Pointillist Strategies

Contained Multi-functional Clustering for Prosperous Cities and Landscapes
 

The Team

QIAN CAO ( QUEENIE )

WAN CHAK WONG ( PHYLLIS )

YUXIN HU(VERA)

CHENHAN LI ( EMILY )
 

The Quest

The analysis of the largest ecological sustainable city in GBA at a macro-scale was based on spatial inquiry that included population structure analysis, ecological and economic analysis. With the application of the concepts of garden city, super block, smart city and TOD, etc., the project enabled a formulation of certain specific rules for this scale along with planning indicators and functional layout of the city cluster. The main objective of the project is to control the disorderly sprawl of cities and formulate sustainable urban growth strategies to achieve better quality of life and urban efficiency. The project also aims to proportionately plan and adjust the cluster formation (sustainable cluster cooperation model) and develop fission guidelines to prevent the spread of urban diseases caused by high population density due to large clusters.
 

The Game

Stage 1 - Master plan

As a strategy the coastal zone is always considered as the central development zone of the GBA, which will undertake a large amount of import and export trade, and will be the core hub to activate and drive the whole Bay Area. As a guideline 2 km by 2 km square is used as a base unit. The ring cluster is formed in the coastal zone which is concentrated, and then connects with the inland cluster by linear spread and then transforming into multiple directions. In the stage 1, the lack of connectivity between the GBA -- the Bay Area -- and the evenly distributed functionality can be clearly seen. Moreover, due to the excessive attention paid to the living environment in the random layout of small blocks, the GBA is seen to be connected with residential areas.

Stage 2 – Master Plan


After locating the cluster needs of each city, adjustments were made in the most basic units finally leading towards the overall form that responds to the geographical terrain.

According to the definition of clusters, heavy industry would be the main industry in the bay area, while financial clusters would be inferior in number. In addition, as for the port ecological environment, the concentration of heavy industry will cause a lot of pollution, so for the port-driven cluster, the most subsidiary industries are replaced with green industries in the next stage.

Stage 2 - Master Plan 2


The cluster (form and function) adjustments in stage 2 revealed that except Guangzhou and Shenzhen, which have large clusters, the central clusters of all the other cities are linear, showing the performance of connection and extension. This is not only because of the topography and size of the city, but also because of demand.

Conclusion

Finally, the result is a sustainable economic network based on regional cooperation that includes the financial center cluster, CBD (R&D center + high-end business), high-tech industry and green industry cluster in the first stage. The second stage represents Garden City Housing Group and the third stage includes heavy industry clusters and external communication channels. These three stages cooperate with each other to form a complete economic system in GBA. This is a sustainable economic system because it is mainly based on R&D, innovation, finance and marine science, and is supplemented by industrial pro- duction. As a supporting function, the garden city cluster provides living facilities for various industrial clusters. In this urban economic system, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Zhuhai are positioned as central cities to promote the industrial development of surrounding cities. In addition, three cross-sea passages have been planned to form a new pattern in which the east drives the development of the west.
 

The Game Zoom-in

Comparing the city construction indicators and city sizes of the same level, it is determined that the size of each cell is 1KM by 1KM, and the size of a cluster is a grid of 6 by 6. According to the principle of city positioning and mutual cooperation of industrial clusters, two CBD clusters, one TOD cluster, three garden city residential clusters and three green industrial clusters are arranged in this 30KM by 40KM area.


According to topology and the direction of the water area, the shape of the cluster is deformed. But the number of squares in each cluster remains the same. When the population or building scale of a city cluster exceeds the specified maximum value, the large city cluster splits into small city clusters as functional supporting groups. The square of 500 by 500m expresses the tendency of internal function penetration of the group and external diffusion of the group.

 

The Vision

Our project envisions the Greater Bay Area as a city cluster network based on sustainable economic development. As a first step, the building density, green space rate, base area along with other indicators of each cell are controlled within a reasonable range in accordance with the livability and ecological origin. Second, in the process of assembling cells into clusters, these cells are combined on the principle of improving urban efficiency and quality of life to control their effect on one another and composition ratio. Finally, based on the principle of developing the Greater Bay Area into a cluster of livable and productive cities driven by high-tech industries, these clusters will be distributed in different locations in the GBA.


The city clusters cooperate with each other, and the scale of these city clusters is controlled within a reasonable range through calculations of ecological carrying capacity and life efficiency. This sustainable economic network helps build a livable, efficient, fair and equitable society. The vision proposes a development model based on the collaboration and cooperation of a fixed model of urban clusters, which represents sustainable economic development and ecological resilience. It fosters an engine of economic growth that improves urban efficiency and the quality of life of residents in the region

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