Today, in order to preserve the stability factors of our environment, resources and climate it is urgent to conceive alternative models of development for our territories. This means adopting new concepts of development and construction and to identify. Therefore, our institute invited Mr. Christian BINETRUY, Architect - Urban planner to deliver a conference on these topics.
The conference, entitled “the sustainable development period and the environmental transition of cities and buildings” was held on October 10th, in the presence of Mr. Marc BONDIOU, Attaché for Science and Technology at the French Consulate in Wuhan, Mr. Sébastian de Vaujany, Representative of Essonne County in China, and hundreds of teachers, staffs & students from Architecture and Urban Planning School, School of Civil Engineering & Mechanics, ICARE and other schools. The conference also attracted senior planners from Wuhan Planning & Design Institute and senior managers and directors from Investment Company of Science and Technology Park in Wuhan Optics Valley of China. What’s more, Ms. XIA Yonghua, assistant of the director of Alliance Française in Wuhan, was invited to do the interpretation.
At the beginning, Mr. BINETRUY introduced two tools of EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) that are commonly used in Europe: “Tool of Housing life cycle assessment” and “Tool of Soil Life cycle assessment”. And then, he showed some examples of ecological community and green building.
Introducing first an eco-town in Paris, he mentioned that although all eco-towns have different designs, there is a common idea: minimizing the impact on the environment and buildings through adopting renewable energy, energy-saving, health and environmental protection materials, and the coexistence of multiple transportation modes. The second example is from Germany. More than 20 years ago many residents of Hanover moved to suburb for a good natural environment and consequently it created a void in the urban zone. Therefore, the government took measures to incite their return, including retrofitting old buildings and building eco-community which has comparable condition and sustainable neighborhoods as suburb environment, as well as pouring investment to build highways and railways. Residents were also encouraged to use bicycle or public transport. …and it worked!
Mr. BINETURY also talked about the case of building eco-town on a reclamation land in Netherland. The difficulty was working on wet land and protecting the drinkable water in the center of the land. The last project demonstrated by him is a respirable commercial building in London, especially how renewable energy and concept were used.
As summary, beyond building and urban planning, the core goal is a sustainable society. Urban planners need to work creatively and rationally on available land or space, to reach “low tech” and “low cost” aim. Meanwhile, water, wind, air, sunlight, soil, health, etc, all the factors should be taken into consideration to supplement and fuse the architecture and environment. The idea won high agreement within the audience.
During Mr. BINETURY’s stay, he also had exchange with professors from Architecture and Urban Planning School, meetings with directors/managers from Wuhan Optics Valley Chinese Sci-Tech City Investment Co., Ltd and representatives from China Building Technique Group Co., Ltd. He also had city tour and saw featured buildings such as the French Concession.
Biography of Mr. Christian BINETRUY
Architect – Urban planner, Lecturer in Paris-la-Vilette (École nationale supérieure d’architecture Paris - la Villette). Mr BINETRUY is an expert in eco-building and eco-cities ("green construction"), and counselor for architecture, environment and urban planning of the county of Essonne (South of Paris) since 1983.
