Full coverage of the press conference on the world preview of the Olympic Village

Wang Hui:

Thank Mr. Yu Debin. Now Ms. Liu Rong from Guoao Investment Company, will introduce the construction of the Olympic Village.

Liu Rong

Liu Rong:

Good afternoon, media friends. I'd like the take the opportunity to make a brief introduction on the process of designing, planning and constructing the Olympic Village on behalf of the village builder.

I have prepared a PowerPoint presentation to illustrate my talk.

My introduction will be divided into three parts; in the first part I'll give you a profile of the Olympic Village; the second part concerns the construction of the Olympic Village; and the in the third part I'd like to say something about the application of three Olympic concepts.

The Olympic Village lies in the northwest corner of the Beijing Olympic Green, with the Olympic competition venues to its south and the Forest Park to its north. With an area of 66 hectares, the Village includes the Apartment Buildings for athletes in the south and the overlay area in the north. During the Olympic Games, It can accommodate more than 16,000 athletes and officials (7,000 athletes and officials during the Paralympic Games) and provide services related to accommodation, living, training, leisure and entertainment.

The Residential Zone has an area of 27.55 hectares and a floor area of 524,000 square meters. They include 20, nine-story buildings; 22, six-story buildings; three Super Resident Centers and nine Resident Centers and facilities, such as the Polyclinic and the Casual Dining Hall. The overlay area in the north of the village will provide services including arrival, accreditation, leisure, catering, fitness and departure for athletes coming to the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

There also will be the Welcome Ceremony Stage, the Village Mayor Office, Dining Hall, shopping centre, logistics centre and accreditation centre.

Now I'll turn to the construction elements. Currently, all the engineering work concerning the outer façade and indoor fine decoration has been largely completed. The pipes to supply water for daily life, potable water, reclaimed water for flushing toilets, hot water for shower, and water for fire fighting have been installed. Sewers have been installed. The power supply and telecom facilities within the Village have been installed and the full loading operation has been carried out. The construction of the intelligent systems has entered its final stages.

The first phase commissioning of air conditioning was completed in September 2007. The heating for winter is underway. The engineering for road surface course, outdoor lighting, green space and water system, enclosure and gate is close to completion.

From these photos we can see that major buildings and outdoor engineering have been completed; the public space, such as staircases and elevator halls, has been fitted up the engineering for road surface course is close to the end; the indoor fine decoration has been finished; water supply and drainage system and sanitary items have been installed. Elevations have been installed and the air conditioning system with water reclamation heat pumps has been put into operation.

Before lockdown, the full loading test is scheduled to be carried out according to the actual need during the Games-time. During the test, shower water, potable water, tap water, drainage, outdoor and indoor lighting, elevator, intelligentization and other systems will be tested; the water reclamation heat pump system will be put into operation for cooling (with automatic control); the BOCOG operation team will move in and FF&E and other facilities will be loaded.

Now I'd like to brief you on the application of the three concepts of the Olympic Games in our designing of the Village. It mainly involves four aspects: utilization of renewable energy, energy-saving buildings, environmental protection and human oriented design. The following green technologies have been applied:

-- renewable energy

-- water reclamation

-- utilization of rain and flood

-- green building materials

-- energy-saving building

-- green indoor environment

-- ecological landscape

-- intelligent house

-- DTV, and green lighting, and

-- accessible facilities

The harmony between culture, architecture and environment has been achieved in the green residential area. The village, with its world leading technologies, is a showcase to the world of the distinguishing characteristics of the high level Olympic Games. The whole process of the construction illustrates the "three concepts". For example, at the construction sites, solar energy was adopted for lighting ... and water sprayed to remove dust.

Utilization of renewable energy. During Games-times, 7,890,000 kilowatt hours will be obtained from solar energy and reclaimed water for services. After the Olympic Games, 67 million kilowatt hours will be obtained from solar energy and reclaimed water. This is the first reclaimed water heat pump air conditioning system. It draws energy through heat exchange from the reclaimed water from the Qinghe Wastewater Treatment Plant. The energy drawn from the reclaimed water can be enhanced by the heat pumps for heating and cooling. The system consumes electricity 40% less than the ordinary air conditioners. Thanks to the world leading wastewater utilization system, cooling towers or outdoor machines are not needed, no noise or smoke will be generated and the heat island effect can be removed completely.

Now let's watch a short flash animation to learn its work process. The wastewater treatment plant; the reclaimed water goes through heat exchange here and then enter the Olympic Village through pipes for heating in winter and cooling in summer.

Integrated solar energy water heating system. The solar energy heating pipes are installed horizontally in the gardens on the roofs, constituting part of the pergola and thus integrated into the garden. 6,000 square meters solar energy water heating system can provide bathing hot water for more than 16,000 athletes and officials. After the Olympic Games, it can provide hot water for nearly 2,000 households nearby.

The solar energy water heating system can save five million kilowatt hours electric power per year.

All the solar collectors have been installed in the Village.

More than 20 cutting edge technologies, such as solar heat collection, solar water heating, solar dehumidification, cogeneration of heat and power by solar energy and intellectual control have been applied in the micro energy consumption buildings. For 2,000 square meters of the micro energy consumption buildings, each square meter will consume 36 kilowatt hours annually, which is 1/3rd of the consumption of the existing energy saving buildings. Some 147,000 kilowatt hours of energy can be saved annually.

The building will be Super Resident Center during the Games time.

In addition, energy-savings were also taken into account at the Village design. For example, thickened XPS extruded sheets have been used for walls and building surfaces. It can save energy while preserving heat. The heat insulation can make the buildings cool in summer and warm in winter. The double-glazing LOW-E glass with inert gases fill framed by aluminum has been used. The glass features thermal insulation and noise prevention. Energy-saving Persian blinds have been installed in all buildings. The heat transfer coefficient of the sealed insulating glass adopted for the Persian blinds is lower than ordinary ones. Therefore, it can save energy significantly.

Biological sewage treatment technology is adopted in the Olympic Village to treat part of domestic waste water and also to provide water for landscape. Simulating the self-purification capacity of water, a water body biological balance system applying food chains of animals and plants is set up to treat the domestic water.

In this way 200 tons of water can be provided to water the landscape.

Rain water can be collected and reused every year to water the green space and clean the road.

In order to ensure a good indoor environment, construction materials and decoration materials have been tested and undergone pre-control process during the construction.

The Village also reflects human oriented design. Accessible ramps and blind sidewalks are set. And the entrance and exit of apartments are level with the outside roads. Accessible facility has been installed at public space and indoors. Moreover, the Village has adopted High standard potable water system.

Last year UNEP paid a visit to Beijing for Olympic preparation. I'd like to end my introduction with an excerpt from the "Beijing 2008 Olympic Games - An Environmental Review by UNEP".

"The venue features innovative technologies, such as a heat pump system, photovoltaic panels, beam-pipe illumination, solar collectors, water saving devices, and rainwater collection. The designers have succeeding in designing a people-oriented, healthy, comfortable and energy-saving environment in the Village".