The Forest Sports Park in Guangming, Shenzhen (China), for play, sport and relaxation is a joint design by LOLA Landscape Architects (NL), Taller architects (COL/NL) and Land and Civilization Compositions (CN). During the World Architecture Festival China in December 2020, the project won the overall WAFChina Best Landscape and the WAFChina Excellent Design award.
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The Shenzhen area is all about innovation, therefor the ambition was to make a park that is as innovative as the city itself. A park that can adapt to the constant evolution of sports and were the people can constantly contribute to a more resilient nature.
Immerse in the thick Forest
An elevated red path gives universal access to the forest. With a steady soft slope, connecting ramps and elevators it provides users from all age groups a safe and easy way to visit the mountain. To enjoy the views of the surrounding city and the ability to immerse yourself in the thick forest. The Forest and Sports Park forms a slow transition space between the city of Guangming and the forest reserve.
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The park focuses on innovation in sports and ecology
With the first phase of the 600 ha. park almost completed, the park is to become a unique destination for the Guangming Big Bay area. As this metropolitan region finds its success in innovative industries, the park focuses on innovation in sports and ecology. Two R&D centres, one for sports, one for botany are centrally located in the park. From here, a constant evolution and diversification of the park will take place. On the central park loop, a linear plant and tree nursery is integrated.
A scenic route
In a natural forest setting, visitors are able to get to know new and forgotten sports, as well as the latest techniques used in sports. A range from open valleys to lower hills and mountain forest offers the natural background for these sports and active leisure. The Red Path forms a landmark that connects the park to the city and the forest; a scenic route that passes by all different types of forest.
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Minimize the environmental impact
In the park a series of pavilions hosts functions like a restaurant, restroom, viewing platform and forest cabin. In order to minimize the environmental impact, the pavilions are modular and prefabricated. By placing them on stilts they avoid direct contact with the ground and at the same time provide shadow so that visitors can escape the summer heat. The construction of the second phase of the Forest Sports Park is expected to start in 2021.
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Location: Guang Ming, Shenzhen, China
Size: 600 ha
Design: 2018
Construction first phase: 2019-2020
Organizer: Guangming New District Management committee
Co-organizer: Shenzhen Guang Ming center for urban Development
Design team: LOLA Landscape Architects, Taller architects, Land and Civilization Compositions
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Trees and forests are the lungs of our planet. The topos issue 103 on the topic “Trees” presents concrete projects involving trees that rethink the relation of nature and society and restructure it in very distinct and very different ways.
Ever since China’s head of state began to take issue with “weird architecture”, China’s culture of building has undergone an evolution. The Founding Director of the Institute for European Urban Studies at the Bauhaus-University Weimar, Dieter Hassenpflug, investigated this transformation. In the course of numerous guest professorships at Chinese universities, he had the opportunity to research cities in China, making him an expert on Chinese urban development. We spoke with him about his intercultural research perspective and first-hand observations.
Topos: How did you become interested in China’s planned cities and urban development?
Dieter Hassenpflug: When attempting to employ terminology based on processes of urban development in Europe, its Chinese counterpart becomes a phenomenon that defies both description and analysis. I realized that conventional wisdom on the “Westernization” of Chinese cities can’t be true. Actually, it reveals “Western” projections and a rather superficial way of looking at the phenomenon at hand. I’m much more interested in the Chinese city as a type and a product of a particular form of social and cultural spatialization.
From an intercultural perspective, what is the central difference between cities in Europe and in China?
On average, Chinese cities are much more expansive and much more compact than European cities. In China, there exist more than 200 cities with at least one million inhabitants. Among them, there are at least six where the population count exceeds ten million. On average, the population density in the inner cities is eight to ten times higher than in Germany. In addition to this, almost all urban residents live in closed neighborhoods. For one, these “gated communities” reflect a desire for security among their residents. In sociological terms, they also refer to the ongoing primacy of the family and the community, as opposed to the individual and the society. In terms of urban space, the result has been and continues to be the ambiguous status of public urban space.
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You took a closer look at Liaodong Bay New Town. How did the architects approach this project, and which cultural specificities does it reveal?
The first distinct feature that I discovered in Liaodong Bay New Town relates to the architect Lingling Zhang and his Tianzuo-Studio. He is responsible for the master plan and numerous framework and detail plans, and in addition to that, for the designs of more than 80 public buildings. The second distinct feature points out the decisiveness and the scope of how the design of urban spaces and buildings refers to an inventory of elements originating in Chinese tradition. This approach was employed on both the national and the regional level. The national level refers e.g. to the significance of a central axis oriented from north to south, a “linear center”. The regional level indicates Lingling Zhang’s enthusiasm for the local context in environmental and sociocultural terms.
“Zhang adopts the red hue of the seepweed and cites it along the facades of numerous buildings.”
An illustrative example of his approach is found along the coastline, where tidelands are covered in an endless expanse of the seepweed, colored in deep red hues in late summer and in autumn. Zhang adopts this red hue and cites it along the facades of numerous buildings. In comparable ways, Zhang employs the golden-yellow color of the autumn rice paddies of Panjin, the prefecture for which this new harbor city is being developed. Another source of inspiration for his design approach is found within local craftsmanship.
How can we evaluate the way cities created by European architects in China are planned?
The planned city of Anting in Shanghai, created by AS+P, is an excellent example. It is a city that could have been built in Germany, if there had been a need to do so. Its basic structure follows the guiding image of the traditional European city: There is a distinct center featuring market place, city hall, and church, rimmed by block-border-construction comprised of buildings oriented towards any and all directions and including a mix of uses. Anting was a ghost town at first. There were no closed neighborhoods with residential buildings that are oriented towards the south and that enclose an introverted community courtyard for its residents.
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“Here, the European concept became an obstacle to the planning of this new city.”
The construction phases to follow were “sinicised” according to Chinese spatial concepts. Lingang, also located in Shanghai, is another case in point. Here, the European concept became an obstacle to the planning of this new city. Its radial-concentric concept is problematic given the spatial demands and needs of Chinese urban dwellers. It is almost impossible to find a solution for this. Its distinct centrality demands the free orientation of residential buildings, and due to the geometry of the plan they have to be oriented towards the center. The concept is fundamentally at odds with municipal building code requirements and, most of all, the desire of users for residential space oriented towards the south. Planners therefore attempted to superimpose orthogonal structures on the radial-concentric plan. A rather futile endeavor.
Due to the powerful imagery that dominates its master plan, the functionality of the “Chinese-German Eco Park” in Qingdao, originally designed by gmp and developed further by Obermeyer, suffers just as much. Paradoxically, problems arise here particularly in an area where the new industrial park claims its greatest success: contributing to environmental conservation through sustainable urban development. The dispersed layout of multi-functional clusters and neighborhoods separated by ample green areas prohibits the creation of a true (sub)urban center, and therefore, an efficient mobility system and sustainable degrees of density.
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What advantages and disadvantages exist; which problems arise in such cases?
By now, the cities created by Western urban planners and designers are viewed critically among those who are responsible in China. The example of Anting shows that the attempt is made to correct as much as possible. The practice of inviting international urban planners and designers to create new cities in China seems to have become an episode of the past. Trust is now placed in Chinese professionals. Liaodong Bay New Town might be considered an example.
“For Chinese observers, the harbor city is an open book, allowing them to decipher their cultural identity without effort.”
For Chinese observers, the harbor city is an open book, allowing them to decipher their cultural identity without effort. It has come to my attention that the responsible architects at AS+P themselves view their projects in China critically and have drawn necessary conclusions. When looking at their recent projects in China, it becomes apparent that they design in ways that are significantly more “Chinese”. Changchun is only one example. By the way, this notion also applies to German architects involved in similar or other projects. Gunter Henn, an architect who is also very active in China, made the effort early on to produce a spatial language that pays respect to the sociocultural urban context.
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What can Europeans learn from such urban design practices?
We in Europe and in Germany can learn many things from modern Chinese urban design – given that we pay attention to the sociocultural pitfalls when we transfer ideas. From my point of view, the most remarkable aspect is the completely self-evident and unquestioned reflexivity within Chinese urban design. For Chinese planners and designers, it is a matter of course to tie together aeons-old traditions of spatial production with the most modern designs, concepts and materials.
“There is no contradiction between tradition and modernity.”
There is no contradiction between tradition and modernity. Such a contradiction would, in return, contradict the Chinese cultural aim of harmony, of reconciling opposites, of Yin and Yang. Equally remarkable is the carefree way of employing ornamental propositions of Postmodernism without much ado in order to communicate social status and prestige. Every now and then, when looking at the German situation, I can’t help the feeling that many a design driven by functionalist intentions, often interpreted as the “style” of the Bauhaus, represents a form of “politically correct” architecture. It connotes feelgood-messages such as “affordable housing” or “social equality” even if the buildings are actually occupied by by riches of all kinds.
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In addition to this interview, the Baumeister Blog features a five-part series by Dieter Hassenpflug and Lingling Zhang on urban development in China from a sociocultural perspective, dealing with the examples mentioned here in further detail.
In an ongoing series exploring the effects of China’s Belt and Road Initiative on the cities involved, our first stop is the ancient yet thoroughly modern Chinese city of Xi’an.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative has been described as a modern-day silk road. Encompassing a series of massive infrastructural and investment projects spread across parts of Europe, Africa and Asia, it follows several routes from mainland and coastal China, across the sea and over land, through the Central Asian republics and several southeast Asian port cities and reaching as far as Djibouti and Mombasa in East Africa, Duisburg in Germany and Venice in Italy. As part of an ongoing series exploring the effects this huge project is having on the cities involved, our first stop is the Chinese city of Xi’an.
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Xi’an is a good place to start discussing the Belt and Road initiative. Not only was it where the original silk road began but its transformation in recent years also captures some of the difficulties presented by such a massive initiative.
While the city had been a key crossroad between China, the Middle East and Europe for millenia and was the first capital of a unified China, its recent history was one of relative stagnation. Being situated squarely inland, it missed out on the country’s early moves toward economic liberalisation, which primarily benefited coastal cities that were better connected to international markets.
From stagnation to departure
The big turning point came several years before the official announcement of the Belt and Road Initiative. In 2008, the Xi’an International Trade and Logistics Park became China’s largest inland port. Then, shortly after that, in 2009, Zhao Leji — then secretary of the Shaanxi province of which Xi’an is the capital and now one of the seven members of the China’s most senior governing body — secured party approval to turn the city into an “international metropolis”.
This designation ensured significant funding for massive infrastructural expansion: encompassing rail, bus and air travel. In 2012, excavation began on a large subway network. That same year, the city’s airport was significantly expanded and the Xi’an North Railway Station was opened. Serviced by the Longhai railway, the train station quickly became one of Asia’s largest rail terminals, now serving 82 million passengers each year.
Huge influx of foreign visitors
All this lends itself well to another central aspect of the Chinese government’s plans for Xi’an: promoting tourist trade. China is set to be the world’s most visited country by 2030 and Xi’an’s rich cultural heritage means it is well placed to capitalise on this new growth area. Along with the famous Terracotta Army contained within the 2nd Century BC mausoleum built for China’s first emperor Qin Shi Huang, Xi’an hosts a 14th Century great mosque set within a thronging Muslim quarter, a 7th Century Buddhist Pagoda and a fully intact city wall, some of which also dates back to the 7th Century. With the active support of the government and such a plethora of attractions, there’s sure to be a huge influx of foreign visitors to the city in the coming years.
This shift to tourism and infrastructural integration is suggestive of the way many Chinese cities have been changing in the 21st Century: less emphasis on foreign trade, greater logistical and infrastructural integration and a focus on both mass consumption and mass production. For cities like Xi’an, the future will be fast and it will be cosmopolitan.
As people become better connected and more exposed to foreign experiences, all while consuming ever more resources, the question is whether it will be possible for the government both to contain and sustain the forces brought about by this more connected and fast-moving urban reality.
World’s largest air purifier
On this note, Xi’an already has some of the worst pollution in the country, due mainly to the fact the city’s winter heating is derived from coal. To combat this, the city has built what is believed to be the world’s largest air purifier, standing at 100-meter-tall. The tower — which relies on solar updraft and filters to clean the air — has already managed to significantly improve air quality in the city, with smog ratings having been reduced to moderate levels even on severely polluted days.
Tellingly, this already sizable tower is in fact a prototype for a much larger version, projected to reach 500-meter-tall and capable of purifying most of the air within a small city. As ever grander technological solutions emerge to handle the ever growing output of all this economic acceleration, it’s fair to wonder whether China can continue to keep a handle on all the forces set in train by the Belt and Road Initiative.
The development of the Chengdu Panda Reserve comes just in time. The numbers are alarming: with a population of only about 1,800 left in the wild, the panda has become one of the most endangered species in the world. The giant panda is elementary for Chinese culture and a well-known symbol for wildlife preservation. However, providing adequate protection for this endangered species has long been neglected – until now.
The giant panda is originally native to a region near the city of Chengdu in western China. At the same time, the city of Chengdu is one of the fastest growing cities worldwide. How can urbanisation and conservation become part of a common strategy?
Protecting the species and its native habitat
The global design firm “Sasaki” has recently revealed one possible answer. The Chengdu Panda Reserve is a non-profit breeding and research facility for giant pandas and other endangered species. The facility is located in Chengdu, Sichuan Province in the People’s Republic of China. Behind the title “Chengdu Panda Reserve” lies also an ambitious masterplan. In order to save this highly endangered species from extinction, “Sasaki” proposes a 69-square-kilometer panda reserve. Symbolically, “Chengdu Panda Reserve” represents the beginning of “China’s increasing communication, collaboration, and awareness of its pioneering strategies to protect the species and its native habitat”.
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More than species protection
However, it’s not only about species protection. The project expects over 20 million visitors each year – comparable to or even surpassing the number of current annual visitors to Disneyland. The combination of both aspects poses a major challenge for the design, particularly since improving the pandas’ reintroduction into the wild is perceived as the project’s ultimate aim. Consequently, “Sasaki’s” masterplan provides three individual sites that represent a combination of conservation, education and research.
Space for urban education
All sites are organised by their primary functions and the projected amount of human interaction and disturbance. The first site, “Beihu Panda Park”, works as an extension of the existing “Panda Base” visitor experience centre. It provides a space for urban education where visitors can learn about daily lives and habits of pandas, as well as ongoing research and protection. The first destination is located close to downtown and directly linked to the city by public transport. This makes the project a potentially popular and easily accessible destination for visitors.
Nearly like the natural environment
The paths are flanked with thick fernleaf hedge bamboos, Qinsi and other ornamental bamboo oriental cherry, lindera megaphylla and other ornamental plants compatible with the natural environment of the panda base.
The panda base is also inhabited by other endangered wildlife, including red pandas, swans, peacocks, birds, butterflies and hundreds of insects. Visitors can get closer to the rare giant pandas and closely observe the animals of different ages resting, eating and drinking, playing with each other, or watch female pandas nursing their cubs in the nursery rooms.
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Training of juvenile pandas into the wild
The second site, “Dujiangyan Panda Wilderness”, provides a much more remote atmosphere. This isolated area is located at the foothills of the Tibetan plateau. Programmatically, the second site focusses on research on breeding techniques and pre-release training of juvenile pandas into the wild.
The third site, “Longquanshan Panda Village”, is located near Chengdu’s new airport. As a “gateway” into the city, it offers a programme more oriented towards the public. “Panda Village” introduces visitors to Chengdu’s conservation efforts and distinctive culture.
PandaQuest
To enhance the visitor experience, Sasaki developed PandaQuest – an educational app that allows visitors to explore the three sites and learn more about pandas and their habitat through an interactive game. Wildlife enthusiasts around the world can also connect to the sanctuary through the app.
Meet a panda in the wild
“Chengdu Panda Reserve” proposes an ambitious masterplan, located somewhere between eco-tourism and tourist attraction. By developing different sites with their very individual programmatical and spatial qualities, it takes on the complex task of understanding urbanisation processes and conservation as a whole. And – who would not want to meet a panda in the wild?
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You want to read more about pandas? Click here.
In recent years, China’s urban development practice has started shifting its focus from city expansion towards inner-city renewal. City governments and planners are rediscovering the potential of historic city quarters as incubators for new urban life and highly valuable differentiators for city branding and marketing.
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Micro-transformation
The urban renewal of Yongqing Fang, a quarter in the old town of Guangzhou, has set a new benchmark as a showcase example for a different
approach towards inner-city rejuvenation. Leaving behind the explored avenues of top-down streamlined restoration of traditional quarters into solely leisure- and commerce-centered historic districts, frozen in time and devoid of everyday life, the new model instead opts for micro-transformation. It aims to combine tradition with modernity.
At the start of the renovation, Yonqing Fang was in a rather hazardous state. Most of the dwellings had been abandoned. Only 43 buildings were still intact, 30 seriously damaged and some had already collapsed. Furthermore, the prospect of urban regeneration was met with great skepticism and apprehension by the remaining residents. Hence VANKE Real Estate Development, in collaboration with local stakeholders, initiated the strategy of micro-transformation.
Rebuilding and new construction
In a first step, all remaining buildings were thoroughly surveyed regarding structural soundness, recent condition and historic value. An overall inventory was established and intensively discussed with all stakeholders involved, leading to a final classification of all buildings into five different renovation categories applied on site: restoration, façade redesign, structural reinforcement, partial rebuilding and new construction. This classification provided the base for a micro-renovation approach: a catalog of case-by-case measures, carefully executed in collaboration with local restoration specialists and construction teams. Instead of uniform measures, an organic approach towards -re-newal was taken, which from the start accepted the coexistence of a wide array of different building types and styles next to each other and combined restoration with the injection of a new urban program.
Modernity and identity
As a last layer, the public realm was renovated. Lab D&H led the landscape design effort. Here too the focus was placed on a modernity anchored in the respect of the identity of place. Different from the architectural renovation that was enriched by and profited from the variety in styles, the renovation of the public realm faced the challenge to provide aesthetic unity to the site and at the same time create a suitable and comfortable background for all users and activities.
Read more in Topos 100 – Time
China’s agricultural sector is suffering from its vast growing cities. In the last 20 years, around 123,000 square kilometres of farmland were lost to urbanization. In addition to the sealing, soil pollution is a major problem in the surrounding countryside of metropolises. In Shanghai, China’s biggest city, the administration encourages the production of food within the city borders to deal with the problem. One of the future places for producing agricultural goods is the Sunquiao Urban Agricultural District, which was designed by the renown architects of Sasaki Associates.
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Vertical Farming System
The Idea behind the innovative approach is quite simple: Why not go vertical to encounter high land prices – even with the agricultural production? Beside greenhouses for multi-storey farming, the design also consists of a water treatment system, a centre for education and recreational facilities to improve the environmental awareness. The output of the greenhouses will mainly consist of kale, spinach and lettuce, which are the preferred local food. The plants grow along looped rails, which will rotate to provide an even distribution of sunlight from the glass roof.
Awarded Design
The American architects of Sasaki Associates recently won the top award in the urban planning category of the PLAN Awards for its innovative design. Not only could they convince the jury by their natural approach but also by the consideration of Chinese lifestyle and cuisine. With the centre of education and a museum, the concept encourages visitor participation. The construction of Sunquiao Urban Agricultural District will begin in late 2017. The site is located between Shanghai downtown and the Pudong International Airport.
While Chinese construction projects are usually associated with architectural superlatives and gigantism, a project of a different kind is coming soon near Tianjin: an airport for migratory birds. With their “Bird Airport”, the landscape architects McGregor Coxall could convince themselves in an international design contest. Unlike the concrete landscapes of conventional airports, the runways for migratory birds will consist of a nature reserve with extensive wet biotopes. Located directly on the East Asia Australasia Flyway, the place is an ideal resting place for the animals.
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Green Lung for Tianjin
As one of the largest cities in China, Tianjin has also faced considerable environmental problems. To eliminate the smog and create a green cityscape, a design competition was initiated by the Asian Development Bank and local business players. The aim of the competition was to develop a green lung for the city from a former landfill. Special attention should be given to the migratory birds of the East Asia Australasia Flyway. The birds have increasingly problems to find adequate resting places in the urbanized coastal region of the Yellow Sea. Around 50 million animals are using the route every year, including many endangered species. The “Bird Airport” of McGregor Coxall emerged as the winner of the competition. The landscape architects from Australia, China and England developed open lakes, reedbeds and mud flats to meet the needs of all bird species. Part of the concept is a visitor and research center for up to 500,000 visitors a year.
In the urban heart of Jinhua, a city with a population of over one million, one last piece of natural riparian wetland of more than 64 acres remains undeveloped. Located where the Wuyi River and Yiwu River converge to form Jinhua River, this wetland is called Yanweizhou, meaning “the sparrow tail”. The three rivers divide the densely populated communities in the region. As a result of this inaccessibility, the cultural facilities, including the opera house and the green spaces adjacent to the Yanweizhou, were underutilized. Most of the riparian wetland has been fragmented or destroyed by sand quarries and is now covered with secondary growth.
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Due to its monsoon climate, Jinhua suffers from annual flooding. Hard high walls have been built, or were planned to be built, to protect the last patch of riparian wetland (Yanweizhou) from the 20-year and 200-year floods. These floodwalls would create dry parkland above the water, but destroy the lush and dynamic wetland ecosystem. Therefore, we devised a contrasting solution and convinced the city authorities to stop the construction of the concrete floodwall as well as demolish others. Instead, the Yanweizhou Park project “makes friends” with flooding by using a cut-and-fill strategy to balance earthwork and by creating a water-resilient, terraced river embankment that is covered with flood-adapted native vegetation. Floodable pedestrian paths and pavilions are integrated with the planting terraces, which will be closed to the public during the short period of flooding. The floods bring fertile silt that is deposited over the terraces and enriches the growing condition for the tall grasses that are native to the riparian habitat. The terraced embankment will also remediate and filtrate the stormwater from the pavement above. The Yanweizhou Park project showcases a replicable and resilient ecological solution to large-scale flood management.
In addition to the terraced river embankment, the inland area is entirely permeable in order to create a water-resilient landscape through the extensive use of gravel that is re-used material from the site. The gravel is used for the pedestrian areas; the circular bio-swales are integrated with tree planters; and permeable concrete pavement is used for vehicular access routes and parking lots. The inner pond on the inland is designed to encourage river water to infiltrate through gravel layers. This mechanically and biologically improves the water quality to make the water swimmable.
A pedestrian bridge snakes across the rivers, linking the parks along the riverbanks in both the southern and northern city districts, and connecting the city with Yanweizhou Park within the river. The bridge design was inspired by the local tradition of dragon dancing during the Spring Festival. For this celebration, many families bind their wooden benches together to create a long and colorful dragon that winds through the fields and along narrow dirt paths. The Bench Dragon is flexible in length and form as people join or leave the celebration. Like the Bench Dragon during the annual festival, the Bench Dragon Bridge symbolizes not only a form of celebration practiced in the Jinhua area, but is a bond that strengthens a cultural and social identity unique to this region. As water-resilient infrastructure, the new bridge is elevated above the 200-year flood level, while the ramps connecting the riparian wetland park can be submerged during the 20-year and larger floods. The bridge also hovers above the preserved patch of riparian wetland and allows visitors an intimate connection to nature. The many ramps to the bridge create flexible and easy access for residents from various locations of the city in adaptation to the flow of people. Reaching a total length of 2.300 feet, the bridge is composed of a steel structure with fiberglass handrails and bamboo paving. It is truly a resilient bridge that is adaptive to river currents and the flows of people, while binding city and nature, future and past. […]
After the park opened in May 2014, an average of 40.000 visitors used the park and the bridge each day. It was recently awarded the World Landscape of the Year 2015.
Read the full article in Topos 90 – Resilient Cities and Landscapes.
