1. Megaprojects:
Learning from the Dongtan Ecocity Project
Andrew Davies
Imperial College Business School
Nordic Forum on Leadership of Major Projects
Chalmers University
23-24 November 2011

2. Overview of presentation
1. Background and introduction to Dongtan ecocity project
2. Research methods and conceptual framework
3. Case study: renew, reuse and reinforce
4. Discussion and conclusion

3. Overview of presentation
1. Background and introduction to Dongtan ecocity project
2. Research methods and conceptual framework
3. Case study: renew, reuse and reinforce
4. Discussion and conclusion

4. My research on megaprojects – infrastructure over $1bn
• London Heathrow Terminal 5
• BAA and Laing O’Rourke
• Dongtan ecocity project
• Arup and Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation
• London Olympics 2012 project
• Olympic Delivery Authority and CLM (delivery partner)
• Crossrail project
• Crossrail Limited (CRL), wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for
London

5. Rapid Chinese urbanisation
• China’s “urban” population is expected to reach over 1bn people
by 2050
• 600m people are expected move from rural to urban areas
between now and 2050
• Chinese Government plans to build 50m new cities by 2020

6. Challenge: Climate change and Chinese cities
• “China is searching for novel ways to expand urban areas while conserving natural resources”,
Science, 2008
• “China’s current development is ecologically unsustainable, and the damage will not be
reversible once higher GDP has been achieved”, Zhenhua Xie, Minister of State
Environmental Protection Agency

7. Response to these challenges: ecocity experiments
• Ecocity - radically new design of carbon neutral city
• Carbon emissions offset by carbon absorption
• Promote sustainable and low carbon living
• Less use of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas)
• Adapt to climate change
• Renewable resources – sun, wind, biomass, recycling, etc
• Changing behaviour
• New build and retrofit projects
• Design, build, integrate and operate complex mix of systems
• Pioneering new build projects
• Masdar in Abu Dhabi
• Dongtan in China

8. Masdar – Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Designed by Fosters & Partners

9. Dongtan – near Shanghai, China
Designed by Arup

10. Arup
• Global professional services:
• consulting engineers, designers, planners, and project managers
• HQ: London
• Project-based:
• over 10,000 staff working on 10,000 projects globally
• Global reputation for projects in the built environment: buildings,
infrastructure, sport, utilities, urban development, etc.
• Examples of major projects:
• Sydney Opera House (engineering)
• Oresund Bridge
• Beijing National Stadium (Birds Nest)
• Dongtan Ecocity (Arup Integrated Urbanism – master planning)

11. Dongtan – a vision of the urban low carbon future
New city with half million people ‘one of the biggest and most ambitious business
projects ever undertaken’, Observer 8 January 2006
"Dongtan was a rare chance to demonstrate that growth could happen a different way.”
Lead planner Alejandro Gutierrez, Arup, Wired 2007
“This city will become a showpiece for the rest of the world. With London set to grow so
much, the methods we use in Dongtan will become extremely relevant to London.” Peter
Head, Dongtan Project Director, Arup 2007

12. Connected to Shanghai by bridge, tunnel & subway
system

13. Dongtan ecocity – key objectives and features
• Project stakeholders
• Client: Shanghai Industrial
Investment Corporation (SIIC)
• Consultant masterplanner: Arup
(UK design consultancy)
• Project goals:
• Sustainable ‘demonstrator city’ – cutting
carbon emissions shapes urban design
• 45 min travel time to central Shanghai
• Population 500,000 in 2050
• Site: 84 square km
• 3 distinct villages amid parkland and
canals
• Population density similar to London

14. A strategic project for China and the UK
• November 2005 – Arup sign
MoU with President Hu Jin Tao
& PM Tony Blair
• April 2007 – Deputy PM John
Prescott visits Dongtan site
• September 2007 – Arup, HSBC
present to PM Gordon Brown
and China Task Force
• SIIC, Arup, HSBC, Tongji
University sign MoU – PM
Gordon Brown & Shanghai
Mayor Han Zheng

15. Key milestones of the Dongtan project
• Arup hired by McKinsey • January-August – Arup • August – SIIC approves • January – Arup deliver
to work on the bird team prepare clear & Arup’s masterplan final documents
sanctuary detailed scope of work (project delivered in 13 delivered to SIIC. Project
for Dongtan design months) ready to move to
• At the time, SIIC was ‘construction’ phase
asking 3 global • August – SIIC appoints • September – Arup
masterplanning firms for Arup to develop the issues ‘Control Plan for • April – Arup’s co-
ideas: Dongtan Masterplan Start-Up Area’. Final located project in SIIC
masterplan & main premises is closed and
• Philip Johnson (US) • October – Arup planning application team members move
• Atkins (UK) presents Dongtan design document back to Arup Shanghai
• Architecture Studio and client requests 100% office
(France) local renewable energy • December – Arup
sources from start issues ‘Sustainability
• 3 ideas shortlisted in Guidelines’ – objectives,
2004 • November - Arup signs indicators and
contract with SIIC work requirements for
• but 4 years after the on 3 other ecocity buildings, infrastructure &
original Dongtan idea, projects in China public space
SIIC decided none of the
ideas were feasible • December – Arup
issues 1st ‘Design Report
for the Start-Up Area’
2004 2005 2006 2007

16. Dontang masterplan deliverables
• Masterplan documents delivered in January 2007
• 1. Implementation plan
• 2. Design & sustainability guidelines
• Documents address
• Procurement, delivery and financing model
• Performance specification for design, construction and operation
of ecocity over 30 years
• Design phase completed and the project is ready for
construction phase

17. Outcome of Arup’s design project
• Project delivered 3 months early
• Design meets request for “close” to 100% zero carbon solution
• Large wind farm generates green electricity
• Power utility burning rice husks (locally produced food)
• Solar power
• Walking biking city with zero emission vehicles – hydrogen & electric
• Buildings 4-8 stories tall to improve density and minimise sprawl
• Only 10% waste ends up in landfill
• Uses proven technology to reduce risks
• Innovation lies in the integration of technology and environment, cultural and
social components
• ‘Dongtan is not a rigid blueprint for a city for the future’…other
projects must be guided by unique local environment (Peter Head,
Arup)

18. Dongtan site – October 2007 – still a wetland

19. Overview of presentation
1. Background and introduction to Dongtan ecocity project
2. Research methods and conceptual framework
3. Case study: renew, reuse and reinforce
4. Discussion and conclusion

20. Research motivation: managing innovation in projects
• New performance requirements for
cities: zero-carbon and sustainability
objectives – ecocity experiments
• Initiated by ‘vanguard projects’ (Brady
new New
& Davies, 2004) projects
Technology
Research questions: base
• How is knowledge created and
combined in a vanguard project • Business as usual
existing
shaping a new market? • Traditional project
New projects
capabilities
• How is knowledge transferred from a
vanguard project to the next project?
existing new
Market base
Davies & Hobday, The Business of Projects, Cambridge
University Press, (2005)

21. Capability developed through innovative projects
• A capability is knowledge, skills and experience to perform a set of
specialised industrial activities
• “…the discovery and estimation of future wants, to research, development
and design, to the execution and co-ordination of processes of physical
transformation, the marketing of goods and so on. (Richardson 1972)”
• Capabilities are developed through integration and transfer of
knowledge (Grant 1996)
• Yet, we know relatively little about how this happens as a process in
terms of:
• The role of key individuals in vanguard and future projects
• Mechanisms for creating knowledge creation and transfer
• The wider role of leadership and championing project ideas in the
market

22. Research design and methods
• Research based on a case study – theory building
• World’s first ecocity design – rare case (Siggelkow, 2007)
• Process study – January 2007 to June 2010
• Over 60 interviews: people involved in Dongtan: Arup, SIIC, Chongming Island
local authorities, SDCL (Sustainable Capital investor), HSBC bank
• 3 visits to Dongtan site
• Visited and experienced the Shanghai project office and client office
• Primary source documents (internal presentations, reports, diagrams and
material for project bid and external public documents)
• 2 workshops in China and UK
• Non-participant observation in Arup office - London and Shanghai; Dongtan
Project office in Shanghai

23. Our conceptual model of capability development:
renewal, reuse & reinforcement
Reinforce
Internal/external to
organization
Renew
Incremental/radical Reuse
innovation Tacit/Explicit
knowledge

24. Overview of presentation
1. Background and introduction to Dongtan ecocity project
2. Research methods and conceptual framework
3. Case study: renew, reuse and reinforce
4. Discussion and conclusion

25. Renewal: Dongtan as a vanguard project
Arup’s experience in experimenting, creating and
participating in game-changing projects
‘Dongtan is the next ‘Normally we would never do a project
Sidney Opera house like Dongtan – it is too risky and too big.
for Arup in terms of However, this was a rare opportunity for
importance’ us to show leadership and learn….
Taking on large projects is the way we
B. Morera, Urban learn in this business of projects’
designer, Arup, 2008
John Miles, Arup Board, 2009

26. Renewal: Innovation in urban design projects
• ‘Renew capabilities’ – develop capabilities in new categories of
projects (Brady & Davies, 2004; Shamsie et al, 2009)
• Challenge: create innovative approach to deliver Dongtan project
• Learning from Arup’s previous projects (e.g. BedZed low carbon
development)
• New concept of multi-functional project team called ‘total serial
innovation’ (Peter Head, Arup)
• Vision: ‘Integrated Urbanism’ project team led by architects
• 30 specialists each with a team of 3-4 members in matrix structure
• New position: “Cultural Planner”
• Developed new technical and conceptual tools on the project to support
integrated urban design

27. Renewal: creating the Dongtan project team
• Dongtan project
• Team selection: two people knew each other from LSE connection
• Encouraged to experiment with new approach to meet strong client
needs
• Core team of 5 builds (six months) up to 150 specialists in less than one
year (mainly in-house)
• New approach supported by Peter Head, Director Planning and
Integrated Urbanism
• Arup lead the project and work with local design institutes and
consultancies to deliver work-packages
• The project was risky for Arup
• Foreign architects can lose control of their Chinese projects when clients
seek to cut costs and redesign using cheaper options
• Was the client really committed?
• Arup carried out internal audit of the project

28. Arup’s challenge: How to integrate multiple specialist
with component-knowledge to achieve sustainable
performance?
• Human and
Environmental Health
• Economic Vitality and
Individual Prosperity
• Energy Systemically
interconnected
• Housing components
• Nutrition and Urban- Change one and one
Rural Linkages
or more other
• Mobility and Access components must
change
• Communications
Targets: sustainable
• Education and Culture performance during
‘operational’ phase
• Governance and Civic
Engagement
• Water

29. Arup’s solution to integration challenge: matrix project
structure
• ‘There is key temporal dimension to the work as well as
interdisciplinary complexity. Sometimes the work in any
cell of the matrix was led by the cross-cutting team and
sometimes by the physical component team’
• Peter Head, 2007 Hugh Ford Lecture
• Matrix structure for integrating multiple technology and
organisational components of the design
• Teams develop their own model (e.g. transport, waste,
environmental impact)
• Project members assigned to 12 offices within Arup
• Design and integration led by architects
• Focus meeting performance objectives – guidelines of
sustainability

30. Traditional approach to masterplanning
Traditional linear process
Client BC REC MP ENG
Real Estate Master Planner Engineer
Business
Consultant
Consultant
‘We couldn’t do it in a simple linear way. It would take four years to achieve
an outcome. We had to develop a new approach’ (Guiterrez, Interview,
2008)

31. Arup created a new process: non-linear design
Business
Consultant BC
Real Estate REC
Consultant
Master MP
Planner
Arup
Engineer ENG
‘We did what normally takes four years in one year’ (Guiterrez, Interview,
2008)

32. Tools for integrated urban design

33. Reuse: organisational change & routines
• ‘Reuse capabiliities’ – knowledge, tools and processes transferred to
next projects
• From outset Arup aims to transfer knowledge and develop replicable
capabilities on subsequent (ecocity) projects
• Wanghuang, Changxiing, Tangye
• Partnership with SIIC and others on additional ecocity projects in China –
client wants to take one systems integrator role
• Partnership with HSBC
• New unit in Arup: Integrated Urbanism (Spring 2009, 75 employees)
• Group ‘born out of Dongtan’ (Guiterrez, 2008, interview)
• Transfer of core Dongtan project members
• Mentoring on new projects
• Refinement of project tools – IRM and SPEAR
• Create new tool: Integrated Methodology – sequence of design processes

34. Arup’s new approach: ‘Integrated Urbanism’
Source: ‘Making Places in the Ecological Age’, Arup Urban Design

35. Reinforcement: market position & internal positioning
• ‘Reinforce position in the market’
• Strategic role of senior Arup people in promoting the project
internally and externally
• Creating and shaping a new market
• Role of charismatic project members: Peter Head, Alejandro Guiterrez
and Malcolm Smith
• Advance the concept of ecocity at international conferences: e.g. Clinton
C40
• Articles in major world publications: e.g. Wired, Newsweek, Financial
Times
• Collaboration with universities – e.g. EPSRC - Ecocit networks
www.ecocit.org
• Creation of Institutes for Sustainability – China and UK
• Develop internal support for the Dongtan project and the strategic
potential in sustainable integrated urban development

36. Overview of presentation
1. Background and introduction to Dongtan ecocity project
2. Research methods and conceptual framework
3. Case study: renew, reuse and reinforce
4. Discussion and conclusion

37. Discussion
• Arup’s story is about entrepreneurial effort to build a
business in sustainable urban design
• Are the lessons learned from designing a green field
ecocity transferable to retrofit – platform, principles - why
and how?
• Are businesses the key agents of change towards
sustainability?
• Are efforts to gain competitive advantage in sustainable
markets different from business-as-usual activities?

38. Climate change and urbanisation:
the need for innovation!
• Innovation...is critical for the long-term conservation of resources and
improvement of the environment (C. Freeman, 1982:4)
• Climate change becomes a major “inducement” and “focusing device”
for innovative efforts (N. Rosenberg, 2009)
• Climate change is the management challenge of our time. It’s a
disruptive innovation greater than much of what has been seen before.
We need research that finds a “change setting” that addresses this
kind of challenge and identifies underlying mechanisms of change
involved in this discontinuity (R. Henderson, distinguished keynote,
Technology and innovation management division, Academy of
Management, 2009)
• Making the change to sustainable business is inherently risky – like
innovation processes. The early movers go through a learning process
for all of us (Mohrman & Worley, 2010:289)

39. Conclusions: from practice to theory to practice

40. Model of capability development supports Arup’s
growth in integrated urbanism
May be applicable to other firms working in urban
sustainability
Reinforce
Internal/external
Renew
Incremental/radical Reuse
innovation Knowledge and
routines

41. Thank you for listening
Questions and comments are welcome