Shenyan resilient road improvement

Streets are not only for cars to move. They are part of many different systems: cars, bicycles, people and many other species use them. Utilities and metro lines are located under them, and birds and insects use the space above them. They are also used in many different ways: to move, to meet, to stay or for commercial activities. One wonders then why they are only designed for cars.
In Shenzhen’s Yantian district, we took a different approach following the construction of a new metro line. For Shenyan Road we developed a streetscape regeneration system that spans seven kilometres and greatly alters the distribution of space for different users. Not only has the space for cars been reduced and bike lanes been introduced, also the space for pedestrians has become so big that places to meet and stay emerge that in the future will be embedded in lush green and shaded by the canopies of trees.
Public space is about understanding the systems and the big idea, but it also is about the details: materials, plant types, routing, connection to buildings and underpasses, slow and fast zones, and public space furniture that allows for different uses. On Shenyan Road we considered all these details and transformed a street that used to be hostile into an inviting and green linear public space that not only is good for humans but for all the other species that can not inhabit it again.