At Digital City Briefs, we believe that the digital city is here to stay. We research and share best practices related to smart infrastructure and sustainable development.
在数码城市简报，我们相信数字城市是在这里呆。我们的研究，并分享有关智能基础设施和可持续发展的最佳做法。
Indigo is a color that communicates depth and vibrancy. In Chinese, it means pleasure and refinement. Indigo Beijing represents a retail complex that is modern and energetic. It is located in the Chaoyang District of Beijing and provides 87,000 square-meters of retail consisting of a supermarket, a cinema, an array of restaurants, a food plaza and spaces for exhibition and performances. It is designed to achieve LEED Platinum certification.
“With a high-quality retail podium and hotel accommodations within the same complex, ONE INDIGO serves as a comprehensive destination that provides tenants with more than just office space.”
A 53,000 square-meters retail mall opened in 2009 in the largest high-tech business district in Beijing. The retail center faces the International Financial Center and provides pedestrian links to this renowned commercial development. The mall has seven levels, and it connects directly to the new mass transit rail line.
“The inspiration for the exterior and interior was developed from the notion of the birth of nature and the concept of new rocks and solid materials, metaphorically evolving to create new life and new technology in which the roots of the design are sown.”
Digital technologies have radically changed tourism. A tourist today has many options to experience different settings in space and time.
Digital assisted tourism refers to the use of apps for mobile devices such as iPhone and iPod to enhance the travel experience. Such apps can provide personal guidance on issues of interest, and fill in the missing information about a place’s history and legends.
Virtual tourism goes one step further. It recreates the experience of travelling in a digital form. It can also recreate historical settings which no longer exist.
“Virtual tours can be especially useful for universities and in the real-estate industry, looking to attract prospective students and tenants/buyers, respectively, eliminating for the consumer the cost of travel to numerous individual locations.”
China cut interest rates on June 8, to spur struggling economy. However, it is also instituting measures to stop runaway property prices. China has placed a ban on buying second homes, hiked minimum down payments and introduced property taxes in certain cities. The results are encouraging in some cities, but six cities have recorded increases in home prices despite these measures.
“Beijing has been encouraging banks to lend to first-time home buyers while at the same time seeking to clamp down on speculative demand.”
The National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing
In describing Beijing’s transformation for the 2008 Olympics, the author states that, “As tradable symbols of value, designer buildings have become essential tools of city marketing.” She asserts that the cities around the world are competing to build the tallest, most daring, and most technologically advanced buildings, in order to capture global preeminence. Most of the land for the Olympic buildings was acquired at very low price, because the government was able to confiscate land in the name of public interest. According to one estimate, as many as 300,000 people were evicted and their homes demolished to make way for Olympic facilities and infrastructure projects in Beijing.
“This global-scale architecture, meant to be seen from a helicopter, and experienced on large television screens, is symptomatic of the media-based economy of the new entrepreneurial city, and is entirely at the service of the spectacle.”
“Few Beijingers, however, are aware that many of the Olympic facilities which are being built on the ashes of their old neighborhoods will not be accessible to the general public, but will be turned into luxury resorts for China’s new rich. The preparations for the Olympics will thus have contributed to the creation of new space of exclusion in the Beijing landscape, using public money to finance the construction of private reserves for the wealthy.”
Reference: ANNE-MARIE BROUDEHOUX, SPECTACULAR BEIJING:
THE CONSPICUOUS CONSTRUCTION OF AN OLYMPIC METROPOLIS, JOURNAL OF URBAN
AFFAIRS, Volume 29, Number 4, pages 383–399. Photo Credit: Vera & Jean-Christophe under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
The National Aquatics Center is also known as the Water Cube. It is a wonder of sustainable architecture. The center was completed just in time for the 2008 Summer Olympics. After the Olympics the building was renovated as an indoor water park, which opened in 2010.
“Comprising a steel space frame, it is the largest ETFE clad structure in the world with over 100,000 m² of ETFE pillows that are only 0.2 mm (1/125 of an inch) in total thickness.[9] The ETFE cladding allows more light and heat penetration than traditional glass, resulting in a 30% decrease in energy costs.”
The National Center for the Performing Arts is also known as an opera house or the Bird’s Egg. It is located to the west of the Tiananmen Square, and is near the Forbidden City. 70% of tickets are sold to the ordinary citizens at low prices, while 10% of the tickets are sold to higher market segments. 60% of the annual operational cost is subsidized by the government.
“The Centre, an ellipsoid dome of titanium and glass surrounded by an artificial lake, seats 5,452 people in three halls and is almost 12,000 m² in size. It was designed by French architect Paul Andreu. Construction started in December 2001 and the inaugural concert was held in December 2007.”
