Business
& Labor
London Mayor Envisions Model "Eco City" in Thames
Gateway
(archrecord.construction.com - 07/24/2006)
By John
E. Czarnecki
London Mayor Ken Livingstone announced
in April that he would like to have a 1,000-home “eco
city” built in the London borough of Newham.
Livingstone made the announcement while
in China reviewing plans for Dongtan [RECORD, March 2006,
page 46], a city which will be powered by renewable energy.
Located on the island of Chongming at the mouth of China’s
Yangtse River and designed by Arup, Dongtan is being planned
as a self-sufficient community for 500,000 people. Its first
phase for 80,000 residents will be complete by 2020.
Greenpeace originally proposed the London
plan and the London Development Agency (LDA), also working
with Arup. The LDA already owns land in Newham, but the exact
location of the proposed development has not been determined.
Like Dongtan, the London development would likely be powered
entirely by renewable sources such as wind turbines and photovoltaic
cells. Livingstone said in a statement, “London’s
zero-emissions development will demonstrate that it is affordable
and achievable to make all major new developments low-carbon.”
He hopes to break ground within a year. According to Peter
Head, a director of Arup who is also leading the planning
for Dongtan, the London development could be realized by 2010.
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