FALL 2009"China can no longer afford to follow the West's resources-hungry model of development and it should encourage its citizens to avoid adopting the developed world's consumer habits...It's important to make Chinese people not blatantly imitate Western consumer habits so as not to repeat the mistakes by the industrial development of the west over the past 300 years."
-- Pan Yue, Deputy Minister, State Environmental Protection Administration, 2004
As China's leaders at the highest levels are creating a new vision of this emerging global power's urban future, an interest in the discipline of Industrial Ecology has emerged as a strategy for reducing the demand of its economy upon natural resources as well as the damage it causes to natural environments. Specific has been an interest in the concept of a "circular economy": this concept calls for very high efficiency in resource flows as a way of sustaining improvement in quality of life within natural and economic constraints. Combinations of industrial products and byproducts are utilized to the greatest ecological effectiveness, and wastes from one industry are utilized as raw materials for another.
Intent on harnessing these interests and developing them into a new kind of urban fabric, the harbor city of New Caofedian was marked as a pilot area for the development of a Recyclable / Circular Economy in China in 2005. New Caofeidian is located in the Hebei Province, approximately 80 km from Tangshan city center, 30 km from the Tianjin area, and 200 km from the capital of Beijing.
The area, which spans roughly 60 sq km, has recently been planned as an artificial island chain and land reclamation project, as well as a converted and concentrated economic development zone within the Bohai Bay, a rapidly expanding industrial and commerce area in Northern China. Its population is expected to swell to a population of 300,000 by 2010. The New Caofedian Urban Area will serve as a catalyst for the growth and densification of the cities of Beijing and Tianjin, augmenting the extensive existing industrial landscape of the Bohai Bay plain. Without a proper plan for increasing this density within the expansive geographic area, the region could face an uncontrolled lateral expansion which could lead to the proliferation of sprawling suburban neighborhoods, relentless generic urbanism, a destruction of habitat and forestry resources, and a degradation of cultural urban fabric, as we have seen in many other recently globalized cultures.
A new vision is needed for the future of the Beijing / Tianjin / Tangshan City region - one which can come much closer to an imperative of environmental respect and responsible industrial development. However, we recognize that sustainability in and of itself is not an architectural value, and as such the moniker of "green" has become a signifier of a simplistic, standard-based, quantifiable design outcome: the discussion of such values as departure points for architecture or urban speculation, often leads to materializations of efficiency, rather than those of quality. This extant concept of sustainability is wholly dependent on an assumption of "nature" as some material which is in flux between a supremely positive pristine state and an adulterated, used, "unnatural" one. By these assumptions, successful design must either actually restore an environment to its pristine state, or remove or minimize traces of use so that its manipulation is disguised. As such, this allows architecture to function at only one end of the scale; to endeavor closer and closer to an unattainable limit condition, severely compromising its creativity, vision, and ultimately its ability to be completely successful. We posit that there may be a third concept of sustainability where human states and ecological states are both susceptible to change, and meet each other at a mutually beneficial point. This concept requires an acceptance and utilization of artificial ecologies.
Our intent for the studio is to interrogate the nature of sustainable urban strategies, and imbue the urban plan with both architectural and ecological values, but also to interrogate the nature of those values, and understand them in relation to both natural and artificial necessities. This studio will focus on developing these ecological imperatives into a culturally responsive and critical architecture, and will seek to project new relationships between ecology and culture forward through a set of exercises that will build in complexity and detail. The use of performance based evaluations and a 3-D conceptualization of urbanism, instead of fixed codes and prosaic 2-D planning structures, allows for greater design freedom in initially developing urban concentrations of residential and commerce in proximity to these areas of circular industry. Students will engage the project further through an identification of perceived negatives, pollutants, and byproducts of the desired industry mix, and a subsequent analysis of the cyclical relationships between potentially complementary industries, as well as symbiotic industrial/ecological relationships. Students will investigate ecological precedents existing in extreme environmental conditions, and incorporate conclusions into a comprehensive solution comprised of both constructed and organic form.
A similar program is being investigated at Tsinghua University in Beijing, under the direction of Professor Xu Wei Guo, which also consists of master planning, urban design, and architecture. Tsinghua and Harvard will work concurrently on the same urban area, and may share resources and information in order to push design ideas beyond the locally accessible. The Tsinghua students, joined by their Prof. Xu and their additional faculty, may travel to Harvard for a Dual-Final Review at the end of the year.
PRELIMINARY STUDIO SCHEDULE
1 Mon 31 August Studio Presentation, Introductions
Tues 1 Sept. PART I ASSIGNED, desk-crits
2 Tues 8 Sept. desk- crits
Fri 11 Sept. desk- crits
3 Tues 15 Sept. PINUP - PROGRESS
Wed 16 Sept. desk- crits
4 Tues 22 Sept. desk-crits
Thurs 24 Sept. desk-crits
5 Tues 29 Sept. PINUP -- PART 1 DUE / PART 2 ASSIGNED
Wed 30 Sept. desk-crits
6 Tues 6 Oct. desk-crits
Wed 7 Oct. desk-crits
7 Tues 13 Oct. PINUP -- PART 2 DUE / PART 3 ASSIGNED
Wed 16 Oct. desk-crits
8 Tues 20 Oct. desk-crits
Fri 23 Oct. desk-crits
9 Tues 27 Oct. MID-REVIEW
Wed 28 Oct. desk-crits
10 Tues 3 Nov. desk-crits
Fri 6 Nov. desk-crits
11 Tues 10 Nov. PINUP - PROGRESS
Wed 11 Nov desk-crits
12 Tues 17 Nov. desk-crits
Fri 20 Nov. desk-crits
13 Tues 24 Nov. PINUP / DRAFT FINAL
Wed 25 Nov. desk-crits
14 Tues 1 Dec. desk-crits
Fri 4 Dec. (no class)
15 Mon 7 Dec. FINAL REVIEW, 1/2 Harvard / 1/2 Tsinghua (@GSD)
Tues 8 Dec. FINAL REVIEW, 1/2 Harvard / 1/2 Tsinghua (@GSD)
1302: Toward an Industrial Ecology for New Caofeidian
Department of Architecture
Studio Option
8 credits
Tuesday 2:00 - 6:00
Friday 2:00 - 6:00
Instructor(s)
Nanako Umemoto
Course Description
AN INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY FOR NEW CAOFEIDIAN
Professor: Nanako Umemoto nanako@reiser-umemoto.com
Teaching Associate: Neil Cook neil@reiser-umemoto.com
Introduction: A Chinese model of development?
-- Pan Yue, Deputy Minister, State Environmental Protection Administration, 2004
As China's leaders at the highest levels are creating a new vision of this emerging global power's urban future, an interest in the discipline of Industrial Ecology has emerged as a strategy for reducing the demand of its economy upon natural resources as well as the damage it causes to natural environments. Specific has been an interest in the concept of a "circular economy": this concept calls for very high efficiency in resource flows as a way of sustaining improvement in quality of life within natural and economic constraints. Combinations of industrial products and byproducts are utilized to the greatest ecological effectiveness, and wastes from one industry are utilized as raw materials for another.
Intent on harnessing these interests and developing them into a new kind of urban fabric, the harbor city of New Caofedian was marked as a pilot area for the development of a Recyclable / Circular Economy in China in 2005. New Caofeidian is located in the Hebei Province, approximately 80 km from Tangshan city center, 30 km from the Tianjin area, and 200 km from the capital of Beijing.
The area, which spans roughly 60 sq km, has recently been planned as an artificial island chain and land reclamation project, as well as a converted and concentrated economic development zone within the Bohai Bay, a rapidly expanding industrial and commerce area in Northern China. Its population is expected to swell to a population of 300,000 by 2010. The New Caofedian Urban Area will serve as a catalyst for the growth and densification of the cities of Beijing and Tianjin, augmenting the extensive existing industrial landscape of the Bohai Bay plain. Without a proper plan for increasing this density within the expansive geographic area, the region could face an uncontrolled lateral expansion which could lead to the proliferation of sprawling suburban neighborhoods, relentless generic urbanism, a destruction of habitat and forestry resources, and a degradation of cultural urban fabric, as we have seen in many other recently globalized cultures.
A new vision is needed for the future of the Beijing / Tianjin / Tangshan City region - one which can come much closer to an imperative of environmental respect and responsible industrial development. However, we recognize that sustainability in and of itself is not an architectural value, and as such the moniker of "green" has become a signifier of a simplistic, standard-based, quantifiable design outcome: the discussion of such values as departure points for architecture or urban speculation, often leads to materializations of efficiency, rather than those of quality. This extant concept of sustainability is wholly dependent on an assumption of "nature" as some material which is in flux between a supremely positive pristine state and an adulterated, used, "unnatural" one. By these assumptions, successful design must either actually restore an environment to its pristine state, or remove or minimize traces of use so that its manipulation is disguised. As such, this allows architecture to function at only one end of the scale; to endeavor closer and closer to an unattainable limit condition, severely compromising its creativity, vision, and ultimately its ability to be completely successful. We posit that there may be a third concept of sustainability where human states and ecological states are both susceptible to change, and meet each other at a mutually beneficial point. This concept requires an acceptance and utilization of artificial ecologies.
Our intent for the studio is to interrogate the nature of sustainable urban strategies, and imbue the urban plan with both architectural and ecological values, but also to interrogate the nature of those values, and understand them in relation to both natural and artificial necessities. This studio will focus on developing these ecological imperatives into a culturally responsive and critical architecture, and will seek to project new relationships between ecology and culture forward through a set of exercises that will build in complexity and detail. The use of performance based evaluations and a 3-D conceptualization of urbanism, instead of fixed codes and prosaic 2-D planning structures, allows for greater design freedom in initially developing urban concentrations of residential and commerce in proximity to these areas of circular industry. Students will engage the project further through an identification of perceived negatives, pollutants, and byproducts of the desired industry mix, and a subsequent analysis of the cyclical relationships between potentially complementary industries, as well as symbiotic industrial/ecological relationships. Students will investigate ecological precedents existing in extreme environmental conditions, and incorporate conclusions into a comprehensive solution comprised of both constructed and organic form.
A similar program is being investigated at Tsinghua University in Beijing, under the direction of Professor Xu Wei Guo, which also consists of master planning, urban design, and architecture. Tsinghua and Harvard will work concurrently on the same urban area, and may share resources and information in order to push design ideas beyond the locally accessible. The Tsinghua students, joined by their Prof. Xu and their additional faculty, may travel to Harvard for a Dual-Final Review at the end of the year.
PRELIMINARY STUDIO SCHEDULE
1 Mon 31 August Studio Presentation, Introductions
Tues 1 Sept. PART I ASSIGNED, desk-crits
2 Tues 8 Sept. desk- crits
Fri 11 Sept. desk- crits
3 Tues 15 Sept. PINUP - PROGRESS
Wed 16 Sept. desk- crits
4 Tues 22 Sept. desk-crits
Thurs 24 Sept. desk-crits
5 Tues 29 Sept. PINUP -- PART 1 DUE / PART 2 ASSIGNED
Wed 30 Sept. desk-crits
6 Tues 6 Oct. desk-crits
Wed 7 Oct. desk-crits
7 Tues 13 Oct. PINUP -- PART 2 DUE / PART 3 ASSIGNED
Wed 16 Oct. desk-crits
8 Tues 20 Oct. desk-crits
Fri 23 Oct. desk-crits
9 Tues 27 Oct. MID-REVIEW
Wed 28 Oct. desk-crits
10 Tues 3 Nov. desk-crits
Fri 6 Nov. desk-crits
11 Tues 10 Nov. PINUP - PROGRESS
Wed 11 Nov desk-crits
12 Tues 17 Nov. desk-crits
Fri 20 Nov. desk-crits
13 Tues 24 Nov. PINUP / DRAFT FINAL
Wed 25 Nov. desk-crits
14 Tues 1 Dec. desk-crits
Fri 4 Dec. (no class)
15 Mon 7 Dec. FINAL REVIEW, 1/2 Harvard / 1/2 Tsinghua (@GSD)
Tues 8 Dec. FINAL REVIEW, 1/2 Harvard / 1/2 Tsinghua (@GSD)