Dongtan Eco-City

Arup in China

Arup, the global design, engineering and business consultancy, was founded over 60 years ago and has been operating in China for more than 30 years. It is a global company with more than 10,000 projects running at any one time, and almost a quarter of the worldwide staff of 10,000, are based in Hong Kong and China.
In August 2005, Arup was contracted by the Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation (SIIC) to design and masterplan an eco-city called Dongtan, near Shanghai.
Dongtan will be a city of three villages that meet to form a city centre. The first demonstrator phase of Dongtan aims to be completed by 2010, in time for the World Expo in Shanghai, and will accommodate a population of up to 5,000. Later phases of development will see the city grow to hold a population of around 80,000 by 2020 and up to 500,000 by 2050.
A combination of traditional and innovative building technologies will reduce energy requirements of buildings by around 66%, saving 350,000 tonnes of CO2 per year for the start-up area. The project will increase bio-diversity on Chongming Island, and will create a city that runs entirely on renewable energy for its buildings, its infrastructure and its transport needs. Dongtan will recover, recycle and reuse 90% of all waste in the city, with the eventual aim of becoming a zero waste city.

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