Modeling metropolis : clean energy guidelines for neighborhood design in rapidly urbanizing China

Abstract

In China's current landscape the paradigm for urban development is the rapid creation of whole neighborhoods instead of the conventional piecemeal approach of creating individual buildings that gradually aggregate over time into neighborhoods. China's approach is complex and fast moving, and has resulted in the highly repetitive form of tower-in-park typology being applied throughout the country to develop new neighborhoods. This development strategy creates living environments that require households to adopt patterns of daily living that consume excessive resources and needlessly contribute to climate degradation by relying on mechanically controlled interior climates in neighborhoods requiring excessive dependence upon automobiles. This situation presents compelling opportunities for planners and designers to create a more energy efficient city form. What is required is an effective method of accurately predicting, during the design process, patterns of neighborhood energy consumption. This thesis presents guidelines for doing this. When partnered with the Energy Proforma© the guidelines can help make possible rapid yet highly energy efficient urban design and development at the neighborhood scale. Development of these guidelines drew upon the research of the Making the Clean Energy City in China Research Group led by Dennis Frenchman and Christopher Zegras. Other resources include literature describing previous approaches to neighborhood scale designs and guidelines, and an examination of current and emerging practices in the field of urban design and development. Finally, student projects are incorporated into the thesis and interwoven with the guidelines to illustrate the forms that potential developments might take.