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TheGreen City Post Green City China by Niek Roozen

he oce of Niek Roozenbv has increasingly beenasked to work on large

scale planning projects from thebeginning of the master planphase because of their vision thatgreen in cities is an integral part ofthe planning process and not anafterthought. Green land uses andnatural characteristics of a site areset up rst, and infrastructure andbuildings are added next.

World Expo ShanghaiTe central green park at the

World EXPO 2010 in Shanghaiwas designed by Niek Roozen bv

together with a team of Dutchexperts and designers and NIADesign Group in Shanghai, usingresearch and design principlesrelated to trees and their ability toclean the air. Te cooling eectof the park, which had a 60%canopy cover, was appreciated byvisitors all summer long. Te tree

species were specially chosen fortheir ability to clean the air of pol-lutants such as catching particu-late matter (PM10) and absorbinggaseous pollutants.

ShenyangIn the summer of 2010, NiekRoozen bv was invited to partici-pate in a design competition foran urban concept plan in Shen-yang, a city north east of Beijing.Te 5750ha site is located south ofdowntown Shenyang between theHun River and the airport. It isunique that a landscape architect

was asked as lead designer of the

master plan, with architects andurban designers joining the team,instead of the other way around.Te team began the design proc-ess from the green perspective:rst an inventory of the existingconditions including the naturallandscape and the villages thathave organically grown over time

and then a layout of the desiredamount of green space. In themaster plan, the green land uses

were given a place before theinfrastructure of roads and otherland uses.

75m2 of green spaceper householdTe amount of green space wascalculated based on a standardof 75m2 of green space perhousehold which is derived fromresearch done by Dutch scientistsand recreation experts. Tis75m2 green was divided by ahousehold of 2,5 people (average

in China), which equals about30m2 green per person. With atotal of 500,000 residents, thatmeans that in order to fulll thegreen standard, then 26% of thetotal land area would need to bereserved for green. But it was notenough to simply reserve a quarterof the area for green on one side of

the site because another aspect ofa green city is that every residentshould have access to usable greenspaces within 500m from house.Tis is not only proven to be healthyfor residents both physically andmentally but also raises the propertyvalues in the vicinity of these greenspaces and reduces the impact ofthe heat island eect, which canbe measured up to 300m from apark. Terefore the green space was

divided up and distributed through-out the entire district.First a grid of neighborhoodparks (18ha) was set up with 2kmbetween so every household islocated within 1km of a park.Ten a grid of street parks (4ha)

was placed so every household islocated within 400m of a park.Some parts of the nal conceptgreen plan, such as a few cityparks and the central main axis,have been designed by NiekRoozen bv and are currentlyunder construction. |||

For the past 10 years, Niek Roozen bv Landscape Architects has been actively working on designs in various countriesacross the globe, with a large percentage of these projects in China. An important aspect of their designs is theapplication of the Green City theory.

Green City is goingstrong in China

The constructionof the Baita Park in

Shenyang, China.

Landscape architect Niek Roozen.