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Jakob Pesendorfer | Urban Design – Research – Strategy


Greater Bay
Area 2030+












52°04'30.5"N 5°05'41.2"E
Mega Region | Regional Design |Urban Design | Strategy


Academic Supervisors
TU Delft
Diego Andres Sepulveda Carmona
Lei Qu
Gregory Bracken
Poly U Hong Kong
Peter Hasdell
Gerhard Bruyns 

Location
Greater Bay Area | Hong Kong | China


Institution

Section of Spatial Planning and Strategy  - Department of Urbanism | TU Delft


Collaborators
F.B. Kaaij, Y. Huang, J. Osusky, M. Ejaz, J.M.T Bijlsma






About the Project


The "Globalisation Free Choice" is an elective course designed for master’s students at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at TU Delft, in collaboration with The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). The project aims to explore sustainable and integrated development and its regional impacts.
    Over the span of 9 weeks, a regional vision and strategy for the Greater Bay Area (GBA) was developed. The GBA, located in the Pearl River Delta in the southern part of China, is a global centre for economic development. This project seeks to instigate a paradigm shift from focusing on megaprojects to adopting mega-processes.
    In the initial two weeks, an analysis of the environmental, social, and economic situation of the area was conducted to formulate a problem statement and define key focus points. The following two weeks took place in Hong Kong at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where a morphological game-boarding strategy was applied to explore regional design in a more experimental manner. Two games were developed—one centred on the social perspective, focusing on regional liveability, and the other on the morphological perspective, examining spatial transformations. These activities helped identify two significant zoom-in locations within the region.

The first location is the border between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, which is slated for transformation into an innovative tech hub. With the anticipated reintegration of Hong Kong with Mainland China in 2047, the removal of the border opens up new development opportunities but also challenges. The second location is the Nansha district near Guangzhou, situated at the heart of the delta. This area is the site of major proposed megaprojects by the Chinese government, which pose risks to the natural cycles of water and soil. These two locations serve as case studies for developing approaches that better integrate urban development with the green-blue networks to mitigate environmental challenges such as flooding, drought, and the urban heat island effect.
    The final phase of the project was carried out in Delft, where a vision and strategy for the entire Greater Bay Area was crafted. This phase focused on rethinking megaproject implementation, using an element-based approach inspired by the book The Elemental Metropolis. The resulting strategy promotes a more agile, process-oriented method of regional development. The project concludes with a broader application of the developed insights across the GBA, identifying additional regions that can benefit from the approach in order to foster a resilient, adaptable, and liveable dynamic delta.






"Globalisation has been a key driver of China’s rapid economic development, transforming it from an isolated, agrarian society into a major global economic power. However, this transformation has also brought challenges, including environmental degradation and social inequality."




Wu, Jinglian. "Understanding and Interpreting Chinese Economic Reform." Thomson Learning Asia, 2005.




To understand the viewpoint taken in this project we constructed a conceptual framework which shows the shift in perspective historically and proposed. This project has in its strategy phase a big focus on a multiplicity of scales worked on in the GBA, which is also theoretically underpinned.



Vision

Vision Map - Greater Bay Area 2030+

Systemic Section




Shenzhen – Hong Kong Boarder Region





Lok Ma Chao 

After conducting a simulation using the ENVI met program, dedicated to urban climatic challenges, it is evident that an area south of the shopping center’s parking lot exhibits a high Physiologically experienced temperature (PET). This result aligns with findings from the SUET analysis, indicating challenges in this area during intense rainfall events. The high degree of surface sealing and an elevated groundwater level contribute to these issues. Consequently, this area has been selected as a focal point to address and develop solutions for these challenges.


Development Process Lok Ma Chao 











Nansha 

The urban design aligns closely with the outcomes of the analysis. Furthermore, at the urban design level, the public space layer is derived, thereby functioning as an integral component of the overall concept. Particularly emphasizing people as a crucial indicator, a software program is developed at the outset. This software identifies all stakeholders with potential influence on the project and connects them with the guiding themes devel- oped in the SUET course. To transition from the general perspective back to the project, six sustainability criteria have been formulated, threading through detailed subtopics across the entire project and supporting the hardware.







Selected Projects


Re-thinking Steelscapes

Linz | AT 

Masters Thesis 

Academia


Greater Bay Area 2030+

Hong Kong | CN

Metropolitan Design | Regional Design | UD

Academia


Nitrotopia

Groningen | NL

Metropolitan Design | Regional Design | UD

Academia


Supernova

Utrecht | NL

Urban Design | Public Space Design

Academia


Low Lands

Maastricht | NL

Municipal Strategy | Urban Design   

Academia


Baukultur Ebensee

Ebensee | AT

Municipal Strategy | Heritage | Participation

Professional






Collaboration in Professional Projects

MODUL5
Alt-Ottakring Vienna, Participation  | Vienna, AT

Best of Linz, Exhibition Design | Linz, AT

URBAN DESIGN TU DELFT
Making Green Work for Health
(Faculty of Medicine of University of São Paulo and
the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment of TU Delft)
Publication Design | Delft, NL – São Paulo, BR

INDEPENDENT

Agenda 21 Project, Participation | Ebensee, AT
IBA Wien, Publication Design | Vienna, AT
Search+Shape, Publication Design | Vienna, AT

FRANZ&SUE
Urban Design Competition Rothneusiedl | Vienna AT
(KCAP Zurich, LAND Milan, Harald Frey)


KCAP
IPZ Dübendorf, Urban Design | Zurich CH
Steinfabrik, Urban Study | Freinbach CH
Sunnebuel, Urban Study | Volketswil CH

FUTURE LAB TU WIEN
Gemeinschaftliches Wohnen und selbstorganisiertes Bauen, layout Publication
ÖREK  Partnership, assistance 
Space Anatomy, graphic design and layout

SUPERWIEN URBANISM
Metrolab, travel exhibition, exhibition design
Businesspark Lustenau, Urban Study | Lustenau AT

RAUMPOSITION
Gasometervorfeld 2.0, Publication Design | Vienna, AT
Urban Development Projects  


KLEBOTH&DOLLNIG
Smart City Microquarters | Linz, AT



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