Yet another point of view
Changning District is replacing its riverside industrial zone with residential and office districts. This project is the development of three narrow parks between the new high-density housing edge and the riverside arterial road. These three, 200m long parks are the first of ten along this stretch of Changning Road. Rather than passive isolated buffers, these green spaces are designed as one active linear park encouraging residents to leave their enclaves to explore and partake in their new wider community and environment.
Three programmatic threads – sports, promenade and retreat, ensure a broad range of users. These three programs are linked to three legible paths, which help the ten 200m long parks be understood as one 2km park. The sports thread is a rubber jogging track, with periodic exercise circuit apparatus, basketball courts, badminton and other sports plazas. The promenade is a lineal plaza connecting tea-houses, pavilions, plazas and gathering areas. The retreat is a quiet green path made up of a number of narrow, intimate and isolated routes and places. Where these threads cross, or intertwine, areas of greater complexity and density emerge.
This new green public open space runs parallel to Shanghai’s renowned Suzhou Creek. To overpower the visual barrier of the road and flood-wall, a 400m long elevated walkway weaves its way through existing tree tops to provide a variety of views of the river, the park, and the surrounding district. It also incorporates a 20m viewing tower, a kiosk, rain shelters, office space and a café-tea house. When the walkway bridges a major city road it is wrapped in a screen that is formally inspired by the river’s most distinctive indigenous fish – becoming not only a major landmark for the area but also a primary symbol of the project.