China seems to be making serious efforts to reclaim the greenery it once had in abundance. With its fast paced development, the country has been witnessing an increase of concretization, turning the once lush landscape into grey areas. The city of Tianjin is undergoing a makeover with the latest completed project being the Tianjin Bridged Gardens. Using creative and regenerative design, Turenscape, a landscape architecture studio, which was certified as a first level design institute by the Chinese government, transformed a deserted shooting range, which was also used as a garbage dump into an affordable maintenance urban park. In the process, it provided an array of nature’s services for residents, which includes improvement in the saline alkali soil, containing and purifying storm water and creating an overall attractive visual appeal.
With more than 600 professionals under its wing, Turenscape designed the gardens and the Qiao Yuan Park in Tianjin. The latter’s site was previously deserted, heavily polluted and scattered with temporary structures and slums. Both the gardens and the park were built simultaneously to create recreational opportunities for the community of more than 10 million people.
The projects didn’t come without their own set of challenges. First on the list was how to transform a ‘dead zone’ into an interesting landscape with plenty of greenery. The second hindrance was how to make the landscape adaptable and connected to nature. The architecture studio then stumbled across the concept for the Bridged Gardens to incorporate all of the aspects it looked for. The beautiful garden now sports city windows, sunken gardens, a terraced water front, hilly slopes and a skywalk. Fused together, it creates a composed band of landscape that can provide recreational and aesthetic services.
Such efforts mark China’s seriousness in developing its landscape. The government is looking to integrate development with preservation, something that is the need of the hour for all developed and developing nations.
Via: Contemporist
