Project

Cities promise more opportunities for survival than the countryside. Cities become home to masses of new residents, are offer hope for a better future for the next generation. As more and more new people find their home in ever-growing urban regions, new stories are told and the old knowledge of a region - the deep cultural wisdom of how to live with and from nature - slowly gets lost. Often, the generic design of cities accelerates the shift to soulless places and lack of identity.

Landscape and open space design offers the opportunity to connect the conflicting desires of new life and sense of place. Parks and open spaces can be designed not as generic space, not following a fast fashion or as representations of a system, but as part of the local, wild, natural system of the urban region. For this we work with the local soil, water system, climate, seasons, flora and fauna in connection to the surrounding habitats. This creates places that naturally thrive under local climate, and are home to as many forms of life as possible. As for other species, wild places in the city become a new home also for the old and new human inhabitants of the city. Wild places are an attractive and healthy space for a flourishing society, and an identity that connects urban people back to place and planet.

Client

People’s Government of Futian District, Shenzhen

Program

45 ha Masterplan for the regeneration of a park, Architectural design of 4 buildings – visitor center, library, wedding hall and recycling plant

Stages

2014 Concept, Design Development
2015 – 17 Under construction
2017 Opened

Team

MLA+, ZEN Landscape Design Co Ltd. , Shenzhen Institute of Building Research Co Ltd., openfabric

Awards

2020 GBA Grand Design Prize
Excellent Engineering Design of Guangdong