Chinese island conferred with International planning award

The planning project of Changxing Island in Northeastern China has been awarded the annual awards of excellence by the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP), Dutch design company KuiperCompagnons (KC) said Thursday. Changxing Island, the sixth largest island in China, is located in Liaoning province along the east coast of the Bohai Bay, north of the city Dalian, and is part of the Dalian Administrative Area. It was designed by the KC and John Tang Associates from Hong Kong. The design partnership said in a statement that the character of the island and the surrounding archipelago has been rapidly transformed from a rural aquaculture and agriculture-based economy to an urbanized and industrialized economy, centered on a newly constructed deep-water port servicing the shipbuilding and petrochemical industries. "The master plan combines a central role for blue water and green landscape with an elaborate connecting network over land and sea, creating a sustainable realm of city islands," Gijs van den Boomen, director of the KC told Xinhua. The Changxing Island Master Plan offers a viable alternative planning model that demonstrates how an alternative high-density urban strategy can be developed that balances growth with the enhancement of the coastal edge, Van den Boomen said. "The Plan seeks to promote such an alternative development paradigm that balances development efficiency with connectivity, ecology, and place-making in a way that can be easily and sustainably implemented at the regional, city, and local level," he added. The ISOCARP, a global association of experienced professional planners, was founded in 1965 in a bid to bring recognized and highly-qualified planners into an international network. According to the organization, the ISOCARP Awards for Excellence are conferred in recognition of exceptionally innovative urban and regional planning initiatives in an increasingly urbanized world.