Eco buildings have been around for some time. They are structures that are beneficial or non-harmful to the environment and also resource efficient. The ideea behind green buildings is that they use energy generated by sustainable sources like solar power or wind, they have a minimum impact on the environment by conservating water and recycling waste, by using non-toxic or lead-free paints and wood preservatives, using locally-grown and harvested timber from sustainably managed forests and so on.
But the ‘Eco-City’ concept is new. An Eco Building helps, but to really make a difference, you need to scale things up to a city level. This is what Surbana Urban Planning Group did with their new 30 square kilometer Eco-City in Tianjin, China, 150 km away from Beijing. It will house 350,000 residents and is planned to be completed in 2020. The whole city is design to be Eco friendly, using the newest technologies for energy generation, recycling, public transport, waste and water disposal and will be divided in seven sectors which differ in terms of landscaping and programmatic offerings : a Lifescape, an Eco-Valley, a Solarscape, an Urbanscape, a Windscape, an Earthscape and Eco-Corridors.
