of business and services. The mix of blocks is more important, particularly that of commercial offices and residences. It is widely adopted in the land use plans. Such mixtures help decentralizing travel destinations, reduce average trip distances, increase short-distance trip proportions, and subsequently make pedestrians and bicycle trips more feasible. The extent of mixture is based on a rational balance of residents and jobs in the planned areas.

The commercial office land use is mainly distributed around public transit stations so as to supply convenient public transit accessibility for the future employment and attract employees to take nearby public transit.

The density and Floor Area Ratio (FAR) distributions rest with the capacity of public transit. Areas surrounding the most important public transit nodes have highest density and FAR. For example, high density commercial and residential buildings are built within the 1,000 meter radius from the transfer station of the two metro lines. The nearer a place sits to a metro station, the higher FAR it will have. In this way, the entire core area is developed in a concentrated pattern around BRT lines and metro stations, as illustrated in the following chart. Meanwhile, high density residential buildings are set up around all the public transit nodes and high density commercial buildings to form an integral TOD mode.

High density development parcels

Public space network

The fundamental of the TOD concept is public transit. For this reason, the new planning in principle puts public transit in the first place. On the basis of the original planning, the new planning increases the density of BRT, to the effect of one BRT corridor for every 1-1.5 kilometers. In the station arrangement, it takes into account the convenience of transferring among different lines, and draws closer the stations of metros and BRTs to formulate an integrated public transit system. It adjusts the metro stations that have been planned but not yet designed with a view to land use to facilitate transfer with BRT system. Since the future high speed railway station is expected to have large passenger volume, passengers rely heavily on the public transit system. In addition to the originally planned metros to connect with the high speed railway station, the newly planned BRT system is closely joined with the high speed railway station. It has planned an east-west street exclusively for the BRT, bicycles and pedestrian directly facing the station square.

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The public space and public services are planned in the angle of users, with priority given to the accessibility and continuity. For instance, the plan has covered all the schools 400 meters to the residential blocks and parks 800 meters to the residential blocks. On the basis of the existing central park and college campuses and greenbelts, it has planned a number of small parks. These small parks will be constructed to fit local conditions, harmonize with development oriented lands and existing natural ecological and water system. They join up with green corridors and pedestrian and bicycle lanes to form an integrated unity. To meet the design of transforming the original trunk road into two separated roads, a green axis is added in the north-south direction and east-west direction respectively. Small squares are set up at key points like metro stations to furnish people with small activity spaces.

Cultural facilities like cinemas and exhibition halls are placed next to or in the parks.

In the end, the human-friendly block comprises six types of typical “small blocks.”

The residential block has a 4.0-2.7 FAR, and commercial block has a 4.0-8.0 FAR. Each “small block” has a series of design standards to determine general development control requirements, and a series of detailed city design standards to ensure each development project has a human scale and realize the low carbon objective in the block. By gathering high density development and commercial “small blocks” in public transit nodes and rationally distributing jobs and residential development around the nodes, the block owns rich skylines. The most important is the commercial quarter, about one million square meters, around the transfer station of the two metros. The region has become the high efficiency business center and commercial destination of the new town.

The CBD design for the Chenggong central area characterized with high density development around the metro stations.

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Regulatory detailed planning and index system of Chenggong new town core area 1.

Deepen the conceptual plan After Calthorpe Associates completes the conceptual planning, Kunming Municipal Planning Bureau puts forward “five combinations” on how to implement the planning. They are to combine the existing projects with the projects under construction, combine with Kunming local culture and the living habits, combine with the projects in process of land transfer, and combine with existing norms and regulations of Kunming city. The five combinations have strengthened the reality and feasibility of the planning. They are shown in the following aspects: 1) Combine with constructed roads During the conceptual planning period, the planning area has some roads constructed. On the basis of following the economical efficiency principle, the conceptual planning puts forward the section reform program for some constructed roads. For example, the completed Caiyun Road has too large dimension. Following the Calthorpe idea, having planned the couplet roads, Caiyun Road will have weaker vehicular traffic function. It will be reformed into an axis for important public activities, with closer ties and vitality of commercial offices at both sides. Such a planning composes a big challenge to city administrators, who might assume political risks to reconstruct the existing urban trunk road in the short term. Therefore, under the “five combinations” of the planning bureau, the city has finally decided to maintain the status quo of Caiyun Road in the short period. But it has not rejected the ideal of reconsidering Caiyun Road when the couplet is fully built.

2) Combine with projects constructed or under construction In the planning, to fully realize the Calthorpe ideal, the local government has extended loose constraints. It believed that the blocks well constructed or under construction following the previous edition may be adjusted, such as allowing the newly planned roads to traverse the block. However, in communicating with the developers in the later stage, it has found it hard to coordinate some projects. Both legs of the couplet along Caiyun Road, the main traffic route in the north-south direction, are straight lines parallel to Caiyun Road under Calthorpe planning. But later stage communications show that the lands at both sides have been developed and the couplet has to get through the established blocks in curved lines. In another case, a wave-like pedestriansand bicycle only street in the conceptual planning, penetrating the core area from east to west, has to be cancelled because it passes through a number of constructed blocks and blocks under construction, and fails to win approval of the block owners.

3) Combine with Kunming local culture and living habits Calthorpe’s plan requires that buildings have small setbacks from the streets and high percentage of building frontage falls in-between the setback lines and street boundaries (red lines). Residential buildings close to streets will suffer from heavy noise pollution, and will not be accepted in the market (The Kunming side attributes it to impacts of the Chinese culture, but Calthorpe believes it a general character across the world. It is prevalent in China, because Chinese streets are largely in big scales, with severer impacts from motor vehicles.) Therefore, the planning bureau stipulates that the 15 -20 percent mixed commercial functions must be constructed for ground floor businesses. This measure will save the first and/or second floors from straightly facing the street front as residences. Besides, the northern side of the core area adjoins the office buildings of the municipal government.

As among the most important architectures of the city, the office buildings should have good views. Therefore, it is inappropriate to have too high buildings in the southern side. Along with the overall land use requirements of the core area, the areas directly to the south of the municipal government are finally planned as the cultural axis, featuring low buildings for the culture center, art gallery, and women and children’s activity center. The lands are determined for the cultural industry. In the end, since the core area is home to the Hui compound of age-old Islamic traditions, a mosque is built nearly. Lands are also reserved for other religious activities to integrate the planning with local culture and humanism concerns.

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4)

Combine with projects in process of land transfer

In the course of compiling the Calthorpe conceptual planning, a number of projects are underway to transfer land according to the previous edition of the plans. We have discussed with potential buyers of the lands under the new provisions, particularly on the new roads to be constructed in the lands in line with the new plans. So, on the whole, we may maintain the city pattern for small blocks and dense road networks as advocated in the new planning. However, as some lands are adjusted for new purposes, we cannot fully follow the conceptual planning to carry out the ideal layout. Take the plot to the north of the arch park as an example. Although the road network has become more intensive under the new planning to break the original giant block pattern, the government has reached an agreement with the developers prior to the planning to earmark the plot for commercial purposes with high development intensity. The ideal condition is to develop the plot as a TOD point. But the public transit system has not yet reached the TOD standard in the place. In addition, under the conceptual planning, a number of land pieces for residences under TOD requirements along Caiyun Road will be transformed to commercial purposes, since the residences are not well accepted in the market. These plots for commercial purpose may be developed into flat apartments.

5) Combine with existing regulations and norms The technical specifications guiding Kunming city planning are represented with Provisions of Kunming on Technical Management of City Planning. The conceptual planning for the core area strictly abides by the provisions relating to indexes of supporting facilities for public service and sunlight for architectures.

But the new planning breaks through the technical management in terms of control of city forms, such as building setbacks, building frontage control and density, because small blocks, in intrinsic requirements, are essentially different from the prevalent large block development mode. For this reason, the latest revised technical management regulations raised the principle of following the Regulatory Plan in special areas. Chenggong core area, experimenting low carbon pilot project in Kunming, naturally falls into the special area category.

Following the “five combinations,� Chenggong core area has revised and deepened the planning. The revised planning has basically kept the Calthorpe conceptual planning, with minor adjustment in land use and road network, to make the planning more realistic and feasible.

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The modified regulatory detailed planning

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The building heights and FAR are decided by the conceptual planning and the city form. As proposed by the conceptual planning, a 100X100 meter plot will have 4.0 to 2.7 FAR for residential quarters and 4.0 to 8.0 FAR for commercial quarters.

In addition to traditional compulsive indexes, the regulatory detailed planning adds the building frontage control and low carbon ecological indexes as supplements.

To cultivate sound streets and resident friendly street space, the planning for the Chenggong core area adopts a regulatory requirement under the small block planning concept for small building setbacks. It has raised specific requirements considering the functions of the roads.

Table Minimum building setback Road function Traffic Livelihood Commercial buildings (meter) 3 Residential buildings (meter) 5

Pedestrian and bicycle 2 1 3 2

To keep the continuity of streets, the building frontage is controlled with percentages. Under the overall plan for Chenggong core area, 70%-90% of the building lines are required to fall inbetween the setback line and street red line for buildings along north-south roads, and the required range is 65%-85% for those buildings along east-south roads.

Scenes of proposed small scaled streets

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In small blocks, building coverage/density must be increased in the course of adding the building frontage requirement so as to keep the street interfaces continuous. Take the example of the nine small commercial blocks to be developed in the core area. The net building coverage may reach 65-75%.

The density values are high here. But they are slightly different from the traditional density concept. Traditionally, building density shall not exceed 35%, and the green coverage shall not be less than 33%, which are indexes based on large plots transfer. In addition to building bases and green fields (1-35%-33%=32%), the plots cover hardened pavement, ground parking lot, architecture span, internal roads and some external roads.

Under the small plot transfer condition, the excluded parts comprise ground parking lot (Chenggong core area requires all vehicles parked in underground lots), internal and external roads, and some green spaces (the building setback spaces reserved for green belts). Since less architecture is built in a single plot, the architecture spans are reduced too. So the traditional “32 percent� architecture bases and green spaces shall be digested in the architecture density to generate at least 67% architecture density. Taking into account the small plot building frontage control and street cultivation requirements, we propose it to maximize at 75 percent and properly reduce the green rate. The green rate is raised in consideration of the ecological environments in the small plots, not necessarily confined to specific plots. As shown in the overall situation, including the setback green belts and central park, the ecological environments have been perfect, and we need to cultivate street scenes representing the cultural progress of the city.

Regulatory detailed planning code of the core area of Kunming Chenggong new town Regulatory detailed planning

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Road constructional detailed planning of Chenggong new town core area In the traditional regulatory detailed planning stage, the road control is normally made with red lines. Except for specific planning, the road section form is normally made directly from the regulatory planning to the construction design drawing within the red line scopes.

There exists big uncertainty in the process, which is unfavorable to persistently embody the traffic environments that the planning advocates friendly for pedestrians and bicycles.

Therefore, on the basis of the red lines for the road network as stipulated by the regulatory planning, we have compiled road constructional detailed planning. It comprises settlement of road sections, plane design of crossings, scopes of vehicle inlets and outlets, coordinates of road control points, bus stations, road side parking scopes and modes, crossing control principles and modes, arrangement of underground parking lots and underground utilities.

The road constructional detailed planning has given sections of each road, which elaborates the arrangement patterns of BRT and special lanes under the planning. It ensures priority for public transit in key traffic corridors. It also gives preferences to pedestrians and bicycles in allocation of right-of-way.

The plane design of crossings fully materializes the people-first concept. It pays attention to the details of pedestrians and bicycles passing through streets. For instance, it sets up waiting zones in the middle of streets, narrowed entrances, pedestrian islands, and small radius curbstones to facilitate pedestrians and bicycles to cross the street more directly and safely in shorter distances.

Narrowed road junctions 生活性道路结合 for livelihood roads and 停车位收窄路口 parking lots Parking 停车位lots

Bus stations 公交站

People friendly crossing design

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Motor vehicle passageways are established to alleviate interference to pedestrians and bicycles and elevate their security. As a result, on the basis of deciding the functions of the roads, for livelihood or for traffic, we establish the following rules and provide the road sections allowing or banning vehicle inlets and outlets.

• Openings are banned for vehicles in the following roads and road sections: bus-only roads, pedestrian and bicycle-only roads, sections of livelihood roads 30 meters from the crossing of two motor vehicle roads ( measured from road red line intersecting point, same below), road sections 20 meters away from the crossing of pedestrian and bicycle-only roads, sections of traffic roads 50 meters away from the crossing of two motor vehicle roads, and road sections 30 meters away from the crossing of pedestrians and bicycle-only roads.

• Plot vehicle openings shall be built first on the roads for people’s livelihood. If a plot has less than two faces neighboring a livelihood road, we may set the opening in a traffic road.

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The plot opening for vehicles shall be placed on the long side of a street.

The regulatory detailed planning road network supplies only one flat surface and we need to analyze and confirm the feasibility in the vertical direction. The road constructional detailed planning furnishes coordinates of all vertical control points, valuable for references in next stage construction designs.

The road constructional detailed planning has elaborated the locations, dimensions, and layout of public transit stations. It is of great significance to harmonize ground public transit and land use, and establish detailed planning for future land transfer.

To incarnate the planning and design principle of putting pedestrians and bicycles first, the regulatory planning stipulates in the very beginning to minimize ground parking spaces and encourage underground parking. But considering actual demands for some activities and making best use of existing street spaces, the road constructional detailed planning has screened all the streets and given out sections of roads allowing road side parking. It has calculated and planned the appropriate parking seats.

The road network in the core area is much denser than traditional big road networks, with more crossings and more difficult control. Therefore, supported with the macro traffic forecast model and micro simulation analysis, the planning has mapped out the future crossing control modes according to the nature and traffic flow of crossings. They cover signal controlled crossings, non-signal controlled crossings, and right-in and right-out crossings.

When developing underground parking lots in small blocks, single blocks may have narrow spaces and it is hard to optimize the use of the spaces technically and economically. When a developer buys several plots, or different developers explore same plots, we should encourage them to interconnect underground development. To this end, the road constructional detailed planning follows technical requirements to elaborate which roads allow underground development.

To guide road network implemented in stages, the regulatory detailed planning has put forward the timing sequence for constructing backbone roads considering existing roads and future development prospects.

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Block vehicle inlet and outlet planning and design

Side parking planning

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Crossing control planning and design

Road implementation status and planning

Height control/skyline control in core area of Chenggong new town

Core area height control

Height and skyline control in the core area of Gongcheng new town extend and fully embody the high density development principle of the TOD concept to centre on the public transit nodes and integrate with key urban axes and regional borders.

High density development mainly concentrates on the following aspects: 1) high-speed railway stations. Construct landmark architectures around Chenggong high-speed railway station. 2) Metro stations. Set up high-rise buildings to cope with the high density of metro stations. 3) City gateway points. Construct high-rise commercial buildings at both ends of Caiyun Road.

4) Key scenery points. Construct relatively high buildings in the western greenbelts and southern university town greenbelts to generate sight landmark buildings.

Core area partial bird’s-eye view

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Case II: Chongqing Yuelai Eco-City Project background Chongqing, China’s most typical mountainous city and the only municipality directly under the central government in west China, assumes the historical missions of constructing ecological protective screen in the Three Gorges Reservoir area, driving up west China development, and exploring a road of sustainable development for other mountainous cities. In August 2010, Chongqing municipal government made a unified arrangement.

It comprehensively analyzed the city’s natural landforms, ecological environments, regional traffic and city functions and, incorporating the timing sequence of land use, decided to make a pilot low-carbon eco-city in an area of 10.44 square kilometers in Yuelai of Yubei district (“Yuelai eco-city”). It will construct the first stage of low-carbon eco-zone in a core area of 3.43 square kilometers.

Yuelai eco-city is located in the northern part of Chongqing main city area. It sits in the boundary of Liangjiang new district, adjoins

Location of Yuelai eco-city

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Jiayue Bridge PROPOSED CHINGQING EXHIBITION CENTER

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Yuelai has steep mountainous roads, and can be entered through Jiayue Bridge over Jialing River.

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Zhaojiaxi Interchange

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According to the original land use plan, Yuelai adopts a superblock system with wide roads and isolated land uses.

Jinxing Boulevard, a typical main road of Yuelai. It is oversized and unpleasant for walking.

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Chongqing International Expo Center, Garden Expo Park and the sinuous Jialing River. It is densely covered with verdant vegetations and valleys. The No.6 metro line passes through the area with three stations.

The eco-city is planned to have sustainable traffic facilities, infrastructures, and high efficiency energy utilization. Experimenting with the eco-city contributes to positively explore and summarize experiences in planning ecologically friendly mountainous cities and promote China’s all-round ecological city planning and construction. It facilitates motivating ecological city planning in the western regions and constructing and promoting city planning compilation concepts, technological methods and standard systems.

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Lanfeng Tunnel

Fengshou Reservoir

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Jinshan Tunnel

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Non-construction green

(1,031.04 Ha | 2,548 Ac)

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Parks

PHASE 1 BOUNDARY

Transportation Facilities

Public Facilities

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Other Uses

Protective Green

(342.84 Ha | 847 Ac)

PROJECT BOUNDARY

Planned Land Use Yuelai Eco-City Project, Chongqing

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08 November 2011

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80

1:20,000

200 400 m

Work mechanism In terms of work arrangement, the city will guarantee the planning and design achievements of Yuelai eco-city. It will fully consider the requirements for planning management, harmonize existing builtup and management condition and planning concepts, and ensure the advanced concepts effectively implemented. Specifically, for the plots under construction, the plan will suggest long-term adjustment according to the eco-city planning principals. As for the plots put under the management programs already, the plan will set up control indicators on the spatial ecological environments while assuring approved development quantity. Regarding the plots to be constructed and relevant road networks and public transit infrastructures, the plan will strictly follow the eco-city planning concepts and set up a perfect ecological control index system and construction requirements.

In the perspective of work schedule, Yuelai eco-city planning is made in three stages. In the first stage, evaluate and analyze constructions and planning in the site according to the sustainable, low carbon and ecologically friendly principle. Find out existing problems, and directions and measures for improvement.

In the second stage, establish the conceptual plan for the planning of the demonstration area in Yuelai eco-city. Improve the plan to formulate regulatory detailed planning (pre-arranged planning). In the third stage, based on specific plot development projects in the eco-city, establish detailed planning and design to guide construction.

In the aspect of work team, it adopts the mode of transnational and cross-specialty cooperation. The planning design team comprises five parties, which are Calthorpe Associates, Chongqing Planning & Design Institute, Chongqing Transport Planning Institute, professor Wampler’s team from MIT architecture department, and China Sustainable Transportation Center. Among them, Calthorpe Associates assumes the task of making conceptual planning and design for Yuelai eco-city. It decides the planning principle, road network, and public transit system. It proposes spatial control for land use, block distribution, main public service facility arrangement, road sections, block typology, and building setback; • Chongqing Planning & Design Institute collects and supplies field fundamental data, and assists in conceptual planning compilation. It mainly takes charge of compiling the regulatory detailed planning for the eco-city, establishes demonstration project control guidelines and plot development control guidelines, and draft out action plans and dynamic maintenance plans; • Chongqing Transport Planning Institute is responsible for forecasting the traffic volumes in the eco-city. Based on the public transit network design, bus stations and terminal facilities, it sets up differentiated car parking space requirement in different locations; • Professor Wampler’s team from MIT architecture department selects plots for site design and architecture design in the core area, and demonstrates how to optimize the design of architectures with

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mountainous terrains and local vernacular dwellings; • China Sustainable Transportation Center, as the technical team of the Energy Foundation, assists the international expert team and the foundation to make necessary project management, traffic analysis, site analysis, and city design. It also helps communication with local design teams.

In the end, Mr. Calthorpe and Hu Wantai, director of Chongqing Municipal Planning Bureau, jointly work as chief designers to harmonize all stages of the planning and all the design teams, and track the construction plans for follow-up projects.

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Conceptual design of Yuelai eco-city

The current plan for Yuelai suffers from many typical planning problems: large single-use areas, pedestrian-unfriendly superblocks, and development that is un-coordinated with Metro station locations. For Yuelai Eco-City to become an active, vibrant urban community, the plan needs to be redesigned around the pedestrian, bike and transit, not the car - in other words, a design that features the ‘Urban Network’ with narrow streets and small blocks.

Comparison of the ‘Superblock Plan’ with the proposed ‘Urban Network Plan’: the proposed plan has lesser land area under roads while yielding a larger amount of builtup area (BUA).

Proposed land use plan for Yuelai that responds to the challenging terrain and creates walkable neighborhoods based on the ‘Urban Network’.

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View of the Yuelai eco-city

Sand table model of Yuelai eco-city

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The Yuelai site is unique in its local charm and challenging topography.

Therefore, the urban design must go towards a community design closely fitted to its terrain, culture and history. This is the true meaning of ecological design. Therefore, the proposed plan for Yuelai Eco-City is designed to several specific ‘Design Themes’. While generally following the ‘Five Chongqing’ goals, these Design Themes cater specifically to the Yuelai site, creating a true Eco-City. These ‘Design Themes’ are: Design Theme 1: Work with the site’s natural features

Plan showing slope analysis: the design lays roads and buildings with minimum alteration to the natural landscape.

The topography of this site could have been mass graded into a series of relatively flat, buildable sites, but instead the plan was approached with the idea of laying roads and buildings lightly on the land, following the natural landscape. Streets will curve to follow the terrain and the traditional hillside architecture of the area will be used in selected steep areas. The site plan achieves a connection between the highly valuable river amenity and the new Horticultural Exhibition Park through a series of open space fingers along creek tributaries and through linear parks. Dramatic site features have been preserved and incorporated into the natural open space system, providing lookout points and hillside parks. Open spaces and trails will preserve the land in areas of extreme slopes, riparian corridors and ecologically-sensitive areas.

Design Theme 2: Create a walkable community

Plan showing pedestrian movement systems: special ‘auto-free streets’ that prohibit cars, will connect key community destinations.

Within this steep terrain, creating walkable streets and small blocks presents a tough design challenge. Flatter areas will follow the ‘Urban network’ with small blocks and narrow streets. ‘Auto-free’ streets, that allow a mix of pedestrians, bikes and transit systems, but prohibit cars, will play a special role in connecting key community destinations through hilly areas. Some of the site’s steepest areas (above 25%) will feature hillside escalators, lined with shops and small businesses, providing a unique pedestrian, hillside experience.

On most roads, particularly those across flat terrain, bike lanes will be provided. A network of dedicated non-auto lanes will permeate the extensive network of public streets and auto-free streets, providing an easy alternative to the car. Public trails will also provide linkages to the natural, hillside areas and the low-lying Jialing riverfront parks, completing the ambitious task of community walkability.

Design Theme 3: Orient development to transit facilities

Plan showing the transit network. An electric shuttle bus along a central auto-free street will link a series of neighborhood centers.

The two Metro stations in Yuelai Eco-City will become the focus of high-density jobs, services, retail and residential development. At the core of the city is the Ellipse Gateway, an expansive civic plaza with access to the Metro and Bus Terminal; surrounded by public amenities and framed by mixed-use commercial towers and several retail ‘main street’ retail centers. At the Jinshan Metro station, the existing industrial area will be converted into a mixed-use area, with 31

high-density residential and commercial blocks. An electric shuttle bus will connect residential neighborhoods, providing access to local schools and neighborhood parks.

A series of Neighborhood Centers will be sprinkled throughout the hillside community, serviced by the electric shuttle bus and local bus lines. These centers will primarily be anchored by schools and small amounts of local-serving retail and within easy walking distance of every home and all bus stop locations.

Design Theme 4: Develop accessible parks and trails The success of Yuelai Eco-City will hinge on the ability to implement an extensive public parks system, accessible to all. The approximately 340 ha Open Space Plan will be diverse in uses, environments and connectivity. Many green linkages (including riparian trails, peoplemovers, and linear parks) will provide connections from the low-lying Jialing River area to the adjacent Horticultural Exhibition Center and interior valleys. Active and natural parklands will be developed continuously along the riverfront, with trails and walkways along its 4.6 kilometer frontage. A major recreational area will be developed over and around the sewage treatment plant with sports fields and ball courts provided throughout. Other civic features such as amphitheaters, community gardens, and farmer’s markets could be encouraged as destination features along the river’s edge.

A series of trails will follow streams up to interior valleys then on to the hillside developed areas with connections to the auto-free streets. These interior parklands will preserve the natural ecology of watersheds and hillsides, while providing places of respite for residents and visitors searching for quiet spaces among the urban environment. Within the developed areas a network of active parks, schools and open space are linked by a variety of auto-free paths and linear park-blocks.

Development is oriented to transit: plan showing the location of neighborhood centers (above) and transit walksheds (below).

Design Theme 5: Deploy state-of-the-art ecological systems Reducing auto dependence and its energy, carbon and air quality impacts is foremost in the ecological design for Yuelai Eco-City.

However other environmental strategies will also be pursued.

Climate-responsive building design will reduce energy and electrical demands as it makes the architecture more appropriate to this region. The use of an electric shuttle bus will replace auto trips and gas consumption. Engineers will investigate the potential for the sewage treatment plant to become a model of ‘waste-to-energy’ systems by using its methane production in a state-of-the-art electric generation facility. In addition, the waste heat from this plant can be used in a district cooling plant to provide for building needs.

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The Open Space plan features a wide range of open spaces and civic amenities, varying in scale and purpose, linked by a network of ‘auto-free’ streets.

City design of Yuelai eco-city core area The design of the eco-city core area follows the same design principles. Since the core area owns high capacity metro stations and the metro stations are surrounded with exploitable lands, the core area is designed into a main center of the eco-city. It has pedestrian-friendly and mixed use communities, and keeps close ties with open space, municipal infrastructures, and public transit facilities.

The core area is designed to surround the ellipse gateway square, which is a city square of big scale. It is linked with metro line 6 and a bus terminal station. The spacious mixed use tower buildings enclose the square, providing street-level shops, offices and residential housing. The square scatters into streets, auto-free roads, and small lanes to join with other quarters of the eco-city.

An electric bus line is applied to assist the metro to serve highdensity residential blocks around the ellipse square.

Land-use map of core area in Yuelai eco-city

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The unique ellipse gateway square, located in the center of the core area, is equipped with big-capacity public traffic service facilities. It is surrounded with multi-use business tower buildings and public service facilities.

View of Yuelai eco-city

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Regulatory detailed planning and index system of Yuelai eco-city core area 1.

Regulatory detailed planning: improve the existing regulatory plan to incorporate land use, urban form, transportation and utility arrangement in the comprehensive planning. Draft out plot indexes according to actual situations, when there are specific projects.

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Controlling index system: create plot development control guideline, follow the principle of scientificity and operability to set up trackable and measurable index system for the pilot low carbon ecological city project in the aspects of city function, green transportation, energy and resource, ecological environment, and green building.

Blueprint of Yuelai ecological town eco-city regulatory detailed planning

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Technical guideline for Chongqing’s pilot mountainous low carbon eco-city planning: summarize the planning experiences for the pilot Yuelai low carbon eco-city, and establish a technical guideline for the planning system, contents, depth, technical measures, index system construction, monitoring and dynamic maintenance of the low carbon eco-city planning compilation in the mountainous conditions of Chongqing, and create conditions to promote low carbon eco-cities in Chongqing and west China.

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Plot planning conditions and design guideline: determine the key indexes for managing plot planning in later stage, drafting land transfer conditions, and directing development project implementation, according to low carbon eco-city construction requirements and plot characteristics.

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Dynamic maintenance: 1) draft out action plans, and set up demonstration project database. Select the timing sequence in favor of implementing the pilot Yuelai low carbon eco-city planning. Determine the low carbon eco-city demonstration projects to be implemented in the near term in a rolling motion, and facilitate application of key ecological control indexes and key ecological technologies in the planning area. Plan and promote major functional projects and land transfer projects. 2) Offer dynamic maintenance of the pilot Yuelai low carbon eco-city regulatory planning in accordance with actual project implementation. It comprises monitoring the implementation through the GIS information platform, writing annual evaluation report on the implementation of the pilot Yuelai low carbon eco-city plan, and pay special attention to the implementation of demonstration projects, key ecological regulatory indexes, and key ecological technology. On this basis, it makes dynamic improvement of statuary plans.

Blueprint of Yuelai eco-city regulatory detailed planning

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Task force study on the transportation of Yuelai eco-city 1.

Forecast and analyze traffic demand of the eco-city in 2020, in accordance with the comprehensive traffic forecast models and public transit models in the main city area.

The demand includes the total volumes of internal, external and through traffic for the eco-city, as well as the mode share under the low carbon planning condition. This will subsequently determine the travel demand by metro and ground bus.

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Guide the public transit network layout (including the feasibility and distribution of conventional ground bus, bus rapid transit, and bus lanes), station layout (including terminals, transfer stations, and ordinary stations), in line with the eco-city land use arrangement and road network planning, and judge the expected travel lines in the area according to demand forecasts. Ensure public transit stations and planned bicycle and pedestrian lanes are effectively integrated to improve the accessibility of the stations.

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Study the public transit operation programs in accordance with the public transit system layout and demand forecasts. On this basis, analyze the adaptability of the public transit system and road bearing capacity in the eco-city.

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Plan parking lots in the eco-city core area (3.43 square kilometers) according to the land use layout and road network planning in the eco-city. It comprises the differentiated parking lot indexers for various plots, on-street parking areas, the integration of underground parking space in small plots, and parking fare policies.

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Study and analyze traffic conditions in and out of the eco-city with vehicles passing through the area, based on the amount of vehicle travel planned for the eco-city. Put forward plans facilitating traffic distribution for low carbon and ecological objectives in the eco-city, particularly on how to make best use and balance the passageway traffic capacity.

Vehicle flow pattern in the Yuelai eco-city road network

Travel expectation lines in Yuelai eco-city

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Job distribution in neighboring areas of Yuelai eco-city

Traffic flow of the crossing between expressway and expo avenue in Yuelai eco-city

Layout of public transit network and trolley line in Yuelai eco-city

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Simulation of traffic operations in the ellipse gateway square of Yuelai eco-city

Task force study on the spatial form of Yuelai eco-city Select four to six plots in the core area for site design and architecture design. The research contents comprise 1) Impacts of slope changes on designs; 2) how to better harmonize residences and natural scenery; 3) how to equip more houses with good views; 4) how to integrate lighting and ventilation into the design; 5) how to apply Chongqing traditional architecture elements into the design in the new era; 5) unit types satisfying diversified demands; 6) propose material lists for architectural designs; 7) how to better integrate underground parking lots with architectures.

Perspective view of streets in Yuelai eco-city

Bird’s –eye view of parts of Yuelai eco-city

Plane site plan of parts of Yuelai eco-city

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The architecture design of Yuelai eco-cityoriginates from local architectures

Urban design deepened plane graph of Yuelai eco-city

Single building design model chart of Yuelai eco-city

Single building design pattern chart of Yuelai eco-city

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