UK collective to rebuild razed Chinese city

Under the scheme the Chinese government will pull down 95 per cent of the existing city – which lies north-east of Shenzhen in the Pearl River Delta, southern China – allowing GroundLab to regenerate the city's central 'urban fabric' and provide homes for an estimated 350,000 people.

The topography of Longgang is 'karst' – a landscape characterised by 'bubbles' of rock that form caves, pits and troughs, making it unstable for excavation. The Deep Ground approach will 'thicken' the land by building vertical layers, with little or no excavation.

Castro, who teaches the landscape urbanism MA unit at the AA, said: 'We will keep the oldest bits of Longgang and form little, close communities with high densities. They are an important part of Longgang and will give the new city an identity.'

The design – which will include 9,000,000m2 of new development – would, said Castro, turn the theories of the landscape urbanism unit 'into realities'.

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