URBAN ECOPUNCTURE

TAIPEI RIVER URBANISM
Marco Casagrande for La Vie -magazine, October 2011


Taipei exists because of the river. The first generation Taipei lived in straight connection with the river nature and it developed its local knowledge, how to harvest the rich resources of river systems, how to survive with the floods and even how to make artificial man-made floods as the basics of rice farming. The second generation Taipei is the industrial manifesto of a city as a machine and independent from the nature. In case of Taipei the river nature was shut off from the urban narrative more radically than perhaps anywhere else in the word: the industrial city built its own city wall, a 12 meters high reinforced concrete wall to block the river entirely from the city. This wall has proven to be very effective to cut nature out of urban life. Now the citizens are children of the machine, not nature.

Taipei city wall: 12 meters of reinforced concrete separating the city from the river nature.

The modern machine turned the river into an industrial sewage. The smaller rivers and channels all across the city were covered with concrete and asphalt decks and were as well turned into sewages. “Not even the dogs eat the fish of the river today.” Says Missis Chen, the leader of the Treasure Hill original community. She has lived all her life by the Xindian River, washed her children in the river, drank the clean river water and ate the fishes, crabs, snails etc. from it. The urban farms of the Treasure Hill community were on the flood banks next to the river. The river was flooding, which was considered normal, the architecture had been adjusted to this.

Missis Chen of Treasure Hill has lived all her life with the Xindian River and has wittnessed its pollution from a clean and drinkable stream into an industrial sewage.

Missis Chen is not alone with her memory of the clean river. This local knowledge is still remembered by a large section of the elder generations throughout the Taipei citizens in all classes. The best testimony for the changes of the Taipei rivers comes from the Jiantai fishermen, who have physically witnessed the disappearing of one species after another from the river and in the end leaving also the remaining species polluted and not eatable any longer. For them the starting point of the pollution and the city’s change of attitude towards its natural environment is clear: the dictator’s wall.

The elderly Jiantai fishermen still remember how the river used to be a treasure chest of seafood and how the annual floods were a normal part of life.

“One day Chiang Kai-Shek’s home got flooded and the dictator got mad to the nature. He ordered the city to build a wall to the river. After the wall got there, the river got polluted.” The fishermen explain to us that before the wall the flooding was not a serious problem because the water had plenty of space to spread out. The water rose up to a knee height and this was normal.

The strength of the ecological restoration of the urbanized Taipei basin lies in these older generation experts of local knowledge. For them the built human environment in straight connection with the river nature is not a fiction, it is a reality that they have been living.

TAIPEI RIVER URBANISM

Taipei needs therapy. The collective subconscious of the city is very organic. This gets manifested through the networks of illegal urban farms, community gardens and illegal architecture all over the city. This is also in the nomadic character of the citizens getting together in the night markets, tai-chi trainings, under-bridge karaoke and even in the parades of the local “land gods”. The official city is not organic at all though. It is a manifest of hard line industrialism and with a totalitarian attitude towards the nature, including human nature. The ecological restoration of Taipei City is a process of letting the collective subconscious surface in the city, letting the local knowledge to become the new official. River is in the focus of all this. The heath of the river is the reflection of the health of the city. The wall must go. The city and the river must re-unite.

Taipei must find a new way of co-existing with the river nature - a some sort of mangrove urbanism which would allow the free flooding of the river and return the city closer to the natural pulses of the surrounding environment.

When the wall goes…

* Flood gets into the city.
* City gets into the river.
* Covered rivers, channels and streams will be opened up.
* Urban farming along the flood banks gets extended.
* Bio-mass production for bio-energy gets introduced in the flood banks and on floating farms.
* Waste waters get 100% purified before getting back to nature.
* Sludge will be treated by PACS technology and used for agriculture and bio-energy.
* Off the grid areas will be introduced with localized water purification installations.

Flood waters get collected into community scale underground containers.
Underground storm water is used for acclimatising buildings and for irrigation.
Sediment pollution in the rivers will be treated by PACS technology.
Architecture has to adapt for occasional flooding conditions.

Storm waters could be harvested into underground reservoirs benefiting to the city's cooling, irrigation and storm water readiness. Casagrande Laboratory, 2011.

Free flooding suggests the city some new infrastructure. Taipei could render the Tokyo experience of capturing the storm waters into centralized underground container installation but in a de-centralized way by building the underground water reservoirs in community scale. These reservoirs can then be used for cooling the above buildings and for irrigation. (see Aalto SGT Taipei River Urbanism, 2011)

River urbanism needs participatory planning from all the share-holders of the urban river: Taipei City, Taipei New City, Taiwan Central Government, local communities, NGOs, universities, developers, illegal urban farmers, environmental technology providers, international experts and possibly even United Nations. UN-HABITAT would appreciate an urban river restoration project in this scale that could act later on as an example for cities around the world with similar challenges.

“Pollution comes from up-stream.” Says Missis Chen of Treasure Hill. With this she probably means that up on the mountains are still a good bunch of illegal factories and communities that are releasing their waste untreated straight into the rivers. The sources of pollution should be controlled from the whole drainage area of the Taipei Basin. Modern environmental technology can provide waste treatment solutions even for factories of the grid. The new biological treatment systems, such as the PACS technology can treat the waste on the spot and are easily scalable to factory and community scales.

URBAN ECOPUNCTURE

Building up the concrete wall was easy, but demolishing it seems to be a big challenge. The city inside the wall has been built in not much consideration for the natural environment. Actually nature is seen as something hostile for this fragile man-made machinery. With River Urbanism our challenge is to tune this machine into an organic machine. We already have the great hydrological machine of the pulsating river nature inside us. Somehow the city needs to find a way how to pulsate together with it.

I propose two possible ways how to start the development towards the Taipei River City. The first one introduces a methodology how to punctually clean the city from inside and how to open up the city towards the rivers from inside. We call this Urban Ecopuncture. The other example is the possible case of Guandu as an example of a river city.

Opened up Leo-Gong channel acting as an ecological corridor stretching from the Xindian River to the Keelong River. Sustainable urban acupuncture for mechanical Taipei. Sketch Marco Casagrande.

Opening up the covered rivers, streams and channels will give a possibility for Urban Ecopuncture, cleaning the city from inside. The opened up water ways could act a biological filters purifying the water originated from the polluted rivers. The communities around these Urban Ecopuncture areas would receive, treat and recycle the waste from the surrounding city acting as eco-valleys within the urban fabric. The eco-valleys would contain the needed environmental technology to take care of its share of the surrounding city. The eco-valley areas would also have the first underground storm-water reservoirs and act as flood relief for the surrounding city as a sponge.

Leo-Kong Channel / Urban Ecopuncture. Sketch Marco Casagrande.

The design methodology of Urban Ecopuncture is developed in co-operation with Finnish EPEC taking the eco-city principles of Professor Eero Paloheimo into the hearts of existing cities with ecological challenges.

Leo-Gong channel was constructed in 1760 and it made possible the effective farming of the fertile Taipei Basin. Now the channel runs under the city as a sewage.

The Leo-Gong channel could be the first one of the Taipei eco-valleys. Through its length we would biologically purify the Xindian River originated water and use the clean water as the centre of the new ecological environment. We could have a beach inside the city. New housing would exist together with the old communities and facilitate the needed environmental technology solutions for the waste treatment and energy production for the surrounding city.

The opened up Leo-gong channel would act as an urban sponge taking care of the surrounding city's storm waters.

Under the Leo-Gong Eco-Valley would be the underground storm water reservoirs acting as the urban sponge. Biomass production and urban farming would exist around the channel benefitting to the city’s micro climate. The development of the Leo-Gong Eco-Valley should be done in a participatory planning with local knowledge.

River City Guandu powered by a man-made river that would purigy the polluted waters from the Keelong River as a biological filter. SGT / Aalto University.

Another possibility for the first approach toward the river urbanism would be in the possible case of developing the Guandu flood plain area, in which case we would talk more of a newly developed River City rather that urban restoration through the eco-valleys. In our previous research through design –process we examined the possibilities of inhabiting a 150.000 residents eco-city in Guandu. The basic character of this solution was to move the dividing highway into a tunnel in order to unite the now divided ecological area and to build a man-made river taking most of its current from the Keelong River. This 7.2 kilometres new river would act as the biological filter purifying the water for the infrastructure use of the new Guandu River City.

High water scenario at the Guandu River City. Part of the housing is floating, partly standing on stilts and partly constructed on artificial islands allowing the free flooding of the surrounding rivers. SGT / Aalto University.

The whole urban design is based on free flooding. The digging of the highway tunnel and the new river would provide enough soil for sculpturing island-platforms for the new architecture that would survive also in the high water conditions. Some architecture would be floating and some stand on stilts. The fertile flood plain would be used for bio-mass production as a resource for bio-energy. This bio-energy agriculture could then spread larger into the Danshui and Keelong Rivers flood plains. Besides bio-mass production the Gaundu River City would encourage urban farming and community gardening in all scales and also being integrated into the buildings. All in all Guandu would be an eco-city living on the principles of free flooding, producing energy and food and treating its own waste. The green area would still keep its positive impact to the Taipei micro climate.

REAL REALITY

Will this be really happening? Will the river be really back to the city? Really back, a real river – not just amusement or decoration?

No. The river will go nowhere. The city must go back to river. The river is already there; it has always been there and will always be there. The city is the question. The city cannot become an obstacle on the way of the life providing system that is referred to as nature. Nature is the only reality. If the citizen’s wanted to be real, they need to be in connection with nature. Same goes for the whole city: the Real Taipei is a river city.

Casagrande Laboratory for Urban Ecopuncture: Marco Casagrande, Nikita Wu, Yu-Chen Chiu, Frank Chen, Wei-Chen Weng, Vivi Fang.

Ruin Academy research is kindly supported by JUT Foundation for Art & Architecture.

Aalto University SGT Sustainable Global Technologies multidisciplinary urban design researchers:
Lasse Granroth (TAIK, applied arts and future studies)
Hanna-Sisko Hovila (Aalto, architecture)
Francesco Mandrilli (Italy, water engineering)
Teemu Nurmi (Aalto, water engineering)
Iina Valkeisenmäki (Aalto, architecture)
Anreas Svarvar (Aalto, Civil and Environmental Engineering)
Boris Fargeot (France, Civil Engineering )
Emmi Jääskeläinen (Aalto, architecture)
Ha Hoang (Aalto, Energy Engineering and Environmental Protection)
Lauri Ahopelto (Aalto, Civil and Environmental Engineering)


LINKS:
Aalto University SGT Sustainable Global Technologies
Ruin Academy
C-LAB
EPEC
PACS
Suomen Ympäristöteollisuus

Guandu: River Urbanism

Marco Casagrande
The article is first published in the Taiwan Architect -magazine, October issue 2009.

The Taipei City Government Department of Urban Development is facing a serious challenge. The growing pressure of Taipei Basin has turned its focus towards the last natural wetland environment of the city – the Guandu Plain. Will Taipei repeat its industrial sins with the planning of Guandu, or is the urban narrative ready to take the next step onwards and develop a more environmentally harmonious co-existence between the city and the river? Will the future Guandu be a groundbreaking example of River Urbanism, or will Taipei now cut off its primeval roots towards the river for good?

Guandu plain of the Taipei Basin at the meeting point of the Danshui and Keelong Rivers.

1G

The First Generation Taipei was completely dependent on the natural environment. The river was the main source of transportation and it provided a steady income of fish, clamps, crab etc. The rice farming culture in the Taipei Basin was based on man-made flooding imitating the natural pulses of the river nature. The surrounding mountains protected Taipei from the hardest hits of the Typhoons and fertilized the urban farms with topsoil generated by the composting process of the jungle. The citizens understood the environment through physical labour - the Local Knowledge of Taipei was environmental. People believed in Land-Gods and Goddess Matsu protecting the fishermen.

2G

The Second Generation Taipei is the industrial city introduced by the Japanese. The essence of industrialism is the claim of independence from nature. Machine moves the boat, not wind. The river of the industrial Taipei turned rapidly into an industrial sewage and the fish, clamps, crab etc. moved away. The river smelled bad and it was flooding – it wanted to break the machine. The city built high walls and cut the river off from the urban narrative.

Industrialism was good. It reduced the pain of physical labour and the industrial city was almost painless, it was entertaining. This urban-industrial modern amusement park is the height of human civilization and also the second-generation Taipei was modern. The closer to nature you are, the less modern you will be. The end of the line is the un-civilized native – the savages living from the nature. Farmers are somewhere in-between, but they sweat too – so: not modern.

Neil Armstrong, Moon, 1969.

Now it is 40 years since Mr. Neil Armstrong went to moon. It is good to remember that he found a couple of rocks up there but was shocked when he looked back towards the Earth: the planet was alive. The white clouds emerged from the green jungles and were sailing on top of the blue oceans. The photos of the blue planet questioned the industrial mind. The cities looked on the living tissue like anti-acupuncture needles. There appeared grey and dead areas around the cities.
The cities looked like pouring poison into the nature.

Third Generation Taipei

As it is obvious that the industrial city is not necessarily the best life providing solution from the environmental point of view, the question arises: what is the Third Generation City?

Guandu will be asked this very question – how can it be the Third Generation Taipei?



The city authorities cannot answer this. The current private planning companies cannot answer this either. They are all crippled by the industrial past and the methodology of building a modern city as a reflection of an industrial mind. They have all gone to school where Neil Armstrong comes from.

A new generation is needed. At least a new generation of thinking. Planning is running after money and politicians for political future. Planners are pleasing the politicians and politicians are lacking the knowledge to make the decisions towards an environmentally sustainable urban future. What is then the new generation of thinking – who are the ones building the Third Generation Taipei?

Professor Yoshio Kato from the Tamkang University’s architecture department says, ”in the future architecture will be designed by writers”. Professor Kato is an expert of bio-climatic architecture and microclimates, a Japanese pioneer of ecological design. Kato is talking about a story, a plot – humane narrative that the industrial city has lost. The third generation Taipei must have a drama. It must stage a straightforward play between the modern man and nature. A play that runs according to the environmental conditions. A play that the citizens are taking part in to be sure that they are part of the environment and part of the urban narrative. Commedia Dell’Architettura. Sociologists are needed for this, cultural studies and theatre, poets, writers and cartoon artists.

Treasure Hill, a previously illegal community of urban farmers in Taipei.

Environmental technology is not the key to solve the ecological problems of the industrial city. Environmental technologies are just a tool. Local knowledge will give answers. Taipei has been an ”eco-city” before its industrial condition. Urban farming must continue. The city is blessed by urban farming pockets and enclaves in wastelands, riverbanks, ruins and abandoned construction sites. Grandmothers are farming in the street corners and on the roofs. Grandmothers are constantly tuning Taipei towards nature the same time, as their sons are playing busy in air-conditioned offices planning the ”eco-city” with environmental technology tricks and ecological jargon.

The case of Guandu and thus the case of Taipei is simple: the city must find a way to live as part of nature.

SGT: River City Guandu.

Ruin is when man-made has become part of nature. In this way of thinking we must ruin the industrial city. The grandmothers are already ruining it. The city must be ruined by nature including human nature.

In Guandu we don’t necessarily have to plan the industrial city and then ruin it, but we can aim straight into the third generation condition: modern city as part of nature. The future Guandu should grow from the environment - this is landscape urbanism. The environment of Guandu is dominated by the river nature – so the new city should be River Urbanism, city growing from the river.

Urban planners cannot design a river city. River engineers are needed. Natural river restoration and river engineering should be a corner stone of the Future Guandu. Urban planning will then react on the understanding of the hydrological conditions.

Missis Chen, the Matriarch of Treasure Hill.

Engineers and urban planners are not enough. The place must have a story told by the people. Writers are needed and grandmothers. Also local knowledge still exists. The River City Guandu will not be build from zero, but it will continue from the first generation Taipei. City must be a compost. Fishermen, farmers and Land-Gods are needed for participatory planning.

River urbanism cannot be planned in a classical sense of urban planning. It must grow. Growing needs water. This is more like gardening than urban planning. Farming a city / urban farming.

Environmental technology is easy. It will follow all the above mentioned.

SGT Case Study

The Helsinki University of Technology runs an experimental research centre for cross-disciplinary research, design and case studies. The SGT Sustainable Global Technologies unit is directed by Professor Olli Varis, who is one of the world’s leading experts on global water resources. The urban river cases are very much in the focus of the future’s river engineering and natural river restoration as part of urban development. Also United Nations’ UN-HABITAT is looking for river urbanism cases. Guandu would be ideal for a UN-HABITAT location.

Gundu was presented as a case in SGT for a half-year research and design task for a cross-disciplinary croup of river engineers, architects and applied arts and future studies. The group ended up with a draft master plan for the future Guandu with approximately 150.000 citizens living and working in a river city.

The Guandu River City during the high water.

Some principal characteristics of the SGT solution for Guandu:



Guandu River
A new man-made river will be created through the Guandu plain providing clean water for the future residents. The new Guandu River will take most of its water from the polluted Keelong River and also collects streams from the surrounding mountains. The 7.2 km long river will act as a biological filter with different vegetation and filtering layers purifying the river water for residential use. The last part of the Guandu River with clean water is opened for recreational purposes having a beach and a holiday village.

Urban farming forms an essential part of the SGT’s Guandu solution.

Guandu Plain
The existing Danshui-Taipei highway will be moved into a waterproof double tunnel under the Guandu Plain in order to create a larger unified ecological area. Now the highway is splitting the Guandu plain in two halves. The Guandu plain is partly naturally restored and partly used for urban farming and biomass production. Bio-energy is recognized as a suitable source or renewable energy. Biomass will be grown first in the Guandu plain area and later along the Danshui and Keelong River flood banks.

The Guandu traffic solution including the sky-train connected to the existing MRT system and the highway tunnel.

Traffic
An elevated Light Rail train will connect the different Guandu areas with the existing MRT network. Busses will serve areas where the LR or MRT stations are beyond a convenient walking distance. The existing bicycle and pedestrian routes are reinforced to include all the future Guadu.



Built human environment
The River City Guandu is based on the principle of free flooding. This means that there will be no floodwalls in the future Guandu, but architectural and infrastructure solutions will be reactions on the free flooding. The built areas will be elevated on 10 meters high landfill islands created by the highway tunnel and Guandu River constructions. Some of the housing will be floating.



Organic layers
The Guandu plain will be connected with the surrounding mountains with ecological corridors.

Urban farming will be a characteristic feature of the river city. Community gardens will extend to all areas of built environment.

Biomass production is viewed as a positive factor for the Taipei’s microclimate and as a source of renewable energy.

The wetland and mangrove nature is protected and other parts of the Guandu plain are naturally restored.

Conclusion

Guandu has the potential to be a world-class example of environmentally sustainable river urbanism. The urban solutions proved in Guandu will benefit the general ecological restoration of the Taipei Basin. UN-HABITAT could be considered as a partner for the Guandu development.

New kind of round table discussion methodology and participatory planning should be developed around the Guandu case in order to start cultivating the next generation knowledge building towards the third generation city.

The industrial-modernist solutions cannot be applied straight in the planning and development of Guandu. Industrialism has forgot the local knowledge and lost the social drama of the city. Guandu should turn back towards the local knowledge and forget the forgetting.



Sustainable Global Technologies Team:

Lasse Granroth (TAIK, applied arts and future studies)
Hanna-Sisko Hovila (TKK, architecture)
Francesco Mandrilli (Italy, water engineering)
Teemu Nurmi (TKK, water engineering)
Iina Valkeisenmäki (TKK, architecture)

Mentors:
Marco Casagrande
Frank Chen

SGT Cordinators:
Matleena Muhonen
Pamela Arslanbayrak

SGT Director:
Prof. Olli Varis

關渡的河川都市主義

Guandu: River Urbanism關渡的河川都市主義

Marco Casagrande
翻譯/吳介禎
Translation/C.J. Anderson-Wu

台北盆地的發展逐漸擴展至關渡平原這塊碩果僅存的溼地，都市計劃主管單位因此面臨著極大的挑戰。台北會重蹈工業化的覆轍嗎？還是會創造一個都市與河流合諧共存的規劃？關渡的開發會樹立典範，還是會徹底破壞環境？
The development of Taipei basin is beginning to threat the barely survived wetland in Guandu Plain, are the authorities repeating the mistakes of industrialization?

Guandu plain of Taipei Basin at the meeting point of the Danshui and Keelong Rivers.
圖說：位於淡水河與基隆河交會處的關渡平原

去工業化，回歸自然
第一代在台北落腳的人民完全仰賴自然環境，因為漁業和運輸就足以提供穩定的收入。台北盆地曾經有的稻米農作則仰賴人造的河水氾濫。盆地四周的山屏障台北免於颱風的侵襲，而山上的沃土又提供農業絕佳的養料。台北人從勞動中認識環境，並信仰土地公與媽祖的庇祐。

接下來台北在日本殖民政府的統治下轉變為工業都市，工業主義等於宣告台北獨立於自然環境，船由機械推動，不再需要風。工業化的台北將河流用為排放汙水的地方，漁獲自然消失，且除了臭，還會引起水災。為了防洪，高堤被築起，河流與居民被阻斷。

工業化未必是惡，它讓人類免於不斷地勞動，並可享受休閒娛樂。整個如同遊樂場的工業化都市可以說是人類現代化的高峰，但愈現代化，人類就離自然愈遙遠。原始與在地是不文明的，農人仰靠自然，所以不夠現代–這樣的思維導致遠離自然卻粗暴的生活。

距離阿姆斯壯登陸月球已經四十年了。他在月球上撿到一、兩塊石頭，然而當他回頭看地球時，很訝異地體會到地球是活的，飄在森林上方的雲就是土地航行於藍色汪洋中的帆。這畫面足以讓我們對工業化有所省思。如果把都市比喻成地球的穴道，那很多穴道現在呈現灰色，正邁向死亡。


這些都市正在荼毒大自然。

從環境的角度而言，顯然工業化未必是人類生活最好的選擇。那麼台北該向哪個方向發展？關渡的發展成為台北未來發展的指標。然而規劃主管單位無法回答這個問題，私人開發商當然也不能。長久以來對工業化的追求以及根深蒂固的營建方法使得台北的發展沒有明確的未來。我們都還活在阿姆斯壯那種征服自然的年代。

台北需要新的發展階段，至少要有新的思維。過去規劃總是向錢看，而政治人物則總是以未來的政治生涯為主要考量。規劃者免不了附和政治人物的想法，但政治人物卻很少有對永續環境有充份了解的。那究竟要如建立新思維呢？

淡江的大學建築系教授加藤義夫認為：「未來建築會由作家設計。」加藤教授是微氣候生態建築的專家，即使是在日本也是生態設計的先驅。加藤教授的夢想是要讓工業城市消失。
台北新階段的發展必須要有一個戲劇舞台，讓當代人與自然有直接的關聯。這齣戲的發展必須以自然環境的條件為主軸，而民眾則在戲劇中理解自己是環境與都市的一部份。「建築的喜劇」(Commedia Dell’Architettura)需要社會學家、文化研究學者、詩人、作家和漫畫家一起演出。

環境工程並非解決工業城市環境危機的答案，它只是一個工具。生態問題的答案在於我們對當地的了解。在工業化之前，台北就是個生態城市，所以都市裡的農業應該被延續。凹陷的農地、垃圾掩埋場、河岸、廢棄的營建基地都是台北的資源。當年輕人在空調辦公室中以環境工程技術和生態術語打造「生態城市時」時，老阿嬤在街腳空地或屋頂種菜的行動讓我們的都市與自然還有一點連繫。

所以關渡的開發，甚至整個台北的發展方向就很簡單了：我們必須活在自然之中，體認我們是自然的一部分。

SGT所規劃的河岸城市關渡

當大自然變成人造時，毀滅就開始了。所以工業城市一定得消失。老阿嬤的工作已經多少往這方向邁進了。大自然，包括人性，必須勝過工業。


我們當然不是要把關渡先變成工業城再毀了它，而是直接創造一個自然中的現代化都市。未來的關渡應該朝向以自然景觀為主的都市主義，既然河流是關渡最重要的自然景觀，那就應該營造成長於河流的河川都市主義。

都市規劃師無法規劃河流都市，所以需要河川工程專家。河川的復育將是未來關渡發展的里程碑，因為水利工程將與都市規劃結合。

陳女士

這樣的理念無法光靠工程師和都市規劃專家，而是要所有人都參與。作家和老阿嬤也必須加入，關於在地的知識才會被傳述，因為關渡的都市營造不是從零開始，而是要從歷史的源頭開始，從漁民、農夫到土地公都得參與規劃。

河川的都市主義與傳統都市規劃不同，與其說是都市規劃，還不如說是一種都市園藝，就是像照顧庭園一樣地照顧都市和都市的農耕。至於環境工程就簡單了，照著上述這些原則實施就對了。

永續地球科技實施的案例研究
永續地球科技(Sustainable Global Technologies, SGT)是赫爾辛基科技大學進行的跨學科實驗性研究、設計與案例實施，由歐里‧瓦利思(Olli Varis)教授主持。瓦利思教授是世界公認的權威水資源專家。由於河川提供都市珍貴的水資源，河川工程與復育將成為未來都市發展的主軸。隨著聯合國人居署(UN-HABITAT)對河川都市主義的重視，關渡也可能成有潛力的模範案例。

關渡曾被SGT研究過半年，研究團隊成員包括河川工程師、建築師與藝術家。研究團隊最後提出一個供十五萬居民居住的河流之都。


SGT研究團隊提出關渡發展的幾項原則：


打造關渡河
打造一條穿越關渡平原的人造河川，提供居民乾淨的水。這條7.2公里的「關渡河」水源將是來自被污染的基隆河與附近山坡上匯聚的水流，在經過多樣植被的多層生物過濾與淨化後，這些水就可為家庭使用。「關渡河」末端則可作為休閒之用，例如開發為有河灘地的渡假村。

Urban farming forms an essential part of the SGT’s Guandu solution.
SGT建議在關渡進行都市農耕

關渡平原
淡水與台北間的快速道路將關渡平原分割成兩半，應該被移到關渡平原地面下，以保存更大範圍的生態系。公路地下化後，關渡平原可以部份生態復育，部份實施都市農耕或發展生物產品、生質能源等。生物復育在關渡平原施作成功後，可以運用到淡水河與基隆河岸。

交通
高架的輕軌可以銜接到捷運，輕軌與捷運不到的地方則由公車服務，腳踏車道與行人步道也要周全規劃。

人造環境
水岸都市關渡將不會控制河水的氾濫，也就是說不會築河堤，而是在規劃和建築上將河水高漲的可能狀況列入考慮。例如結構體建造於十公尺高的新生地，填土的土方來自於挖隧道和河道疏浚。有些建築則會懸空。


有機層
生態走廊可以將關渡平原與週邊的山聯結。都會農耕將成為這個河岸城市的特色之一，而庭園也會出現在每個社區中。生質產品也將是根據台北的微氣候條件，成為再生能源的資源之一。溼地與紅樹林都會被復育。

結語
關渡有成為世界級永續河岸城市的潛力，而其生態復育的模式將可提供台北盆地經驗。關渡的開發可考慮與聯合國人居署合作。不同專業的團隊應該聚集討論關渡的發展，俾使關渡的在地知識可以傳承。工業城的發展模式完全不適用於關渡，關渡的成長應回歸到以在地為主的原則與方向。

永續地球科技團隊(SGT)：
Lasse Granroth (應用藝術與未來學)
Hanna-Sisko Hovila (建築)
Francesco Mandrilli (水利工程)
Teemu Nurmi (水利工程)
Iina Valkeisenmäki (建築)

指導:
Marco Casagrande
陳右昇

SGT 協調人:
Matleena Muhonen
Pamela Arslanbayrak

SGT 主持人:
Prof. Olli Varis

The article is first published in the Taiwan Architect -magazine, October 2009.