City Fringe Park

TYPE Cultural, Infrastructure, Public space
STATUS Competition 1st prize
LOCATION Zhuhai, China
YEAR 2013
CLIENT Zhuhai Landscape and Forest Bureau

DESIGN TEAM Eva Castro, Ulla Hell, Holger Kehne, Chuan Wang

PHOENIX MOUNTAIN BOTANIC GARDEN: A botanic garden is embedded in areas within relatively gentler slope, along with the interwoven water-system and ancilliary slope-based activities. Water bodies on site (mainly fish ponds) were treated and partially connected under the concern of ecological and spatial improvement, while enhancement as buffers by-side were naturally attached. The coverage of the transitional layer, on one hand,  provides protection to sensitive areas, and on the other one, brings core activity areas that were carefully located. 

XIANGSHAN LAKE PARK: Mainly addressed to families, the natural identity of the area is kept and easy-to-access social functions are introduced, especially for children.

A hierarchical organization intensified and tied up activities in certain areas, while to others, less flavoured or kept raw, and therefore, brought a pattern of different levels of development. Conservative and reserved development in some parts show care to existing resources that require a more delicate touch of human, otherwise, layers of activities could happen simultaneously to different groups that target different purposes. Proposed activities enhance experience pathways from mountaintop to the lake centre, include viewing, hiking, gardening and boating etc. All together, intertwine nature to human experience by introducing multi-layered linkages through one activity to another.

CULTURAL PARK: For this area, outstanding features of Fenghuanshan are emphasized and improved to enhance the experience of nature. The creation of a connective system with paths that come together and branch out, developing linking spots designed for different users. In order to make accessible the steep hills in the south part of the park to as many people as possible, the path network in this area was divided into 2 ranges, from 0% to 8% and from 8% to 20%. The former for all ages and the later aimed at sportsmen, respectively. Considering a low invasive, impacting intervention, new activities are offered, as well as the improvement of the existing vegetation system. Led by an ecological strategy,  existing and proposed water bodies become a physical/natural system of interconnections. The activities of this area encourage an educational exploration of the landscape.