It’s an exciting time right now for Asia, which is expanding so quickly that whole cities are being designed, and existing cities have to be redesigned to accommodate all of this new development! Guangzhou, China’s 3rd largest city, is now joining the ranks of these foward-looking cities, and is getting a revamp to allow for more growth and at the same time make it more livable and sustainable. Some of the upgrades include mixed-use amenities like parks, commercial space, and increased transportation facilities that will make the city more cohesive. San Francisco-based Heller Manus Architects is responsible for the master plan of this new Southern axis to the city, which will tie into the recently designed Northern axis, also designed by Heller Manus.
<
The plans include waterfront, open space, increased density and transit corridors adding up to 3,652 acres of development. Once complete in 10 years, the North and South Axes will be combined to create a new urban center for Guangzhou. Green and open space will snake its way along streams and waterways out to the waterfront. Low density housing will be replaced with denser housing schemes, and government, civic, commercial and retail will also be added to create a truly mixed-use environment. Other amenities include schools, hospitals, entertainment venues, hotels, a TV tower, a sports park, an aquarium, a hotel and a ferry terminal.
Heller Manus was chosen for the redesign due to their use of sustainable design features, focus on urban open space and preservation, and integration of traditional Lingnan culture. Taylor Manus, marketing coordinator at Heller Manus says, “Lingnan culture encourages the harmonious integration of nature with the city environment along with innovative garden design.” Following this philosophy, the building design concepts were organized buildings around landscaped courtyards.
The expansion of the transportation system is a major feature of the redesign, including the development of a light rail system. From the TV tower in the north all the way to the riverfront in the south, transport nodes will be placed along the corridor for increased accessibility. Mixed-use neighborhoods and stations will be placed at these nodes.
+ Heller Manus Architects
Via World Architecture News
Thứ năm, ngày 24 tháng chín năm 2009
Plastic Concrete
Recent RPI Masters of Architecture graduate Henry Miller has devised a way to reuse waste plastic as an aggregate in cement, circumventing the energy-intensive process of plastic recycling. By grinding up landfill-bound plastic and mixing it with portland cement, Miller was able to create a material just as strong as traditional concrete made with mined aggregate. The ingenious solution netted miller first place in the “Component Category” of the second annual Concrete Thinking for a Sustainable World competition.
Using recycled materials is so hot right now, but using them as aggregate is hotter than Hansel in a black shirt on a summer Sunday. While living in Albany, Miller saw many areas cut their plastic recycling programs for the cheaper (now) solution of landfills, and noticed the astounding number of brownfield sites that were simply being abandoned. Miller’s idea: Why not use plastic waste as an aggregate in concrete and create a more sensible product. By mixing together ground-up plastic with cement and soil reclaimed from the brownfields, Miller was able to create a material just as strong as conventional concrete.
The Concrete Thinking for a Sustainable World competition only asked students to conceptualize a design, but Miller he was not satisfied with a mere idea. He actually used his plastic concrete to build a screen and a wall. In doing so he showed that his ideas were viable alternatives to the status quo and that there was no excuse to merely fall in line.
Describing his project, Henry Louis Miller states: “Recycling plastics is a difficult, energy intensive process, and yields a product that is inferior to the virgin material. I have researched the possibility of using granulated, post consumer waste plastics as the aggregate in concrete. In this application, unlike plastics can be universally mixed with no adverse affects, heat driven re-amalgamation is not required, and my early test results show the resulting product is as strong as conventional concrete mixes (between 3000 and 5000psi.) As a result of using plastic rather than conventional aggregate, the mining of new material to serve as aggregate is not necessary.”
+ Concrete Thinking for a Sustainable World Competition
+ RPI’s Masters of Architecture
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét