Shui On Land: Building sustainable communities and practicing the innovative approach of “Urban Renewal”

Company profile
 
Founded in 2004 and listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (Stock Code: 272) in October 2006, Shui On Land Limited is the Shui On Group’s flagship property development company in the Mainland China. Headquartered in Shanghai, Shui On Land has established a solid foundation in the China and has a proven track record in developing mixed-use, sustainable communities. Its nine projects, in various stages of development, are all situated in prime locations within the key cities of Shanghai, Chongqing, Wuhan, Dalian and Foshan.
 
Challenges
 
“Urban Renewal” is a new concept that breaks through both the space and the inherent form in the urban development. It advocates an intensive and sustainable way to upgrade the layout, function and lifestyle of the city, and improve the quality of life and the comprehensive value of the city. The process of urban renewal is faced with the following problems.
 
First of all, as a basic unit of the city, community is divided by single functions and is not conducive to sustainable urban development and lifestyle. Second, the heritage and conservation of urban history and culture are ignored. Third, the closed community and the lack of open public space hinders the communication and social integration of people. In addition, the haze, pollution and other environmental problems are increasingly serious, affecting the sustainable development of the city, and becoming the focus of attention.
 
Solution
 
For more than two decades, Shui On Land has been adhering to the concepts of “people-oriented, respect nature, inherit history and low carbon” and develops and operates high-quality residential, office, retail, entertainment and cultural properties in Mainland China. Shui On Land explores and practice the innovative approaches for urban renewal and sustainable community and applies its hallmark approach of master-planning to all projects to ensure that developments are fully consistent with government objectives in economic development and urban planning while simultaneously incorporating local historical and cultural characteristics into our designs and planning. Manifesting the “Total Community” concept, our projects provide a unique environment enabling life enrichment of “Live-Work-Play”.
 
Prospective overall planning to construct the “open block” with mixed functions
 
Shui On Land’s “open block” includes elements like suitable plot scale, narrow roads and road network, pedestrian and transit orientation, energetic street and special public space. It integrates functions of housing and commerce, office, culture and entertainment to accommodate various lifestyles, enrich community communication, promote land saving and utilization, mitigate urban traffic pressure and enhance the comprehensive value of blocks and cities. As of December 2016, Shui On Land has transformed or developed more than 272 public streets, public squares and public green spaces in 8 projects.
 
Taipingqiao used to be the lane housing area in the Shikumen Plat- the city’s distinctive traditional residential architecture. . After reconstruction, the project is comprised of several main components: historical redevelopment zone Shanghai Xintiandi in the west; premium offices in Corporate Avenue in the North; Luxury residential area Lakeville in the South; mixed-use shopping and entertainment business centre to the East, and an artificial lake and greeneries at the centre, being a international and high-end business symbolic community and one of the earliest open block with mix functions in Mainland China.
 
Inherit the history and create a modern community that combines the past and the future
 
Shui On Land not only advocates and realizes the renewal of architecture and space, but also promotes the spiritual culture and life style of a city.The company uses the advanced international concepts, creative techniques and market operation mode, to integrate the local historical and cultural heritage into modern life, giving life to the old urban area and updating the unique culture and humanistic temperament.
 
Take Shanghai Xintiandi as an example, Shui On Land took the initiative to create the old Shikumen architecture development pattern and for the first time changed the living function of Shikumen to commercial function, transforming it be a fashion landmark and name card of Shanghai and making it with the charm and vitality of the historic city, by which to realize the fusion of the innovation of intangible cultural heritage and urban renewal.
 
Pay attention to diverse needs and create a dynamic and innovative humanistic community
 
Shui On Land has a deep understanding of the goals of different communities and the diverse needs of different communities to provide high quality and different community products, and create a pleasant, fashionable, humane and dynamic community atmosphere.
 
The Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) focuses on promoting the exchange and interaction of innovation elements, cooperate with colleges to set up young entrepreneurship curriculum, and organize regular international hacker marathon , Maker Carnival and other activities to provide communication opportunities and platforms of innovative elements for the entrepreneurial team and personnel. THE HUB introduces the state of parent-child business to create an atmosphere for people who work in Hongqiao business district to communicate and interact emotionally with children after busy work. Shanghai Xintiandi is committed to creating a unique public art space in the city center of Shanghai. it holds over 100 international and high-level theme art activities throughout the year.
 
Pay attention to eco-friendly environment and create a low carbon green community
 
Around the theme of Green community and healthy life, Shui On Land adheres to integrate the green concept into corporate management, building environmentally friendly green buildings and green communities through four major links in green planning, green design, green construction, green operation. At the same time, it actively advocates a healthy and environmental attitude to life. Shui On Land provides visual energy measurement and monitoring by exploring the energy management platform, to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, and release the PM2.5 air quality data in the office floor in real time.
 
Achievements
 
Sustainable urban renewal mode influences the transformation of the government’s policy on old district reconstruction. Shui On Land, through multiple urban renewal projects development, to a great extent, has influenced the government’s policy transformation from “dismantling” to “protection and reuse”, promoting the establishment of “historical features protection zone” and the concept upgrading of “urban renewal”.
 
Shanghai Xintiandi is selected as one classic case of top 20 cultural landmark of Forbes 2016, World Bank’s global UrbanRenewal, becoming the only one in China that was evaluated by the World Bank as “one of the most successful communities with urban renewal all in the world”, and was listed as a successful case with the KIC as Ten Principles for Urban Regeneration released by ULI. KIC university road was included in the cases of Shanghai Street Design Guidelines released by the Shanghai Municipal Planning and Land & Resources Administration.
 
Tiandi Community mode created good economic benefits and brand effects
 
The successful practice of Shui On Land Tiandi Community business model constitutes the core competitiveness of Shui On Land, and the company's products are continuously welcomed by the market. In 2016, Shui On Land contracted property sales increased by 7% to RMB 22.975 billion yuan, setting up the new high of the company over the years. The annual turnover reached RMB 17.6 billion yuan, and the annual increase was 172%. Shui On Land was listed in the real estate and architecture industry in the Hang Seng Indexes, HSSI and SH-HK Stock Connect and won the honor of Corporate Governance Winners 2015-2016 by the Corporate Governance Asia.
 
Double certification of Green building and emission reduction effects become the “wind vane” in the industry
 
As of 2016, a total of 29 new commercial projects have been certified or pre- certified by LEED, eleven newly built commercial projects and twelve newly built apartment projects have obtained China's green building certification. At present, Shui On Land is still the developer with the most building area in China’s LEED-ND second stage gold grade certification. In 2016, Shui On Land was selected into the TOP list of China’s green buildings, and won the honors of 2016 Top 10 Chinese Green Real Estate Developers and the Top 10 of The Green Real Estate Operators.
 
In 2016, the greenhouse emission of every1,000 square kilometer of the property operated by Shui On Land is 68.01 ton, which was 25.31% lower than that of 2011. It has surpassed the commitment to reducing emissions in the six major goals of SDGs, which is equivalent to planting 1.82 million trees.
 
Prospect
 
Shui On Land will continue to abide by its commitment to the sustainable city, environmental protection and social progress. And it will develop the sustainable whole community with the idea of innovation and the professional practice and actively contribute to the efficiency and energy saving of urban communities, upgrading and transformation of urban industry, the inheritance and development of urban culture, and the harmony and vitality of urban life.