Damian Holmes

Last week I went to Shenzhen to meet with some potential clients for some urban design and landscape architecture projects. All went well and should hear some news soon. I saw some parts of Shenzhen on my trips to and from the airport and whilst sitting in my hotel room looking over Shenzhen. I lived in Shenzhen for 18 months in 2006-2007 and I with this visit I saw that the city had changed, not greatly(well probably more than most cities in the world) but it still had changed with new elevated train lines and shell like train stations sitting above the road. I also saw large amounts of road works with new flyovers.

So what did I learn about the city and China from the trip?
I actually had a realisation when looking out over Shenzhen that was reinforced by a recent comments by government officials and that realisation is that China is still modernising and still has a long way to go and it’s current level of modernisation cannot be measured by large cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen. Although Shenzhen is a young(barely 30 years old) and modern city, it is still modernising and improving especially in the areas of transport, culture, and infrastructure.

During my 5 years of living in China I have had the opportunity to live in Shanghai most of my stay. Shanghai is a city that has remade itself and some of this remaking/modernising was for 2010 Expo and other pieces are part of the city’s 2020 plan. Living in Shanghai can often make you become lost in the new modernised city and forget that the rest of China is still modernising or beginning to plan to modernise. Large areas of China are modernising at a great pace with high-speed rail and new highways linking cities but it is not just these elements that make a modern nation. People’s lives and cities they live in are still in need of modernisation whether this is new roads, housing, parks, greenways or bicycle infrastructure. The other realisation is that there are still many millions of people who will move from rural areas to new cities that have not even been planned yet. For those who live in China, this may seem as obvious, however I think as an urban designer and landscape architect, I have to keep a good macro perspective that large areas of China are still in need of good planning and modernisation. How to best service these areas is through current practices but also education of the new graduates entering the profession from small technical colleges to large research based universities.

Modernising of China is not just designing for existing cities but also developing new design theories and tools for future cities.

View of Bujizhen, Shenzhen from my hotel

View of Shops selling pottery & ceramics

View of Bujizhen, Shenzhen from my hotel

Susan Szenasy posted on Metropolis an article titled “United We Stand” in which she recalls some government officials giving encouragement at a recent NeoCon East annual trade show that there is “a new day for government design”. Szeasy goes on to talk about the importance to design of the recent $5.5 billion allocation to General Services Administration and the Department of Defense’s $7.4 billion reconfiguration funding.

However the point I found most interesting in Szenasy’s article was the GSA signing of a new accord with AIA, ASLA, IIDA; in which they have pledged to collaborate to achieve design excellence. I find this encouraging that professional associations have come together.

Currently, there is change occurring not just in the short-term with the Global Financial Crisis, but it seems more and more that sustainability, the environment, and climate change is becoming more important to the world. I feel that we need to move forward with new ideas and be armed with new tools especially in the area of urban design where cities are shrinking in the USA, new eco-towns are being built in the UK and new mega-cities are being designed and constructed in China, India, and Africa. Now is the best time to seek out other disciplines for collaboration not just for the networking and possible work opportunities but for the greater good of the profession. As Landscape Architects I know we often seek collaboration with other disciplines whether they are internal or external of our companies, however I think that as we head towards a new decade we should make more of a commitment to further collaborate with other professions to improve your knowledge and their knowledge so that together we can create a better future.

By Damian Holmes

Read the full article that inspired this post at the [SOURCE: Metropolis - United We Stand]

Last Thursday, I attended the GIGA Print presentation given by Mario Van der Meulen of SGTH Designs. It was an interesting presentation about the Print industry and how as graphic and print designers can be more effective in design. Some of the talk was doom and gloom about the environment but it focused more on being a designer and your attitude to and the process you use. The talk also provided examples and solutions.

I liked the presentation and I got similar ideas from this talk as the Su Yunsheng presentation. The basic idea – that its about process not the application. Mario was talking about how through following a more responsive and interactive process of design you can be more effective and thus more environmentally friendly.

By starting with the client at point A and then asking questions and then coming up with a design rather than standard practice of client asks for X you give them X with no questions asked. X may not have been what they really wanted and maybe you could have given them something different and saved money & stopped negative impact on the environment. I have experienced the client asks for X constantly in China and in the west. Clients often don’t know exactly what they want or the range of options that are available, how could they its not their business. This is the reason they hire you you are to give them concepts and ideas as you are an expert in whatever field you specialise in.

Mario gave an example of a client who wanted 100,000 mail-order catalogues because they worked on the premise of 3% return. The address list they were using was to general. Mario suggested the client may wish to get a focused address list based on a survey of households. At the end of the day based on the survey and address list they got back they only needed 30,000 catalogues thus saving 70,000 from landfill. Mario is a great presenter and gave some good insights into his industry and examples that were practical and easy to understand for non-print designers.

I think we all need to more proactive in asking clients questions about exactly is it they want to achieve then coming up with a solution. If they ask you to do something that you aren’t an expert in then ask someone who is and collaborate. Collaboration is also key to finding solutions. Collaborating with printers, designers, manufacturers etc is the only way we all learn and make design more effective.

So the takeaway? – As a designer or expert you can be more effective if you think more about the process of the idea and not just pure application of an idea.

GIGA is a great organisation that has dual-language(English/Chinese) website and a great green database of products

There lectures have finished for the year and will be back after CNY in February look at their website and also sign up for the newsletter to know more.

Recently, I attended the JUCCCE Green Ideas Lab in Shanghai. The event was 3 x 8 minute presentations followed by break out sessions in small groups. I thought it would be good to share the ‘light bulb’ moments that I had during and on the way home from the event.

IDEA 1: No matter how big or small the idea or problem by integrating green ideology into the solution you can have an impact on a macro scale.

Ellen Carberry from the China Greentech Initiative spoke about how the problem is too big and too important to ignore and that companies cannot do it along and need to collaborate. Ellen presented the initiative and report that they produced. The ideas and professionals that they were incorporating into the report were looking at the issue on a macro scale – not just city or provincial but country wide.

Su Yunsheng from Etopia & Tongji University spoke of his work with pre-fabricated housing and how he wished to make the process of residential construction more efficient in use of materials and logistics. He was looking at the problem from a macro point of view – a industry wide perspective.

Philip Sohmen from YK Pao School spoke about the school and the its plan for the future and that they wanted to create a green school and by the end of the Idea Lab had realised that he could have a set of ideas that could be used for many schools not just YK Pao School. Philip started out looking at a micro level – his school; but realised from his session that the ideas generated could have macro implications – across the city, province and country.

Through these 3 presentations I realised that your idea can always have an impact at a macro scale.

IDEA 2: The green message you present must be positive to be effective

I have been to numerous green/sustainable events over the last few years some have been free and others have cost me hundreds of dollars, and at each one of these events there has been at least 1 or 2 dooms day presenters with the sky is falling and we need to do something now presentation. And as soon as these presenters start to talk, I and many others in the room, eyes glaze over or we start to read the programme and plan which event we will go to next. Green events are often preaching to the converted there is no need to present the doom and gloom. Now, think about when you are presenting to an industry group and a wider audience who have some knowledge about green/sustainability they are there to hear solutions not the same rhetoric about we are all doomed and must do something now and offer no solutions.

Through all 3 but mostly Ellen Carberry’s presentation I realised that in keeping the message positive and providing solutions is the most effective way of getting the message across.

IDEA 3: Be more effective by looking at the process rather than the application

Often when you think of green and sustainability in relation to architecture and urban design, people often think about the application not the process. What do I mean by this statement? People often get bound up in thinking about green especially when looking at architecture about the application or object. They want to know does the building have solar panels, cross flow ventilation, water recycling and Green rating (LEED, Green Star, BREEAM, etc) and many other forms of green application. This is the application of green not thinking about the process in terms of green. The process is how does the application or object get built? and in the case of Su Yensheng’s idea its the process of construction in the residential building industry.

Many at the Su Yunsheng’s workshop(which I attended) couldn’t get their heads around his project because they kept looking at the application not the process. To get around this issue I think he should introduce himself not as architect or urban designer but as a process designer or architectural logistics engineer so that the audience concentrate on the idea/process not the architecture. His idea is to change the building industry to pre-fabrication housing. Su Yunsheng had looked at all the different processes of construction around the world and hit upon the idea that pre-fabrication is the most efficient process. By using pre-fabrication process of  constructing housing he feels that there will be a large increase in efficiency of the construction process by reducing the amount of materials and construction time. He has also made the building modular, so that it can be movable as Chinese families are relocating more often. His idea is nothing new, as pre-fabrication is a process used across the world. However, in China were residential construction is the main industry for many new cities and is often one of the largest polluters through the use of concrete and brick construction methods, his idea will greatly reduce the amount of energy and CO2 because he looked at the process not just the application.

Through this presentation and workshop session I realised that it is often better to look at the process and make it as efficient as possible and then you can look at increasing efficiency through various forms of application.

IDEA 4: Share the information and collaborate with others

Philip Sohmen spoke about his school and the integration of green ideas into the curriculum. His workshop was about looking at how to make his new schools green. What I think we all gained from the summary of Philip’s session was that not only could he use these ideas for his own school but if he collaborated with other schools and professionals that they could provide a template or guidebook on how to build a green school with a green curriculum.

Through sharing ideas and collaboration with like organisations (in this case other schools) and a wide range of differing professions you can achieve more than working internally with people in your organisation.

Another idea related to sharing that came out of the sessions was using websites(established such as GIGA foundation or to newly establish a website) in relation to the Greentech and Schools could be the most efficient and easiest way of disseminating the idea and then collaborating together to find solutions.

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I hope that these ideas are useful to you and hope you use the share function below to share these ideas within your organisation, and industry & peer groups through email, facebook, twitter, google reader and numerous other information outlets.

DAMIAN HOLMES 19 NOV. 2009

I just came back from Green Drinks in Shanghai and there was a mix of Chinese and Foreigners (about 30/70) and it was interesting to see the crowd. It has grow immensely since the first green drinks last year at URBN hotel when about 25 people jammed into a room. Tonight the presentations were from Brian Wang and Amanda Leung of FACE PLAN. Amanda is running an interesting project in her spare time taking Foreign Architects to regional universities and schools in China to give lectures about their work and run a small workshop or charette.

Each time I go, there are more Chinese and that often makes me feel good that young Chinese are interested and its an opportunity to connect, but I also wonder how many events held by Chinese green NPO that I don’t know about. Am I missing opportunities to connect about ideas and how China is going? I’ll have to look into how I be apart of these groups. Somehow I feel anxious that the next grassroots green/sustainability movement in China will happen and I won’t really know about until I read it a few articles in the English Daily paper or Blogs. I think that this feeling is also felt by some expats in China and surrounding countries.

I am looking into how I can be more involved with China’s move to a sustainable way of living. I currently run my own landscape architecture studio with sustainability as the core ideal. I have to think , learn and educate about how China can be more sustainable and green. Although, I have seen the focus in China shift from basic green ideals to more sophisticated ideas and practices but this is has occurred mainly on the east coast of China.

So can it happen? China has the people, the knowledge and the speed to do it, lets hope Copenhagen brings something more than just rhetoric and green washing and the green movement continues its groundswell in China.

The idea of returning Detroit to farm land is an interesting idea that was recently covered in New Geography(DETROIT: URBAN LABORATORY AND THE NEW AMERICAN FRONTIER, Nov. 4) and New York Times(Plowing Detroit Into Farmland blog post Nov. 9 based on New Geography article). The New Geography article reviews the size and scale of Detroit in comparison to other cities and the extent of urban decay since the 1950′s and that Detroit could become farmland. In my opinion, Detroit could become a city of urban agriculture; it has the land, water & infrastructure(roads, rail) and lots of deserted industrial space that could be converted to markets and storage/logistics. However it would require a either a grass roots movement which gets financial backing (after initial results) from investors or a federal incentive as the city of Detroit is shrinking and resources are already stretched. Urban agriculture could supply the people of Detroit and other cities in region with food. Large areas of housing could be converted to open fields where the blocks are large or rows of green houses where the blocks are narrow. The agricultural areas could also grow crops for ethanol(although resource intensive) to supply raw materials for fuel(refined in Detroit) for the farm machinery and cars. Urban agriculture combined with alternative energy such as wind and solar could convert Detroit from a city to a urban core with villages (see New Geography for diagram). The city could become self-sufficient and a possible testing ground for urban design that could be used for other North Americans cities going through the same changes in size and urban form. New Orleans is currently a hot bed for Urban Design experiments for the South, which came about from a natural disaster maybe Detroit can come back as the hot bed of Urban Design for Northern climates. Detroit has the opportunity and basic resources but does it have the will to change? Read more information used as background for this post at [New Geography] & [New York Times] By Damian Holmes

CROSS POSTED FROM WORLD LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT.COM