He,Jessica Junyan

Sustainable neighborhood landscape planning and intelligent living possibilities – Case study on LEED ND projects in China

Jessica Junyan He, PhD., Associate Principal Landscape Designer, Atkins

Email: Junyan.he@atkinsglobal.com, jessicaher@gmail.com

Abstract:

Living environment is part of the global environment. The quality of living environment construction directly relates to the big issues of sustainable development. Neighborhood as the basic component of living environment has a close relationship with human living quality and even the survival of humanity. So it is very important to apply sustainable principles in neighborhood planning.

China continues to be in a rapid developing process. Along with the urbanization, a limited land resource versus an urgent requirement of green space is now becoming an intense conflict. More and more people come to the city and thus more and more residential places are required. During the neighborhood development, some of the environmental problems emerge simultaneously, eg. exsiting landscape destroy, loss of biodiversity, low quality soil, and high energy consumption. Sustainable neighborhood landscape planning becomes a solution for the rapid urban development and also a challenge for urban planner, architects and landscape architects. LEED-ND becomes a good tool and now is widely used in China and worldwide.

This paper aims to study one neighborhood landscape planning project in Shanghai to illustrate how to use LEED-ND principles to create a sustainable neighborhood. Case study is used as the main methodology. At the same time, some possibilities are also discussed according to how to bring an intelligent life for the people through careful planning and design. As a result it is found that LEED-ND can be used as an effective tool for sustainable neighborhood landscape planning and contribute to the overall sustainable development. Some of the intelligent designs, technologies and products can be combined in landscape planning.

In conclusion, this paper highly recommends LEED-ND principles to be implemented in neighborhood projects in China no matter they are aiming to get the LEED certification or not. More intelligent technologies are welcome in neighborhood development and landscape planning to save more energy and bring a better and convenient life for people.

Biography

Dr. Jessica Junyan HE received her doctoral degree in 2006 from Department of Architecture, the University of Hong Kong. Her Ph.D research topic is Sustainable Residential Landscaping: A Conceptual Framework and Its application in High Dense Urban Context of Hong Kong. After graduation, she worked as research assist in HKU, landscape designers in world top architecture firms. Now she is an associate principal landscape designer in Atkins and in charge of sustainable landscape planning projects.

Holding a Ph.D degree in Landscape Architecture and Urban Sustainable Development, Dr. Jessica Junyan He has a comprehensive knowledge in landscape planning and design, botany as well as urban sustainable development. Up to now, she has published many papers on international conferences and journals. Her conference paper Classic Chinese Lingnan Garden in Housing in sustainable development -- A Comparative Study in Canton, China was awarded Best Student Paper in the 2005 World Sustainable Building Conference in Tokyo as the only student from Asia. She also has many successful completed landscape projects in both Hong Kong and Mainland China. In 2012, the Shanghai Songjiang Intercontinental 5 Star Quarry Hotel Landscape Design project, which worked with Atkins architecture department, was awarded the best design project in MIPIM. She is not only creative in design, but also interested in combining design with research. Recently, her project Yunnan Kunming Expo-xingyun Hotel Conceptual Landscape Design was published on EXPO journal and the entire project got the 2012 RIBA International Award from UK.