This project involved regional planning for a future extension of the Haidian District in Northwest Beijing, an area famous as a tech center. It was a quick exercise imagining a very long-term growth pattern. 

The portion of Haidian which is closer to central Beijing is a large urban district located in the city's northwest. It is the second-largest district in Beijing by area and has a population of over 3 million people. It is known as a major center of education, technology, and culture, housing prestigious universities such as Tsinghua University and Peking University. It also includes Zhongguancun, which is often referred to as China's Silicon Valley, serving as a hub for the nation's IT industry and scientific innovation. The district is rich in historical and cultural heritage, featuring famous sites like the Old Summer Palace and the Summer Palace. Haidian was originally a village and developed into a significant commercial and academic area, officially becoming an administrative district in 1954. Its economy is strong, with a high GDP and many high-tech enterprises are headquartered there. 

With most of the existing industrial and high-tech offices in the southeast corner of the area (purple), the idea was to create new residential (yellow) and mixed-use (residential plus ground floor commercial, shown in red) communities to the northwest. The plan preserved a natural area at the center, which was centered on a stream leading to the east. Radiating out from this green space were fingers of development zones that would follow Beijing's existing N-S grid - modified where existing villages, roads, and other natural features warranted it. A ring road, shown in early drawings as a circle, but expected to become more organic during detailed planning, would connect the various different communities so that roads would not traverse the natural area at the center. Each community would have its own formal civic open space where the grid intersected the circle. Mountains to the west would limit growth and form a backdrop for the areas which would become more residential as distance from the city grew. A second drainage canal at the foot of the mountains also provided a focal point for some of the new areas.

These types of exercises are usually quick and meant to provide broad direction for discussion. In this case there was no urgency to proceed to the next step. Even today, 25 years later, only small portions of the area have developed in fragments; a significant amount of the land remains agricultural. 

Shown in relation to central Beijing with the Forbidden City at the lower right.