Huangbaiyu () is a model sustainable village in

Benxi Benxi (, ) is a prefecture-level city located in the east of Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, south-southeast of the provincial capital Shenyang. As of the 2020 census, its population was 1,326,018 (1,709,538 in 2010) whom 809,655 ...

, Liaoning, China. As of 2006, over 40 individual houses had been built; however, the construction methods, costs, materials used and the house designs have come under great criticism.

Planning

Huangbaiyu was conceived by

William McDonough William Andrews McDonough is an American architect, designer, and author. McDonough is founding principal of William McDonough + Partners, co-founder of McDonough MBDC, and co-author of '' Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things'' ...

and Partners in conjunction with

Tongji University Tongji University () is a comprehensive public research university located in Shanghai. Established in 1907 by the German government together with German physicians in Shanghai, Tongji is one of the longest-standing, most selective, and most pr ...

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

, the Benxi Design Institute, and China-U.S. Center for Sustainable Development. The town is being built in stages and is to be model of sustainable development using principles laid out by McDonough. His main thesis is that instead of trying to reduce waste you eliminate it by having everything be capable of being broken down into technical or biological nutrition that can be reused so that no waste is created and no waste needs to be disposed.

Construction

In April 2006, the project was encountering some difficulties: some housing was completed, but no residents had moved in.Big trouble in rural China?
/ref> By September 2006, 42 houses had been built. The cost of each individual dwelling is estimated to be around 28,000 yuan (A$4,600).

Controversies

*Of the 42 completed houses, only three have used the hay and pressed-earth combination. The rest use hay and compressed bricks of coal-dust, triggering a debate over whether the coal dust represents a health risk. *Only one house has solar panels; the rest were built to burn timber but have now been modified to use gas from a biogassification plant that Huangbaiyu's village chief, Dai Xiaolong, built after buying the technology. None of the houses face south as originally planned because the building contractor changed the orientation to fit Feng Shui. Inexplicably, the new houses also have garages, although no villager can afford a car. *American anthropologist Shannon May was sponsored by computer-chip giant Intel to live in the village to monitor the transformation. But after more than a year, she is dismayed at the outcome and worried that to "save face", the village may continue to be promoted as sustainable and replicated elsewhere.

References

External links

A first-hand account from Anthropologist Shannon May of the transformation of Huangbaiyu into an Eco Village

McDonough + Partners

China-US Center for Sustainable Development

BBC Article on HuangbaiyuGreen Dreams - A NOT SO Model Village
FRONTLINE World, China
Article from ''The Age'', August 2006
{{coord, 41, 06, N, 124, 21, E, display=title, region:CN_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Environmental issues in China Benxi Villages in China Energy in China