DLC: The Huangpu River, excavated by Lord Chunshen during China’s warring states period (475 BC – 221 BC), is a 113 km long tributary flowing through Shanghai, China. Due to its unique geographical location and vast maritime advantages, the Huangpu River from the mid-19th through the end of the 20th century became an ideal location for factories, docks, stacks and warehouses and was also the best choice for large-scale industry such as shipbuilding.
As part of the current newly designed 45 km greenbelt strategy along the banks of the Huangpu River and a history of marine industry dating back to 1862, a former Shipyard centrally located on the Pudong bank of the river is converted into a 1km long riverfront ‘Performance Park’. Terraced lawns and amphitheaters, marsh & meadows and a network of bike paths and walks are terraced up from the river’s edge as part of a solution to create public space and to contain seasonal flooding.
Name of the project: Shanghai Shipyard Riverside Park
Short Office name: DLC
Role of the Office in the Project: Landscape Architect
Website: www.dlcdesign.net.cn
Architect: OMA (Exhibition Centre) & Kengo Kuma (Music Hall)
Client: Shanghai East Bund Investment (Group) Co., Ltd
Project location: Huangpu River Edge, Shanghai China
Completion: 2019
Currently, the Shanghai Shipyard Riverside Park is only part of a wider vision to promote vibrant urban life on the banks of the Huangpu River. Recently the municipality of Shanghai commenced a 21 km large scale reconstruction of the Huangpu’s east bank that has opened the landscape of Shanghai onto the river’s edge. By establishing a new living interface between neighborhoods and the river, a new series of public spaces hosts a succession of riverside parks and linear paths that animate the river banks previously unoccupied industrialized edge. The Huangpu’s newly established link and relationship to the city has created a new breath of life and a new identity with Shanghai and its symbolic skyline.
Given the importance of Shanghai Shipyard Riverside Park as part of Shanghai’s new riverside appearance, it was important that the design of the park include the government’s larger vision for both sides of the river. The master plans river strategy; ‘main path’, ‘discovery path’ and ‘sports path’ continue through the park and are adapted to blend with a vernacular found with the industrial past and the immediate site around it.
Multi-leveled cascading gardens with a network of paths, pedestrian bridges, amphitheaters, cascading rain gardens, meadows and undulating lawns convey a red-themed planting scheme of Sapium trees (Sapium sebiferum), Japanese Blood Grass (Imperata cylindrica ‘Rubra’) and Muhly Grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris).
from landezine