China market

China has imported Swedish sustainable development to one of the fastest-growing cities in the world. Shanghai has now it's own Sigtuna and a  “Lake Meilan” a copy of lake Mälaren (the third-largest lake in Sweden) Luodian was ready in 2004 and is a fully fledged copy of a Scandinavian town. The city took six years to build and belongs to Baoshan, one of the 16 districts in Shanghai.

Sweco a Swedish architecture firm was involved in the planning of Luodian, the company describes the project as an export of sustainable urban development to China. The light, pastel houses in Scandinavian Cultural Street are based on those in historic Sigtuna, a small town north of Stockholm. And close to Citizen Square there is a square-shaped church-like tower overlooking Lake Meilan.

Spread over 6,8 square kilometers, Luodian is a gated community built for between 30,000 and 50,000 people, with luxury villas, a Nobel Science and Technology Park, a five-star hotel and nine-hole PGA-approved golf course.  It follows the pattern of new urbanism with a traditional form without the traditional function. The center of Luodian has its own bell-tower that belongs to a building with the appearance of a 1950ies modernist church. But the planned function of the building is to congregate people for shopping instead of the Sunday mass.





The question is whether the outcome lives up to this. The attempts in this direction with green corridors and bicycle lanes do not alone imply sustainability. As long as Luodian remains an isolated island without any connections to the rest of the city, people who choose to move there will have to rely on their own cars. Well-functioning infrastructure and public transport must be considered crucial aspects of a sustainable development, not only of Luodian, but of the whole region of Shanghai.

^{Sources and photos: sweco.se, luodian.com, sweden.se, sinocities.net}