Sustainability
Oval Partnership has been at the forefront of promoting a more radical sustainability agenda in Asia for many years. It permeates our thinking and informs our work around the world.
Working with Japanese engineers we pioneered the use of bamboo as a viable structural construction material in the world’s first multi-storey bamboo house in Kunming, Yunnan Province. The potential of this new technology is immense, providing an affordable and ecologically sensitive option for the building of new townships and villages in China’s less developed interior.
In our master planning projects energy use, habitat and ecological protection are primary concerns that drive our design process.
For example, we have been active in the promotion of urban agriculture using grey water irrigation as a way, not only of reducing food miles and improving biodiversity, but also of reconnecting city dwellers with nature. There is now a considerable body of research suggesting that a better understanding of the natural world can lead to a greater sense of stewardship and thus community.
Equally important for us in the pursuit of meaningful long-term sustainable development are good design and imaginative place making as ends in themselves. Making places that people want to be in.
Viewed in this light, the environmental imperative becomes just another good reason to put design centre-stage in the development process.
Viewed in this light, the environmental imperative becomes just another good reason to put design centre-stage in the development process.