Topos: From Expo City to Sustainable City
From 1 May to 31 October 2010 the World Expo will be held in Shanghai. With the motto “Better city, Better life” the central theme of cities has been chosen for an Expo for the first time.
The Expo site covers an area of 5.28 square kilometers and has the biggest participation in the history of world expositions, attracting about 200 different nations and international organizations. During 184 days Shanghai will experience the greatest city event in its history. It is estimated that around 70 million people will come to Shanghai and visit the Expo site. The masterplan for the Shanghai Expo site comprises both sides of the Huangpu River – 3.03 square kilometers on its east bank and 1.35 square kilometers on its west bank. There are five functional zones with an average size of 60 hectares.
With more than half of mankind living in urban areas, harmonious life in the world’s cities is a key issue of our time. In Shanghai, with about 18 million inhabitants, this topic has highest priority.The Expo itself aims to implement the principles of sustainable planning in order to become a model example of sustainable design. At the same time it will provide valuable opportunities for its visitors to learn how to create an eco-friendly and sustainable urban environment.
Innovations in the fields of sustainable urban lifestyle and development will be shown not only in separate pavilions but also in the exhibition space of the Urban Best Practice Area, which presents various ongoing practices as well as experimental examples of livable cities, sustainable urbanization, protection and utilization of historical heritage as well as new building technologies. Moreover, the planning of the Expo site and the construction of the Expo buildings them- The Expo site showcases ecological ways of water treatment and their integration into contemporary landscape architecture, like in Houtan Park designed by Turenscape.The structure is built from steel panels reclaimed from the site. selves can be regarded as experiments of Chinese sustainable urban development.
Based on sustainable principles, the master plan pays great attention to five environmental aspects: water, air, soil, energy and materials. In order to ensure a high environmental quality, the plan requires the use of clean energy, such as solar and wind energy, as well as the reduction of pollutant emissions and land consumption. The master plan’s land use guidelines have induced compact and high density structures, in order to minimize the consumption of open space, which is already rare in the city of Shanghai.
As the underground space of the site is intensively used for all kinds of infrastructural facilities, valuable above ground areas could be saved in order to meet the manifold spatial requirements during and after the Expo.
In the public facilities and buildings new and innovative technologies are applied: most buildings were designed following various ecological concepts, such as rain water collection, solar energy generation, LED lighting, natural ventilation and eco-friendly materials. This goes to such lengths as using the river water of the Huangpu as the cooling or respectively heating medium in the air conditioning of the Expo Performance Center.
The Expo traffic planning supports public transportation, fuelled with clean energy. Thereby harmful environmental impacts of motorized private transport can be reduced considerably. Under the impetus of the World Expo not only a new subway transportation hub has been set up within the Expo site, but beyond that, the rail transit construction of the whole city of shanghai is already ten years ahead of schedule. The road network of the Expo site is not planned separately from the rest of the city, but as an integral part of its future road system.
Within the framework of the Expo master plan the social aspect of sustainability is also an important issue. Previous to the Expo planning, the existing residential quarters in the area, most of which have been built since the 1970s, were investigated and analyzed thoroughly. The encountered social fabric I these residential areas was considered valuable and worth protecting. As a result, eight blocks with a total area of about 1.4 square kilometers surrounding the Expo site, were declared as an urban renewal area, which ought to be preserved. This measure did not only avoid the social cost of relocating about 150,000 households, but also set an example for the on-site renewal of the city’s old residential quarters that propagates this kind of approach for other areas in Shanghai.
The landscape plan of the Expo site aims to establish an ecological corridor along the banks of the Huangpu River. By doing this, it wants to bring the city back to the river, make it directly perceptible and increase the people’s awareness that Shanghai once used to be a water city. The Expo green space planning intends t create a “Green Expo and Eco-Expo”, a goal which is directly derived from the "Better City, Better Life" concept.
At the city scale, the 80 hectares of green area, which stretch over a length of six kilometers along the river, will function not only as the necessary space required for the visitors during the Expo, but also the future green lung of the downtown of Shanghai.
The newly created green space system is composed of a green core, a green axis, green belts and green wedges. According to their spatial characters and ecological functions, the green areas are classified into five groups: waterfront green space, green space for activities, ornamental green space, green space along streets and green space on plazas. For these spaces the functional requirements as well as the use and distribution of plants were planned bearing in mind both the usage during and after the Expo.
The green belt along the river is composed of three parks: Shibo Park and Houtan Park on the eastern river bank and Jiangnan Park on the western bank. Within Shibo Park and Houtan Park polluted water of the Huangpu River is branched off in an artificial water course in order to exhibit ecological ways of water treatment and their integration into a contemporary landscape design.
Today’s Expo sit once was the land were modern Chinese industry came into being. The conservation and renovation of this industrial heritage site is a further important aspect of the Expo design. The historic industrial buildings with a total of more than 200,000 square meters, have been renovated and turned into exhibition pavilions, museums and buildings for recreational purposes. The site of the former Jiangnan Shipyard, a hallmark of Chinese industrial history, has been transformed into the Jiangnan Cultural Plaza and adjacent Jiangnan Park. Both the existing buildings and the newly created architecture within the Expo area will be reused in the future. Intended uses are a center for creative industries, a trade fair, an international convention center as well as cultural and recreational facilities.
In the long run, the urban renewal induced by the Expo 2010 will lead to a new development district spanning both sides of the Huangpu River. This mirrors the strategic concept of bringing the downtown of Shanghai, Which for centuries has sprawled inland, back to the Huangpu riverside, where the original birthplace of the city lies.
The new land use structures, transportation facilities, open spaces as well as social and cultural amenities within the Expo area are preparing the ground for further developments in the city of Shanghai. Due to the scarcity of land available, Shanghai is planning a shift in the city’s leading industries. The development of the modern services industry as well as the shipping industry will be pilot projects for the future local economic development in Shanghai.
The Expo 2010 can in that respect be considered as the enlightenment of sustainable urban practices in Shanghai. Both, the skyline changing with the new buildings and the new open green open green space along the Huangpu River represent a starting point of the new development in Shanghai, which is aiming at a better city life in the post-Expo era.
The Expo master plan establishes an ecological corridor along Huangpu River and brings the city back to the river banks. The new river landscape is composed of three main open spaces: Shibo Park (1), Jiangnan Park and Jiangnan Cultural Plaza (3) by NITA Design Group and Houtan Park (2) by Turencape.
Houtan Park measures 14 hectares and was designed by the Chinese landscape architects Turenscape. It lies west of Shibo Park and comprised a former industrial area as well as a natural wetland along the Huangpu River.
The design concepts composed of three main aspects: biological water purification, flood control as well as the local and cultural notion of water. Within the park the river water is purified through biological processes. For that purpose, the existing wetland was widened and divided according to its ecological functions into two zones which run parallel along the river. The outer zone is a natural shallow water body with reed, where the river water seeps through and gets cleaned. In the inner zone an artificial wetland was established in which the water gets cleaned buy infiltration. From here, the water finally flows into the neighboring Shibo Park.
The water level in Houtan Park fluctuates regularly due to the tides, creating a diverse water landscape. The dam, which here consisted of a five meter high wall, was replaced by a terraced landscape. On the various terraces agricultural fields with different crops were planted, in order to revive traditional Chinese agriculture and allow people to experience it. The ecological design of Houtan Park extends to constructing the paths between the planted terraces of recycled material, found on site.
