The Chinese Landsea Group, established in 2001, is among the Top 100 Real Estate Developers of the country and specialized on green tech properties. Xie Yuanjian, Vice President and CTO, talks in our interview about the situation of his company in China, the development of green building and efforts to change the industry to the better.
DGNB: What is the significance of promoting sustainable buildings to the construction industry of China?
Xie Yuanjian: It is well known that global climate change, environmental pollution and energy crisis are common challenges of the entire human society. According to statistics from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, globally there are more than 40 % of energy consumption and 21 % of greenhouse gas emissions come from the construction industry. In 2018, China’s CO2 emissions increased by 2.5 %, accounting for 31.3 % of global carbon emissions.
In addition, the building’s energy consumption of China accounted for one-third of the world’s total amount. And annually 40 % of the total urban waste can be assigned as construction waste. Therefore, it is imperative for China to reduce the energy consumptions as well as carbon emissions of its building industry. It’s also believed that the efforts of China will also have a significant impact on the global sustainable development.
View over the city: balcony of a high-rise residential building in Chengdu, capital of the Chinese province Sichuan. © Landsea Group
Could you please talk about Landsea’s philosophy towards sustainable building and future design?
Since the adoption of green product-differentiation as a development strategy in 2004, Landsea has always kept exploring in the field of innovative green construction technologies, by means of healthy and environmentally-friendly solutions to provide green and healthy residential products with low-energy-consumption and good-comfort for its clients.
In the future, Landsea will also adhere to its core philosophy of ” building home for people”, keep on making technological innovation and developing new generations of products for catering to people’s growing needs, not only to provide green and healthy residential products but also to create an ecologically livable community environment.
Why did Landsea choose to cooperate with DGNB? What is the foundation for the cooperation between the two partners?
In my opinion, green buildings that do not pay attention to economic aspect, are not really “green”. The DGNB certification system not only evaluates the technical performance of green buildings, but also comprehensively considers the economic and social aspects of buildings, filling the current lack of life cycle assessment in the Chinese market. Therefore, Landsea started its membership and became an important partner of DGNB since DGNB’s early beginning in China.
As a starting point, Landsea Bruck Passive House became the first passive house hotel project in China to obtain DGNB certification in the year of 2012. Over years, Landsea kept carrying out cooperation with DGNB in project certifications, consultant training and other relevant topics as well. After suffering from the COVID-19 crisis, there is no doubt that people will pay more attention to green and healthy housing, and we believe that in such a new situation our cooperation will usher in a broader development prospect.
Many of the group’s projects are planned in large-scale. © Landsea Group
China has a vast territory, and its geographical environment and climatic conditions vary greatly. How does Landsea ensure the sustainability of the building can be applied across the entire country?
Confronting the vast territory of China, Landsea uses the principle of “adjust measures in light of local conditions” to ensure the sustainability of its buildings. This is firstly based on Landsea’s long-standing green and sustainable development concept.
When Landsea conducts a new project in a city, our project team will firstly study the city’s meteorological data to analyze the local climate characteristics, and then the planning and design of the houses will adapt to the local temperature, climate and other characteristics of seasonal changes. For example, to build a house in North China, it is necessary to ensure good performance of heat insulation and air tightness; To build a house in Hong Kong, the main focus then will be changed to dehumidifying, techniques for cooling down, and shading; To build a house in Chengdu, it is important to consider about reducing haze and humidity; To build a house in Beijing, undoubtedly the key topics are particular matters , humidification and heat preservation.
Landsea has implemented successful cases of green residential projects in all of the five major climate zones of China. More than that, Landsea also worked closely with the local government and actively participated in the formulation of local green building standards.
Building complex of Landsea in the eastern Chinese city of Changshu. © Landsea Group
In specific residential projects, how does Landsea ensure the owner’s living environment and their life quality?
Landsea conducts residential and consumer surveys in different regions almost every year to understand their current living conditions, behaviors, and demands for the living environment, so that product innovation can be targeted.
Afterwards, depends on consideration of the climatic conditions, consumer’s behavior characteristics and living demands, the architectural concept of “building as the basis, equipment as the supplement” is put forward according to local conditions. When the prerequisite of “good building” is fulfilled, the additional values of “health, comfort, energy-saving, environmental-friendly, smart, and social-culture” as a plus can be implemented to upgrading the product value, so as to comprehensively improves the residential environment and living comfort.