Dragon Skin River – The Ecological Spine of Xi’an by Gossamer

Location Shaanxi province, China Client Shaanxi Xixian New Area Development Group Co., Ltd

Jury comment

Dragon Skin River is an ambitious plan that combines the site’s history of traditional architecture, the Silk Road merchant trade and agricultural innovation with contemporary environmental science and a systems approach. The multilayered response creates a new interface between the Jing River and the future two million residents of Jinghe New City, acting as both remediation of past environmental mistakes and a new world-class waterfront for the greater Xi’an region. The river is respected as an entity of flux rather than a hard line of water to be contained. Employing traditional land management techniques and interpretation of local typologies, a soft, intermediary landscape of wetlands, mounding earth and carving channels allows the river to expand and contract while mitigating the socioeconomic impacts of flooding. This project expands the field of landscape architecture to inform patterns of urban development that not only consider social and economic perspectives, but that are also innovative, ecological and systems-based.

Entrant Gossamer Project team Gossamer; GVL Group Environmental engineer – resiliency advisor Nick Lewis Environmental scientist – remediation advisor Ryan Jacka Environmental scientist – remediation advisor Simon Leake Images Gossamer