Jin Mao Tower and Lujiazui district by night.
A Greener Metropolis Shanghai is gearing up to become China’s most eco-friendly city.
Courtesy of Grand Hyatt Hotel Shanghai
by top koaysomboon / photographs by chakkapan im-aree ast year, the Grand Hyatt Hotel Shanghai, together with the Jin Mao Tower in which it’s housed, was given LEED-EB Gold Certification, a leading award for environmentally-friendly architecture. The first construction in Shanghai to receive the award, the hotel and tower were designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Architects (SOM) 15 years ago. Eco-friendly measures were adopted right from the outset: low-carbon-footprint materials and coated glass on the façade to block UV rays, as well as waste-recycling management and fresh-air ventilation. Next to the Jin Mao Tower is a construction site for what will soon be China’s tallest building, the 632-metre-tall Shanghai Tower. This 121-storey, mixed-use skyscraper designed by the American architectural firm Gensler was also awarded LEED Gold Certification, for its use of low-carbon materials and low-construction technology. On completion, it will be one of the world’s tallest LEED-certified buildings, second only to Taiwan's Taipei 101. Neither the Jin Mao nor Shanghai Towers can be called global pioneers, but they are Chinese innovators. Both are buildings at
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the vanguard of a new urban development trend that has taken hold in Shanghai, one initiated by the Chinese government in an attempt to make it a model green city. The World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, the first to be held in a developing country, saw China swinging open its doors to the world in a manner only matched by the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. And the legacy is still being felt. The World Expo not only drew more than 70 million visitors; its theme of “Better City-Better Life” paved a new path for Shanghai’s urban planners, too. Shanghai, like mainland China generally, is a victim of its own success. One of the world’s fastest growingeconomies, China's rapid urban development has brought wide-spread pollution and over-consumption. But to its credit, the theme of Expo 2010 addressed the country's environmental predicament and, together with the ideas of sustainable development presented by other countries, has awakened in both the government and residents an awareness of a new kind of urban planning for this city of 24 million. On October 31, 2010, the final day of the 184-day event,
representatives of participating countries gathered at a summit to jointly issue the Shanghai Declaration. Its first goal: establishing an ecologically oriented civilisation. (Other goals include balanced growth, scientific and technological innovations, smart and accessible information technology, an open and sharing multicultural society, a friendly and liveable society, and balanced urban-rural development.) In 2012, the Chinese government announced its latest five-year plan on Greenhouse Emission Control, which includes Shanghai, China’s most sustainable region of development. The Chinese government believes that as urbanisation has become a national policy for economic growth in China, cities should play a leading role in reducing carbon emissions too. The plan set ambitious new goals to reduce the amount of carbon emissions per GDP unit (17 percent by 2015) and energy consumption (16 percent by 2015). New policies and technology were adopted so that, even though overall carbon emissions in Shanghai have increased, carbon emissions per GDP unit have dropped continuously.
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of urban planning in Shanghai, from the Western influences of the 1900s through to the period of political revolution, right up The Expo 2010 theme to the present day. The highlight addressed China's is a miniature model of modernday Shanghai that features every environmental last building that makes up its predicament and, downtown and suburban areas, together with the and spans the entire fourth floor. ideas of sustainable But if you wish to learn about the development presented future of Shanghai, go upstairs. by other countries, Inspired by Expo 2010, the has awakened in both entire fifth floor is dedicated to ideas of sustainable living, the government and as recycling waste water residents an awareness such and garbage in residential of a new kind of urban units, urban planning design, planning for this city introducing natural light of 24 million. and ventilation indoors, and renewable energy sources. There’s also a multimedia dome showing a 360-degree video animation of the future cityscapes of Shanghai. Many Renewable energy is commonly of the projects are being used; and Shanghai's trolleyimplemented around greater buses, air-conditioned Shanghai. One of the biggest since 2001, now use mainly is an effort to transform the electric power, to reduce their 50,000-square-metre former contribution to air pollution. Expo 2010 grounds on the east side of the Huangpu River into a new, environmentally sound n front of the People’s commercial district. Park in downtown Today, the US$220 million Shanghai stands the Shanghai Chinese Pavilion, with its Urban Planning Exhibition striking monolithic form and Centre. A striking glass edifice, its red paintjob, remains the main floors are devoted to the history landmark of the former Expo
The Green Valley construction site.
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The US$220 million Chinese Pavilion, with its striking monolithic form and red paintjob, remains the main landmark of the former Expo site.
site. Since 2012, the pavilion has been serving as a contemporary art museum, displaying the works of emerging Chinese contemporary artists. Near the pavilion are the Mercedes-Benz Arena concert hall and the Expo Exhibition Centre, where most of the city's trade fairs take place. These structures are the only ones that have outlasted their primary purpose. The other 90 percent (the international pavilions of participating countries) have been demolished to make way for a new project: Green Valley. Helming the project is Danish architectural firm Schmidt Hammer Lassen (SHL), which beat out competition from hundreds of other firms around the world. This is quite a boon for the
Chris Hardie at Schmidt Hammer Lassen's Shanghai office.
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A scale model of the Green Valley project.
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company, as this is the first time the Chinese government has commissioned a private company to develop the whole area of a city centre, rather than just one building. SHL submitted a plan to turn the space into a mixed-use complex comprising offices, restaurants and shops. According to Chris Hardie, director at SHL’s Shanghai office, the firm has, during its 28 years in the industry, mainly been drawn towards cultural projects that integrate with the public. “The Expo promoted the idea of sustainability: ‘Better City – Better Life.’ So for us it was an interesting starting point,” he says. They also saw problems in other Shanghai development projects that they wanted to remedy. “The whole idea was to do a master plan for private office buildings. That sounds like Pudong or Lujiazui, right?” Hardy says, referring to Shanghai’s new commercial
district. “But from our point of view, Lujiazui has a lot of problems. There are people in the offices, on the skywalks, in the shopping malls, but there’s no life on the streets. When it’s night-time, everywhere is dead because everyone has gone home. So we want to make sure that even though this is a private office area, it has to have a good mix of public functions. We tried to integrate these sustainable office buildings with the park — we have both a big public park and the necessary space for offices. So when the offices close at night, the park is still vibrant." “I think one reason we won,” he adds while showing us the scale model for the project, “is that we tried to make the buildings simple. It’s a very simple monolithic box. Somebody might spend money on the shape but we spent money on materials. We’d rather have simple buildings with quality materials than
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weird-shaped buildings with really bad materials. Then we can spend more of our budget on the park.” The Green Valley project features six identical cube buildings. They look the same from the outside; it’s the atrium of each building that distinguishes one from the other. “They are simple boxes on the outside, so that they don’t distract from the view of the Chinese pavilion.” Hardie adds that the SHL architects designed the buildings to align in two parallel rows so that they lead one’s eyes up to the Chinese Pavilion. “But when you are inside, they are all individual. That is perhaps another reason [the judges] loved this.” A scale model of the Green Valley project.
Hardie clarifies that the perception of sustainability does not always mean high-end technology. “Sustainability is an interesting topic. Many people may think they’re related — sustainability and technology. Yes, of course we can have sustainable technology in this building: wind generators, water recycling, all these things; we can do that and that’s fine. But for us, sustainability is more about the routine of what people do. The mere fact that we’re making a public park is a key to sustainability. We’re trying to create a vibrant space that will always be used. We’d rather make a place people want to come back to than a place where people don’t want to use electricity.” He says SHL did
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not rely on technology but architectural fundamentals. The buildings are designed for good ventilation because Shanghai’s summer is really hot, while the façades are wellinsulated because it can be incredibly cold in winter. The floor plates are also designed to be thinner so natural light can reach most parts of each building. “I think everyone knows [the importance of sustainability]. There are enormous construction projects going on in China, more than anywhere in the world. The Chinese government realises it and is serious about it. They’re making guidelines and sustainable agendas. That’s
why it’s good for us, as a Danish company – because our expertise is much in demand.” Despite the fact that construction of Green Valley only began last year and should be completed later than originally scheduled, in 2015, a number of Shanghai-based companies have already decided to move their headquarters to this new commercial district. SHL is also working on a few other projects in Shanghai, including one that will turn an old waterfront building in the South Bund area into an art gallery. “And there are more I cannot tell you about now,” Hardie says, laughing.