Press release: A tale of two rivers – How a new city in Northern China is shaped by nature and nomadic culture
19.03.07
A new city planned at Yimin, Inner Mongolia, is pointing to the future of urban sustainability in China. Designed by AJ+C (and recently featured in The Australian and ABC Radio National’s By Design with Alan Saunders), Yimin will become an ecologically-driven home to 100,000 people from twelve ethnic groups in the area – most of them historically nomadic peoples with a strong affinity with the natural environment.
The conventional approach to urbanisation in China absorbs existing settlements and extends into natural areas – damaging the ecology, and fabric of local culture. However, the grassroots of Yimin are firmly embedded in the soil – a vast river plain 1,000 kilometres north of the Great Wall of China (bordering Mongolia to the west and Russia to the north).
