Horizontal streets - an excuse for mixed use development sprawl?

Horizontal streets, also known as 'horizontal skyscrapers', seem to be the new trend for sustainable design in China.  The Vanke Center by Steven Holl is said to be the most sustainable building in China, which isn't surprising that it is striving to achieve this when the country has hit an all-time low in terms of pollution levels over the last few decades. 

You may say that having a horizontal building defeats the purpose of a skyscraper and its building footprint benefits, however the Vanke Center is held 50 feet above ground on eight supporting translucent glass clads.  Therefore, the building footprint is only as big as the support clads.

The building is a bit longer than the Empire State Building is in height and the entire area underneath the building is a public park.  It may be questioned whether people would want to sit in the shade underneath a suspended building, but the building seems to be thin enough that shading would not be major issue.  The architects have also redesigned a waterfront retaining wall as a planted estuary, establishing a restorative ecology that minimizes run-off, erosion, and environmental damage.

The building consists of:

• Mixed use
• Onsite retention pond
• Permeable surfaces for walkways
• Green roof
• Double glazed glass
• Sun sensored louvers
• Solar cells to generate power
• Grey water system

It is hard to say that China is not trying, but is too late?  It seems that the country is trying to mitigate the effects of its steeply inclining economic development that has caused outrageous levels of pollution, rather than defuse the problem at source. China needs to be thinking on a larger scale than constructing the 'world's most sustainable building' and look at cleaner mass produced energy sources.