Chaoyang Park Beijing Beach Volleyball and Sunbathing Landscape Design

Project Profile

This project, taking up 14.8 ha, is located in Chaoyang Park, Beijing, the former location of Yanshan Gas Appliances Factory. When this lot was assigned for use as public green space in the urban master plan of Beijing, the factory moved away and left behind all its industrial buildings and infrastructure. The Chaoyang Park Master Plan dictated that all the buildings would be torn down. Before our design team had started work, many of the structures had already been removed, considered of little architectural value to the park setting.

Courtyards

For some of the buildings, only the framework of the outer walls was conserved, forming nine courtyards which were then became gardens or outdoor art exhibition space. These spaces are mostly located at the center of the site. The remaining walls are around 1.6 meters tall, just below the height of a person, and form a series of relatively insulated thematic gardens. This space is also used as the background for sculptures of different themes. Native plant species of trees and ground cover vegetation are used throughout these areas.

Platform

The foundations of several destroyed buildings are also conserved, and are used as a planting platform for native flowers. These platforms are mainly located at the western part of the site and are close to the water. As the original buildings here are mainly for the workers daily use, the space and foundation areas are relatively small. To retain a visual openness in the riparian area, the conserved foundation is low enough not to block the line of sight. The platform is formed by the outer wall of the foundation, and its outline is emphasized by steel plates which can be used as benches for resting.

Corridor and Network

We have designed a pedestrian network using the vernacular plants and 1970s’ architectural language as a backdrop. This network includes the original street grid as well as the newly designed pedestrian system. Based on this framework, art work including sculpture, industrial design and multi-media art are introduced and arranged throughout the site. In this art-circulation network, we introduce a multi-media interpretive system, which uses animation technology, video-movie technology and interactive electronic games to create a virtual experience of past and future. Finally, at one end of the viaduct corridor are three large gas storage tanks which are representative of the whole factory, and at the other end of the corridor there is a dock beside the lake.
One last important feature of network is a diagonal aerial corridor which runs across the whole site from North to South, called the “V-channel”. It runs 5 meters above ground and the original architecture. Connecting with the corridors inside the buildings, the “V-channel” completes the circulation network. These corridors cross the retained buildings, courtyards, and workshops, as well as pass over tree-covered streets or pathways between workshops. This circulation corridor emerges from and disappears into the landscape, and at night is lit with a colorful light, which makes it a guiding landmark of the park and a main point of interest.