Nature and cultural heritage flow through a unique new town at Yimin, Inner Mongolia. Located on a vast river plain 1,000 kilometres north of the Great Wall of China, the site will become a home to 100,000 people from 12 national minority groups - most of them historically nomadic peoples with a deep affinity with the natural environment.

With associates Appleyard Forest, AJ+C set out to reconcile the competing demands of urbanisation in an ecologically sensitive environment. Most Chinese towns begin from an administrative core, but Yimin is symbolically placed at the junction of two rivers. The wetlands become the town’s core, with rivers forming natural ‘corridors’ for prime recreational and social areas.