Taihu Town Tongzhou Beijing Central District Urban Design

Project Profile

The unique historical background, transformational condition and water system give an unlimited vision to the design of Taihu Central District. Based on the idea of Green City, aimed at the goal for an ecological, humanistic and efficient new town, the design has five outstanding features as follows:

1. Green Cross—Growing Source of Taihu

With the Tang Lake - Pagoda Tree square as the core, the east-west forest belt along the canal and the north-south landscape belt as two axes, the landscape character and the spatial pattern is formed as the ‘green cross’, which is the principle to organize space and traffic, and create an urban shape.

2. Green Network as Basement—Dissolved Green Space

In consideration of existing site characteristics, green space and parks are placed as elements of ecological infrastructure in the city, combined with stormwater management system, in order to make economical use of land, improve quality of urban environment and promote the value of the land.

3. Garden Settlements—City Integrated into Green Matrix

The residence layout deserts conventional arrangement model and adopts ‘courtyard + island’ layout instead. Green belts are located between residential quarters, ensuring residents always surrounded by nature. Buildings become pleasant islands floating in oasis so that residents can have more opportunities to contact with nature.

4. Multi-Functional District, Innovation Cells—Dissolved Mono-functional Districts

The open courtyards facing the street bring the green into the city parks, which forms a garden-style office environment. Public services are combined with the units that have convenient outward traffic so as to maximize the utilization of urban resources and eliminate the feeling of emptiness in the R&D District during non-working hours. The innovation cell is the primary component of the district. The cells are combined in various ways to create diverse rooms of different size, in order to meet the needs of different types of enterprises, and accounts for the needs of different periods of future growth.

5. Green Traffic System—A Green Network for Non-Motorized Traffic

Traditionally, all parts of a city are linked by communication lines, which are accompanied by green belts and divide the whole city into different functional parts. In this plan, a greenway network designed mainly for cyclists and pedestrians combines all parts organically, which includes three east-west greenways connecting the residential areas, the central landscape belt, the commercial core and other functional zones, and one greenway linking all functional parts within the entire core space. This network breaks the shackles of motor vehicle road system, and provides a safe and comfortable traffic environment for residents.