Abstract

The Holistic Sustainability Framework for Chinese Cities has been developed based on the indigenous philosophies of China, and refined with the data of thirteen large urban design projects collected in four Chinese cities. This paper applies and assesses HSEF for the urban design assessment in China. It focuses on Shenzhen Shangbu Regeneration, checks the interrelations and links in decision-making for sustainable development, while validating the applicability of this framework. Discussions on the application of the framework focus on the interpretation of the key relational qualities, clarifying questions, and selecting a preferred option from the analysis. The finding of the application suggests that a framework based on the philosophical and cultural experiences of the region could provide a robust foundation for a credible alternative approach to evaluate the urban regeneration projects. The future work will validate the framework in other stages of design with implications on the revision of the model.