Meixi Lake Master Plan

Project Details

Project Description

Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) recently announced that its master plan for Meixi Lake, in Changsha, China, is now under construction. Designed in collaboration with Arup and Gale International, the plan comprises 120 million square feet, to be built radially around a 3.85-kilometer-long, 40 hectare lake. Meixi Lake uses the linear water feature as a central focus around which 180,000 residents will live and work in the new city.
Instead of increasing density and sprawl of an existing city, Meixi Lake will be built up from nothing, allowing it to serve as a testing ground for advanced flood prevention and water management strategies. “Environmental sustainability is crucial to a city’s longevity,” managing principal Richard Nemeth, AIA, said in a release. “Building a city’s infrastructure from scratch opened tremendous opportunities in this area. Water recycling in the city is centralized, waste is minimized through efficient building systems, urban agriculture and lake fishing provide a portion of the food, and methane is captured in the wastewater.”
A network of canals radiate from the edges of the lake, allowing transportation via water taxis, as well as recreational fishing, to take place at the heart of the city. Each canal leads to a neighborhood housing cluster planned for roughly 10,000 people, which will include public amenities such schools and retail, as well as landscaped interstitial zones and exercise fields. Within the city’s high-rise business district, pedestrian walkways and tramways will reduce automotive use.
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