The World's Green Cities

السباق الطويل على بناء مجتمعات خالية من انبعاثات الكربون ومحايدة من المدن

The long race is on to build emission-free communities and carbon-neutral cities





H2PIA
Denmark
HiRC, How2Live Hydrogen Architecture

This concept for a hydrogen-powered community could test the viability of large-scale use of existing fuel cell technology. Hydrogen fuel cells produce only clean water as a by-product. The series of villas would collect energy via solar and wind sources, which would charge hydrogen fuel cells that power homes and automobiles. A site for the development has yet to be determined.





BedZED
Wallington, England
Bill Dunster Architects

BedZED was one of the world's first small-scale carbon-neutral communities: Its 82 houses, 17 apartments, and 1,405 square meters of offices were built between 2000 and 2002. Helping to set standards for future developments, the project was designed using common, off-the-********************************f technology and resources, such as heat-insulating building materials. BedZED's combined heating and power plant is fueled by tree surgery waste that would otherwise go into landfills. Most rainwater falling on the site is collected and reused.






Dockside Green
Victoria, British Columbia
Windmill West

The 1,000 units in this $600 million development should be finished in the next seven years and will be built with energy-efficient materials aimed at nabbing Platinum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) status. The site's centralized heating plant will run on a biomass gasification process that will take waste wood from local communities and turn it into gas. This then provides hot water, which can be used to heat buildings. Incorporated into the development will be a car-sharing service that lends residents zero-pollution electric vehicles.




Green Mountain
Libya
Foster & Partners

Unveiled last September, Green Mountain is a proposed ecotourism development in eastern Libya. Many details have yet to emerge, and some doubt the project will come to fruition, but Libyan officials consider the wind- and solar-powered development key to the country regaining legitimacy in the world community's eyes. The plan also includes provisions to protect nearby Greek and Roman architecture.





Northstowe
Cambridge, England
Gallagher Estates

Eight miles north of Cambridge lies what could be the first of then-Chancellor Gordon Brown's proposed "ecotowns," or newly developed carbon-neutral communities. With ground-breaking slated for summer, 2009, this town, to be built on virgin soil, could eventually house some 24,000 residents in 9,500 energy-efficient homes.




Masdar
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Foster & Partners

Breaking ground this February, the $22 billion Masdar project is an attempt by one of the world's most oil-rich nations to show it, too, can innovate in the green space. The self-contained city will be some 20 miles outside of Abu Dhabi city; its developers hope it will attract residents from around the world. When it is completed in 2016, the city will be a zero-carbon, zero-waste, car-free desert oasis that can house 1,500 businesses and 50,000 residents. Wind-powered turbines, a system of city-cooling, gray-water canals, and a nonpolluting light-rail system are also a part of the project.





Guangtang Chuangye Park
Liuzhou, China
William McDonough & Partners

This plan is an attempt at sustainable city planning on a massive scale. The 5,436-acre site in southeastern China is to be a walkable, public transit-oriented, mixed-use community. The plan also aims to preserve existing stream and wetland ecosystems around the site. The goal is to return clean water to the ecosystem at equal rates and in the same patterns as does the undeveloped site. The project was kicked off in 2005.






Dongtan
Chongming Island, China
Arup

Perhaps the mother of all sustainable architecture projects, Dongtan will be powered by wind, biofuels, and solar energy. Chongming Island is on the eastern coast of China, near Shanghai. By 2010 the city will have a population of 50,000 inhabitants; by 2050 that number will balloon to 500,000. The sustainability challenge will be to manage that growth while maintaining the island's natural environment, partially through zero-greenhouse-gas-emissions transit and complete self-sufficiency in terms of water treatment and energy production