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Suzhou, China. By: Williams, Austin. Architectural Review.

Jan2012, Vol. 231 Issue 1379, p21-21. 1p. Abstract: The author
argues that China uses sustainable architecture for political gain.
The author discusses the growing property market in China and
suggests that construction in China does not meet energy design
standards of developed Western countries, such as standards
regarding insulation. The author discusses the 2011 COP17 United
Nations climate change conference and suggests that developing
countries may benefit from sustainable development. (AN:
70204608)

Database: Art & Architecture Complete

View from

Suzhou, China

As the COP17 talks emphasise the need for action on climate change, China is using sustainable
development as a political tool, argues Austin Williams
There has been much talk of China's unsustainable property bubble recently, with Western Commentators
taking unseemly delight in the prediction that China's mighty economy is teetering on the brink. But reports
of such economic decline appear to be exaggerated. After all, with current GDP growth slowing to a
healthy six per cent, Chinese wealth creation (as compared to the recession-hit West) gives a new meaning
to the word 'sluggish'. Indeed, business analyst Bill Dodson, author of China Inside Out, wrote recently: 'It
seems a near-impossibility to escape the din of construction machines punching the ground or stamping
steel or crunching concrete.' China is still building at a frenetic pace.
Mind you, the concept of an 'overheated' property market is more appropriate when you consider that
China places scant regard on the installation of insulation. Unlike the UK, China has several climate zones and it is getting parky in Suzhou at the moment. Living, as I do, on the top floor of a 16-storey apartment
block, I am well aware that the insulation levels in residential roofs are a quarter those of UK building
regulations, and a tenth those of PassivHaus standards. A recent report indicated, on paper, 70 per cent of
buildings complied with energy design standards for residential buildings, but only 30 per cent were shown
to comply on inspection. This level of insulation is where the UK was 25 years ago. In terms of
development, China is catching up, though it is often depicted as a sustainable energy pariah.
The West's ability to retain a semblance of moral authority by preaching about Chinese environmental
failings has seldom reflected a desire to help China improve its insulation standards. Rather, it implied that
China was not actively 'saving the planet'. Instead of offering people a warmer and more comfortable
existence, Western sustainability consultants tended to focus on reducing energy production and lowering
consumption, the very things that truly developing nations are fighting to improve.
But the COP17 UN climate change conference in Durban exposed the fact that the West is losing
credibility on this issue. The surprising thing about China is the pervasive language of environmentalism.
Just as in the UK, you cannot go to a public talk on architecture without the dreaded prefix 'sustainable'
rearing its ugly head. Regularly, these events are presented by Western sustainability consultants touting
their wares in an emerging market.
There is one difference. Unlike the West, 'sustainability' reflects a growing confidence of China's ability to
play on the world stage. A recent Communist Party congress mandated that it would 'aggressively

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participate' in global climate change debates, showing a desire to dictate terms. Yet such confidence also
betrays a political weakness. In the China Daily one party official wrote: 'That China is and will remain a
developing country for quite some time is a solid fact We should continue to adopt a low-key style and
work doggedly for our sustainable development.' Sustainable development is mainly a political mechanism
to excuse the unequal pace of 'real' development.
Just five years ago, the US-based Worldwatch Institute tried to stymie China's ambitions by saying: 'The
Western model of growth that India and China wish to emulate is toxic' Mercifully, this self-loathing is
absent here. As Yang Fuqiang, a senior adviser on climate and energy policy at the Natural Resources
Defense Council, puts it: 'Industrialised countries have consumed a large amount of resources from
developing countries since the Industrial Revolution. They built economic power and left developing
countries in poverty.' Maybe it's the turn of developing countries to have their century.
Antique embroidered panel showing life in old Suzhou, long swept away in China's dash for growth. The
country's next challenge is to forge coherent practical and political responses to notions of sustainable
development
~~~~~~~~
By Austin Williams
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