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The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org
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Contributed by Mike Bennett
Source: http://business.financialpost.com/2012/11/03/china-is-building-a-huge-eco-city-where-no-one-will-need-to-drive/
China is building a huge eco-city where no one will need to drive
Alex Davies, Business Insider | Nov 3, 2012
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture/Business Insider A new city being built near Chengdu, China, will consist of tall buildings that can provide room for 80,000 residents.
Outside Chengdu, in central China, a 78 million square foot site has been determined for an unconventional sort of construction project. It will be a city built from scratch, for 80,000 people, none of whom will need a car to get around.
The “Great City” is a plan for an ambitious urban center designed to limit its residents environmental impact by producing clean energy, reducing waste, and promoting public transportation over individual car use.
The project is the work of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, who note that “Chinese planning officials [are] beginning to see the effects of automobile-dependent design and are open to better alternatives to urban sprawl.”
It has been called the “Car-Free City,” a moniker that is not entirely accurate. The architecture firm notes that the vision is for a city where “cars will be essentially unnecessary,” but allowed.
The master plan includes many good ideas. Half the road space will be reserved for non-motorized traffic, and electric shuttles will get people where they cannot or do not want to walk. All homes will be within a two-minute walk of a public park.
An “eco-park” will treat wastewater and solid waste, and generate power. Land outside the city will be reserved for farming. Wildlife habitat will be protected. Buildings have been designed to maximize the use of wind power; the planners decided Chengdu’s hazy climate is not conducive to solar power.
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture/Business InsiderIt has been called the "Car-Free City," a moniker that is not entirely accurate.
All told, Smith and Gill expect to cut energy use by 48%, water use by 58%, and produce 89% less waste, compared to a conventional development with a similar population.
Going beyond environmental impact, Smith and Gill designed Great City to provide residents with affordable housing, education, and medical care, all clustered in the city center to encourage a thriving civic life.
It’s a lovely vision for anyone concerned by climate change and social inequity, and the effectiveness of the power, transportation, and recycling systems will be judged once in place. But the project as a whole raises some questions.
Can a city built so quickly stand the test of time? What happens to the architects’ scheme if residents don’t behave as expected? And even if this eco-city works as planned, what can China do to translate this program to the hundreds of millions of people living in older cities?
Still, considering the rate at which China is urbanizing, a proven plan for minimizing the environmental impact of new cities would be worth a lot.
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"Ethics" is simply a last-gasp attempt by deist conservatives and
orthodox dogmatics to keep humanity in ignorance and obscurantism,
through the well tried fermentation of fear, the fear of science and
new technologies.
There is nothing glorious about what our ancestors call history,
it is simply a succession of mistakes, intolerances and violations.
On the contrary, let us embrace Science and the new technologies
unfettered, for it is these which will liberate mankind from the
myth of god, and free us from our age old fears, from disease,
death and the sweat of labour.
Rael
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