KTH Professor involved in development of eco-city in China
Ulf Ranhagen, Chief Architect at Sweco and Professor at KTH, is the Project Manager for activities involving a new city, designed with ecology in mind, that is to be developed in the Tangshan Region approximately 250 kilometers east of Beijing. In the future, it is envisaged that around one million people will live in this eco-city.
The first stage of construction of the new city will cover approximately 30 square kilometers – when finished its area will be 150 square kilometers. There are also plans for a harbour and an industrial area in connection to the city. Sweco will establish a sustainability strategy of the planning proposals for the first stage of the construction. The intention is to integrate the different proposals and ensure that the various environmental aspects are taken into consideration.
“One of the major challenges of this project is to identify solutions to use for linking the long-term planning for the entire region with the construction of the first stage of the city which will be completed in 2020. One vital goal for all our planning is to find integrated solutions for energy and environment that decrease the emission of greenhouse gases, and consequently global warming,” states Ulf Ranhagen, Chief Architect at Sweco and Professor at KTH.
Sweco is also planning an exhibition building for sustainable development which will market Swedish environmental engineering, a building to be located within the new area.
These assignments are part of the agreement of intent that the Chinese city of Tangshan and Sweden signed during the visit of the Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt to China in April. They will be planned so that Swedish environmental engineering and technology companies are afforded good opportunities to participate in the design and construction of the city and the region.
Håkan Soold