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Houtan Park: Expo’s Green Success Story

2010-08-18 Author:Angmou Source:http://www.cityweekend.com.cn


A lot of lip service has been paid to Expo’s “Better City, Better Life,” theme, but Houtan Park is one of its real green achievements.

The 14-hectare landscape project running along the edge of the Huangpu River, Pudong side, was recently awarded the American Society of Landscape Architects General Design Award of Excellence.
 
The awards jury called Houtan Park “powerful and exquisite”.
 
The narrow strip of land between the European pavilions and the Huangpu used to be riddled with pollution and devoid of life–a brown-field left over from Shanghai’s industrial times. These days, the riverbank provides a safe haven for wildlife, a natural flood control system and a space for urban agriculture
 
The park was designed by Turenscape, a Chinese firm headed by Dr. Yu Kongjian. Yu and his team tore down the concrete flood wall and replaced it with a riprap–a stack of loose, eco-friendly rocks that requires little maintenance for a highly effective means of protecting Shanghai from potential floods.
 
“We wanted to use as many sustainable materials as possible,” Yu tells us. “The boardwalk is made entirely of bamboo and bricks that were left over from the torn-down industrial buildings and were recycled and integrated into the various new structures that were built”. 
 
The water quality in the Huangpu River has a ranking of Lower Grade V, the lowest in China. By oxygenating water with natural processes such as cascades and terraces, and introducing species of low-maintenance, fast-growing wetland plants like reeds, corn, rice and lotus, the water quality on the shore of Houtan Park is now Grade III. That means some 2,400 cubic meters of treated water can now be safely used throughout the Expo for non-potable usage. 
 
This natural method saves half a million dollars over conventional water treatment. The crops rotate seasonally and, currently, sunflowers are in bloom and rice stalks are peeping out of the ground. “It’s become a refuge for wild species,” says Dr. Yu. “Flocks of Chinese mandarin ducks and families of turtles now reside in the Huangpu River, and, as the activity from the Expo dies down, expect more biodiversity because the habitat will get better and grow”. 
 
You can read more about Houtan Park project on the American Society of Landscape Architects site.
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