Pinggu Agricultural Innovation Campus : master plan and design report

Beijing Municipal Government has developed an initiative to stimulate agricultural innovation in cooperation with Wageningen University & Research. One of the first results of this cooperative effort is the design of the Agricultural Innovation Campus (AIC) at Yukou Town in Pinggu District on the north-eastern border of Beijing. A master plan has been designed for the AIC that synthesizes regional and local characteristics (landscape, land use, cultural heritage) with existing planning policies and regulations. Chinese planning tradition has been combined with a typical Dutch landscape approach and theory to take the best of these ‘two worlds’. State-of-the-art knowledge and innovations are introduced in the design process where relevant and possible. The key aim of the master plan is the design of an interconnected blue/green framework (the Green Dragon) that envelops three building zones for the development of agricultural institutes, laboratories and other companies. The Green Dragon will connect the AIC with surrounding recreational, ecological and agricultural areas. The Green Dragon will also form an important landscape element that provides several ecosystem services for Yukou Town. These ecosystem services include recreational facilities and opportunities to collect and store water. The master plan includes a set of rules for the development of buildings within the AIC (the Quality Book). The master plan also contains detailed designs for roads and road verges and designs for several pocket parks (the Gardens of Life). Recommendations for the organization and management of the AIC complete the project.