Great New Landscapes

Visitors to the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, China, are experiencing a former industrial site reclaimed as a riverside oasis:Houtan Park. Running through this strip of green space, interlaced with walkways, a constructed wetland treats polluted river water for use at the Expo.

 

Designed by Turenscape and the Peking University Graduate School of Landscape Architecture, this riverside regeneration project earned recognition from the American Society of Landscape Architects in its 2010 ASLA Professional Awards. The other honorees range from home gardens in the United States to large-scale master plans for sites around the world.

 

Working Wetland in Shanghai

 

Houtan Park was created on a narrow 14-hectare (35-acre) site between the Huangpu River and an urban expressway. Previously owned by a steel factory and a shipyard, the site was littered with industrial debris. In addition, the river's polluted water earned the lowest grade on China's water-quality scale.

 

The Shanghai Expo Bureau challenged the landscape architects, lead by Turenscape design principal Kongjian Yu, International ASLA, to transform the brownfield into a safe, aesthetically pleasing public space — one that could accommodate the tens of millions of visitors expected to attend the Expo between May and October 2010, and then continue to serve as a public park after the event.

 

The newly constructed wetland forms the visual and functional centerpiece for the project, bisecting the linear site, with boardwalks and viewing platforms to bring visitors close to the plantings.