Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Investment Corporation (SIIC), signed an agreement to expand their existing
partnership to plan and develop Dongtan and several other similar eco-cit-
ies.
3
SIIC is one of China's largest real estate developers, and one of the fi rst
Chinese companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Arup is not
well-known to the average person, although it has helped to build several
iconic structures, including the Pompidou Center in Paris and the California
Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. In China alone, Arup built Rem Kool-
haas's China Central Television (CCTV) headquarters, as well as the Beijing
Olympics Bird's Nest and Water Cube. h ese three buildings constitute Chi-
na's contribution to contemporary global architecture.
Dongtan was planned for a population of fi fty thousand by 2010—the year
was originally chosen to coincide with the world expo. Growing to fi ve hun-
dred thousand by 2050, Dongtan was supposed to usher in a new era of
green approaches to urban design, holistic economic and business planning,
and sustainable architecture and infrastructure (including 95 percent of its
energy from alternative and renewable sources, and 90 percent of the waste
to be recycled). Early glowing profi les of Dongtan from 2006 and 2007
described the plans as “bold” and “forward-thinking.” In the halcyon days,
before political and technical obstacles stalled the project, Western journal-
ists cheered over the techno-utopian promised land. In an age of climate and
environmental anxiety, journalists and the global elites sought good news,
and Dongtan eco-city promised a positive and potentially profi table path-
way out of climate chaos. A 2007 article on Dongtan in
Wired
was typical of
the early press coverage in devoting considerable attention to the broader
political forces within Shanghai, and within Arup, that collectively led to
the growth and ambition for the plan.
4
h e press coverage at the time took on
faith both the positive language and Arup's vision and skill to “design cities
that work better—not just as grids or transport networks or skylines but as
ecosystems engineered
from the start to foil gridlock, energy waste, pollution,
