Location: Forest Forever (FF)
Client: Modern Group
Description: 102 Homes as part of a wider masterplan of community & commercial buildings
Start / Completion: 2007
Notes:

A suburb extension to Beijing, the scheme is a mixed use up market residential, 506 bed spaces in 102 homes and flats averaging 30 homes / ha with some office, retail and a market included. Every home has a home office accessed directly from the street, cars will be powered by reclaimed vegetable oil from Beijing, and each home has the capability to approach zero carbon using building integrated solar electricity and solar thermal panels. Heating and cooling is provided by small ground sourced heat pumps, as biomass is scarce around Beijing. The kitchens have a 6 compartment waste segregation and recycling space included. A large fishing lake is incorporated into the landscape, together with a mountain bike training track with the development built beside a school. A new railway station will be constructed as later phases are developed. The central feature of the new community is a telecommuting office hub with secretarial and meeting facilities, shared IT facilities, commercial workspace to rent, a café / restaurant and a local shop - with space for local farmers to set up fresh produce stalls in the central atrium space. A roofmounted reedbed cleans water from the fishing lake. The unit mix is 32 townhouses,55 maisonettes, and 15 intergenerational villas [more like a block of flats designed for three generations of one family]. The project has planning permission, and will start on site spring 2007.