Kunshan Demonstration Park Realmstudios

Location

City of Kunshan, China

Client

Kunshan Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau, City of Kunshan

Jury comment

The Kunshan Demonstration Park provides a functional and aesthetic parkland that integrates urban water management and public access. Located along the Yangtze River Delta megalopolis in eastern China, the newly constructed ecological park reframes a formerly neglected and polluted infrastructure corridor and canal into a carefully articulated contemporary landscape. The project reconstructs ecological communities alongside recreation, bringing exercise and play together with a “waterscape” that is overlaid by richly textured, quilt-like plantings.

The project exemplifies skill in bringing materiality and grading together to craft the land–water interface. The focus on clean water and the development process have enriched the lives of local inhabitants, who have incorporated the parkland into their routines.

The project illustrates a harmonious outcome in which plantings and landscape are choreographed to celebrate community and locally productive lands, while also showcasing a range of ecologically based water-treatment technologies.

Design practice Realmstudios Collaborators E2Designlab, BKK Architects, Monash University, CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, Jiangsu Provincial Planning and Design Group Photography courtesy Realmstudios