ALCCAL discusses the future of shenzhen's low-carbon city

in order to effectively guide the construction of the international low carbon city, which has now reached its third year of planning, the shenzhen design center held the ‘alternatives for low-carbon city architecture and life’ event. the conference, which was organized together with shenzhen SEZ construction & development co., ltd, shenzhen ILCC planning & construction leaders office and shenzhen longgang district government, took place in pingdi, 30 kilometers east of shenzhen in the southern region of china. the group investigated the possible solutions for reducing CO2 emissions, one of the most important and controversial topics in the world among policy makers, researchers and the general public.

hong kong university professor and ALCCAL research curator, juan du, during her speech at the forum
all images courtesy of shenzhen design center

since the 1980s shenzhen has been at the forefront of china’s economic reform and rapid development. the world has witnessed its rapid transition from a rural village into an international center for finance, electronics and services. with this transformation, problems also emerged as the area exceeded the capacity of its land, energy, and environmental resources. therefore the city required another evolution, with a more energy efficient industrial infrastructure — from ‘made in shenzhen’ to ‘created in shenzhen’.

ALLCAL exhibition

after overtaking the united states as the country with the largest carbon emissions on the planet, china has invested heavily into renewable energy technologies and has set carbon reduction targets in most of its major urbanized regions. this ambitious plan also consists in the creation of over 200 so-called low carbon cities. pingdi, which has much larger land reserve than shenzhen, is part of the green development project and offers ample opportunity for low-carbon development.

e-waste series by guang yang, third prize winner

in accordance with the ideas of energy saving, environmental protection and sustainable development, (regarding energy consumption and CO2 emission intensity as the restrictive indicators), the international low-carbon city is to forcefully resolve prominent issues during economic and social expansion, endeavoring to push forward the building a climate friendly city.

li degeng, curator of the ALCCAL exhibition

the project is heavily influenced by global trends in green technology

designboom talked about the future of low-carbon cities with huang weiwen, director of shenzhen center of design.

huang weiwen, director of shenzhen center of design

designboom: what is the expected long-term result of the project?

huang weiwen: this series of competitions has become an international seminar with multi-perspective, multi-level and multi-group participatory on low carbon topics. it is expected to achieve profound and pertinent outcomes, to promote pingdi’s low carbon culture, to elevate the low carbon city’s international horizon, to lead to a research center for low carbon culture, to form a think tank of ALCCAL, and eventually to export low carbon intelligence and experience in the near future.

the group recommends an increase in green spaces

DB: how is the ALLCAL exhibition changing the approach in urban development?

HW: through conducting these ALCCAL competitions, we are not aiming to achieve superficial outcomes from traditional urban planning. more importantly, we aim to explore methods, procedures and cooperation approaches in terms of logical design thinking on low carbon, and finally foster strategic solutions in relation to the pingdi ILCC. the ALCCAL exhibition and projects are characterized with open and inter-disciplined cooperation as well as market and user testing.

the green landscape becomes an integrated part of the sustainable skyscraper