Tsinghua University officially launched Tsinghua Holdings Human Settlements Construction (Group) Co., Ltd. on July 25, marking the establishment of the first large human settlements environment industry group in China.

Tsinghua University invested a total of 600 million yuan ($97.86 million) in the company, which boasts world-class resources selected from the School of Architecture, the Center for Science of Human Settlements of Tsinghua University, the School of Environment, the Academy of Art & Design of Tsinghua University and the School of Civil Engineering.

Chen Jining, president of Tsinghua University, said that the company “will benefit the national economy and social development in the area of human settlements environment development.” Tsinghua Holdings Co., Ltd. includes the scientific and technological industry, knowledge industry and financial industry of science and technology as its three pillar industries, and provides an important platform for the industrialization of Tsinghua University’s scientific and technological achievements.

The company will reorganize the Qinghua Urban Planning & Design Institute, the Architectural Design and Research Institute of Tsinghua University, Beijing Qingshang Architectural Ornamental Engineering Co., Ltd., Guohuan Tsinghua Environment Engineering Design & Research Institute Co., Ltd. and others, to form an industrial development framework characterized by human settlements consultation, human settlements projects and human settlements science. The various organizations which were merged to form this new company have won many prizes, including the UN Prize of Human Settlements, the Golden Prize of the Venice Biennale, the President’s Award of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) and China Construction Engineering Luban Award.

The company plans to further explore new areas such as ornaments, lighting, cultural heritage, engineering, media, science and technology. It adheres to the urban design movement of new urbanization - and the concepts of ecological city, smart city, unimpeded city and famous cultural city - in order to solve issues relating to China’s urbanization.

It is expected to achieve a total turnover of more than 10 billion yuan ($163.1 million ) within 5 years and to build a high-quality team of 4000-5000 people. “We will seek cooperation with local governments, vigorously participate in the trusteeship management and better serve the local governments of all levels in an all-round way,” said Yin Zhi, president of the company.

Edited by Wang Yifei and Niva Whyman