The grand award winner 2021 of the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design (HKIUD) Urban Design Awards was “Divercity – Nature-driven urbanization at Chishi river of Shenshan”. Divercity is the is the winning entry in the design competition ‘The International Consultation on the Planning and Design of Chishi Riverside, Shenshan Special Cooperation Zone of Shenzhen Municipality’ held last year.
The Sino-Dutch event with the topic ‘Water by Design’ was organized by the Dutch Embassy and Guangdong Urban & Rural Planning and Design Institute in September. In total, eight Dutch urban planning and landscape architecture design firms with projects in Big Bay Area in China were invited to share their experiences with experts from Guangdong Province.
The two HONORABLE mention award-winning projects, which were developed in 2020, have been recognized by the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) and received Landscape Architecture awards. The Asia-Pacific IFLA 2021 ceremony awarded 233 projects from around the world in 19 different categories. We are proud of being recognized by such a prestigious organization.
In Shenzhen, the ambitious Blueway program aims to recover 1000 kilometres of existing rivers, riverfronts, and lakes by 2025. With scenic rivers and lake shorelines as basis, Shenzhen wants to achieve a vision that urban life and industry exists in harmony with safety, ecology, and environmental quality.
In May 2020, the consortium NL Urban Solutions, Lingnan Landscape Design Group and China Design Group (hydrology) was shortlisted in one time as the only bidding consortium for three international Blueway competitions in Shenzhen: Xinqiao river, Shiyan river and Songang river.
Only one month later NL Urban Solutions and the consortium was the winner with their creative and realistic concept design proposal in two Blueway projects: Xinqiao river and Shiyan river.
The consortium of NL Urban Solutions participated the international competition for the overall conceptual planning and design of Blueway around Xili Reservoir
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From March to July 2021, the international competition for the overall conceptual planning and design of Blueway programming around Xili Reservoir was held by Shenzhen’s Water Resources Bureau. The consortium that consists of NL Urban Solutions, Lingnan Design Institute and Power East China Design Institute, was selected as one of the top 6 tenders. This is the second time that the consortium has worked together; their previous collaboration resulted in the first prize for the Chishi River urban planning and design competition.
The Happy Forest Belt opened to the public on 1st July 2021. It is the largest underground complex in the world and the largest urban landscape forest project in China, with a total length of 5.85 km and a width of 210 m.
On the 22nd of March 2021, the results of the international urban design competition held by Jinghe New City (Xixian New District) for the Chongwen Pagoda Area were announced. After two rounds of fierce competition including 20 well-known design firms from across the world, the consortium of NL Urban Solutions B.V. and Beijing Tsinghua Tongheng Planning and Design Institute won the first prize. The jury appreciated their people-oriented approach and the attention to ecology and culture in their design proposal Jinghe, Future Ridge.
Marja Nevalainen, co-director of NL Urban Solutions, was invited to participate in the HUA PURELAND & CRUYFF COURTS & ORANGE SPORTS FORUM on April 23rd 2021, which took place in Dayi county, Chengdu. The online presentation focus on the “Sports and the Healthy city” from the perspective of urban planning.
NL Urban Solutions’ Directors Marja Nevalainen and Rong Hu were interviewed for a column in Archicomm Magazine about the importance of including water management and climate adaptation in urban development plans. The column argues that the Netherlands has great experience with integrated water management, and thus, great potential to combine the current challenges of increased housing demand and adaptation to climate change (flooding, droughts, heat waves, biodiversity loss) in a way that results in a ‘sponge country’ that benefits both people and ecologies.
However, the current decentralized model of spatial planning does not allow for integrated, regional-level approaches, which are necessary to deal with the housing and climate adaptation challenges simultaneously and effectively. It is also argued that more interdisciplinary collaboration and multi-purpose public funding structures are needed to ensure comprehensive urban and regional developments will result in a healthy and habitable future.
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Click on the following link to read the complete column.
NL URBAN SOLUTIONS is mentioned in Financieel Dagblad special edition Analyse Safe & Sustainable cities among “3 most interesting water projects” on page 6. We design sustainable water robust cities in China. The focus of this edition is on water management, smart and safe cities.
You can download the E-paper (Dutch only) on the link below:
