The Mentogou Eco Valley project is situated in the Mentogou municipality area about 30 km west of the centre of Beijing centre. The project is planned in companionship with the Finnish ecological experts Eero Paloheimo Eco City Ltd, and for the time being our Master Plan is being legalized for Chinese authorities, in order to be able to continue the urban planning and the Architectural design for nine to eleven ecological Industry plants and/or ecological Science Centers. After getting the Master Plan legalized and approved by the Chinese authorities the work will start to find suitable investors and to carry out the architectural and building design for the scientific centers.
The Mentougou Eco-Valley is a city that combines modern science and innovation with an environmentally friendly and eco-efficient urban living. From land use to construction and traffic, from recycling to water management and scientific research institutes, the Eco-Valley respects the environment and minimizes its ecological footprint in its entire function. This Master Plan lays out the key elements in the future eco-valley and highlights the combination of Chinese tradition with latest international innovations for environmentally friendly urban planning. The Master Plan begins by laying out the general ecological principles in land use and planning, with a special emphasis on housing and services. It then gives an outline and illustrations of the municipal infrastructure and energy solutions for the Eco-Valley. In the next part, the specific architectural solutions and design of the research institutes for the Mentougou Eco-Valley are outlined. In particular, the interplay between form and function of the institutes is highlighted. Finally, the Master Plan presents a list of potential international business enterprises intended for marketing targets of the Mentougou Eco-Valley.
The Mentougou Eco-Valley is unique among so called eco cities, as it strives towards a comprehensive minimization of environmental impacts while maintaining an economic growth based on high technology and scientific innovations. In fact, the Master Plan process of the Mentougou Eco-Valley has learned from both the successes and failures of other eco city developments, such as Huangbaiyu, Masdar and Dong Tan. First, it avoids the mismatch between housing supply and demand witnessed in the Huangbaiy eco-city simply because the housing construction at the end is led by Chinese and international companies specifically engaged in settling in the area. At the same time, the Mentougou Eco-Valley maintains the good principles of full nutrient recycling, which was the cornerstone of the Huangbaiy eco-city. Second, the Mentougou Eco-Valley not only concentrates on carbon neutrality, as does for instance the Masdar eco-city in Abu Dhabi. The Eco-Valley will be capable of producing all of its water, circulating biological nutrients back into the natural circulation, and boosting local agriculture so as to meet the nutritional needs of the Eco-Valley. The good lesson of Masdar, however, is the introduction of research centers and university departments in the eco-city. This is not only included in the Mentougou Eco-Valley: it is in fact the core of the whole Eco-Valley concept. Third, the Mentougou Eco-Valley acknowledges the difficulties faced by the promising Dong Tan eco-city: lack of local involvement and ubiquitous funding issues. The Mentougou Eco-Valley will be constructed in close co-operation with local operators in the Mentougou and Miaofengshan area, as the research institutes will be occupied by both Chinese and international companies and organizations. What is more, the funding of the Eco-Valley is based on a comprehensive and transparent funding scheme, which minimizes the risks related to the actual implementation of the Eco-Valley. As in Dong Tan, however, the Mentougou Eco-Valley uses the good principles of minimizing its total environmental footprint down to one third of a typical city of similar size.
