“A sensible and thoughtful alternative to current rural urbanization policies”
Regional Jury Report – Asia Pacific
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Agrarian Enrichment in China
Urban section: The articulation between new densification and agriculture fields, propose different public spaces. The urban morphology is organized by the new sustainable water management system. The productive Eco-City uses the enrichment of the earth and the ancestral tradition of the farmers.
Last updated: November 13, 2021 Eclepens, Switzerland
Project description by jury
The rural fringe of Lanzhou, the capital and largest city in Gansu Province in northwest China has undergone a great urban territorial transformation over recent years. Agricultural land has been progressively fragmented, and several scattered villages in the Nanhe River valley are at risk of being razed to the ground due to policies that encourage densification. The Yuzhong Eco(logical) City project 50km south-east of Lanzhou proposes the transformation of the Nanhe River valley with a two-fold objective: the preservation of traditional crop-growing lands, and their integration into a wider urban and agricultural system. These aims will allow for a more productive and sustainable development of the area.
The territorial design is based on a finger plan intervention that branches out from the northern and southern embankments of the river to touch existing rural fabrics. This generates a new ensemble of six metropolitan villages characterized by the alternation of agricultural land and residential segments placed in continuity with the historic villages. The renewed zone is served by an improved water management system: spring and rainwater, captured from the hills and rooftops respectively, is collected and distributed through a series of canals to the agricultural fields and finally augments the river. The proposal also includes the implementation of new infrastructure to promote a sustainable mobility network and the production of energy from renewable sources including solar and biogas.
Jury appraisal
The Holcim Awards jury Asia Pacific highly commended the way in which the proposal offers a sensible and thoughtful alternative to current Chinese policies toward rural urbanization. The project suggests a territorial operation that, as opposed to the more mainstream demolition practices, very elegantly densifies and strengthens the existing rural fabric and co-located agricultural parcels, and brings new opportunities for farming communities. The intervention becomes a particularly well-balanced and contextualized model for an environmental, social and economic sustainable development of rural areas in China and beyond.