Endorsed and supported by the Chinese Government at all levels the annually re-occurring conference has become a renown cluster in China to promote the concept of green building development, present the latest achievements in green building development, to expand the 'friendship circle' of the green building industry, and to further attract industry elites to participate in green building development.

The conference has received active participation and attention from government, industry and commerce, and is being highly recognized in the academic exchange on a global scale, too.

Review

This year’s theme 'Upgrading Housing Consumption – Towards Healthy and Green Buildings' represents perfectly theChina Association for Science and Technology’s endeavor to cultivate a model brand of academic building conferences in China.

2020s Suzhou conference focused on following key industry sectors: development trends, policy standards and discussions, healthy (green) buildings, energy-saving renovation of existing buildings, renovation of old communities, future community planning, green innovative design, building evaluation and testing, optimized construction, green operation, and green finance.

With more than 40 key seminars held in forums, topics presented by experts and scholars in their in-depth exchanges formed a comprehensive coverage of the green building life cycle, and thus helped the participants to obtain information and insights on latest industry policies, standards, technical expertise, and promotions.

More than 3,000 experts and representatives followed the invitation and participated in the Grand Opening Ceremony. On the afternoon of the 26th, the Main Forum of the conference was held, with key notes delivered by key industry and political leaders, high-level representatives, and renown experts of scientific research institutes and higher education institutions.  

“Frey” - style: international & charming

During the conference’s second day, Ms. Wang Jiakun, partner of German Frey Construction Group and CEO of China, was invited to deliver her latest insights in a special report at the meeting.

In the forum 'International Green Paradigm New City' forum, Ms. Wang chose 'Rieselfeld' and 'Vauban Community' in the green Eco-city Freiburg in Germany, as well as “Bahnstadt” in Heidelberg and the “Adlershof Technology Park” in Berlin as implemented project examples following the urban planning principle of 'adaptive planning'.

The delivered insights in latest German urban planning experience and technology has been highly acknowledged by participating experts, 

e.g. the combination of dynamic and static (traffic) layouts that protects the environment and includes low energy consumption requirements of buildings for sustainable development and public participation.

“Rieselfeld” is the headquarter of Frey Group. There, the group has developed and constructed many projects on a global scale. Among them, and being one of Frey Group’s lighthouse projects, the 'Eco Green House' won the '2010 Shanghai World Expo Best Practice Award'.

The “Vauban” community is well-known as the 'Germany Sustainable Development Community Benchmark' and serves as a role-model for innovative settlements in the context of low-carbon economy in Europe. In the very heart of the conception, “people” are positioned as the central topic and a low-carbon lifestyle considered the ultimate goal of sustainable development. Driving forces come from “inspiration”, “creativeness” and “resident participation” - because Germans trust and believe in environmental protection and community development. 

Heidelberg’s “Neue Bahnstadt' is the world's largest passive house project that has been built and realized so far. The project has won worldwide attention in the field of passive building. Also, outstanding achievements in sustainable urban planning and development, including sponge city construction, have been accomplished, too.

Among them, “Heidelberg Village”, a sustainable community designed and invested by Frey Group and located within “Neue Bahnstadt”, not only integrates a variety of sustainable design concepts, but also proposes a new operation and management model to meet the needs of different users while achieving environmental and sustainable goals at the same time. Frey Group was awarded the 'Germany – Land of Longevity” prize in 2015 for this initiative.

“Adlershof Technology Park” in Berlin is the largest Eco-Smart-Park in Germany's high-tech industry. The development of this area focuses on building energy conservation, renewable energy utilization and ecological environmental protection. It is considered as the smartest neighborhood community in Berlin and has a strong impact: on the establishment, improvement of the entrepreneurship ecosystem, driving innovations and the country's high-tech development zones.

Ms. Wang emphasized that China and Germany both have broad areas and space for future cooperation in the field of green, energy-saving and sustainable urban planning. Making use of their respective advantages, both countries should continue to learn from each other's experiences and expertise – on their way to include actual needs of domestic urban planning, explore green development models, and to provide high-quality services accordingly.