Honorable Mention | Urban Design (Concept)
Firm Name: RTKL Associates Inc.
Participant Name: Keith Campbell
Country: United States
The Zunyi Oasis master plan shatters precedents and establishes new paradigms for planned mixed-use communities in China. The ambitious plan promotes integrated high-tech industries, manufacturing, residential communities and tourism. Guiding design principles include protecting and supporting existing nature and culture, establishing distinct districts, creating livable communities, offering accessible transportation, and planning a complete green network across the site.
Zunyi Oasis is located to the north of the Zunyi Economy-Technology Development Area in the Guizhou province, which includes abundant natural resources. The site enjoys an advantageous geographical position at the junction of a major highway and transit connections, serving as a gateway to Chengdu and Chongqing.
Unlike the conventional planning attributes of an industrial town, Zunyi Oasis emphasizes the preservation of natural resources to create a livable environment. The existing ecological resources of the site provide an opportunity to distinguish itself from other established industrial parks, which lack living environments. The master plan preserves sensitive natural resources including mountains, a river, and two “Eco-Corridors” that protect existing animal trails. Zunyi Oasis also respects existing urban fabrics and the renowned world cultural heritage represented by TUSI culture. The focus is on creating a green environment of unique characteristics in which to work and live, in order to attract talent. Continuous sidewalks, public transportation and bicycle routes provide a green network of transportation throughout the site to allow citizens and tourists ecologically “clean” transit options, and promote personal interaction. Amenities located within a 5-minute walking distance facilitate increased interaction between functions, and lead to synergistic relationships.
A community is a basic module of a city, with an emphasis on human scale. Zunyi Oasis treats a community module like a basic unit as if a cell in biology. The master plan creates districts to complement each other, and to provide organically occurring gathering places for the exchange of different cultures and economic forces. Several community modules join together to form districts with distinctive characteristics. Different districts then complement each other and form a new town with organic growth. This mixed-use framework provides a complete live, work, play strategy to ensure the balance between industry, residential, and culture within each community, and is unique among Chinese industrial developments.
Zunyi Oasis is a profound development positioned to highlight the site’s outstanding natural resources. The plan takes technology and tourism as dual-engine, to create integration between capital and talent, between tourism and industry, and between manufacturing and living to form an innovative industrial new town which can grow organically. This is where nature and humanity coexist harmoniously, where true mixed-use take place, and where talent gathers. Zunyi Oasis is a unique demonstration of a master plan for an industrial new town that establishes a new paradigm in China.
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