Taking Letchworth to Chengdu: can garden cities work in China? | Housing Network | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2014/dec/02/garden-cities-china-chengdu-letchworth
The Chinese government is now committing vast resources to sustainable development and seeking to apply the lessons of the past to manage urbanisation, albeit with own adaptations.
As a representative of Letchworth Garden City on a trade and investment mission to China, I was able to see first-hand how the garden city ideals are being applied in China, where the principles of well-planned, sustainable communities with a good balance of jobs, homes and open space support the need for low-carbon development.
One proposed garden city on the outskirts of Chengdu, China’s fourth-biggest city and home to 14 million people, is a world away from Letchworth’s cottages. Here, clusters of skyscrapers emerge from leafy avenues, and a monorail swoops through trees. The sheer scale of the development is striking, with 13 new residential zones, specialist employment areas covering everything from electronics to modern agriculture, and major infrastructure projects, including a central park inspired by New York. Work began in 2011, and in October Tianfu was granted state-level new area status, bringing substantial government support. The area is due to be completed in 2030.