WAA

Jiefang Park is one of the largest and most important parks in the city of Wuhan. When we first visited Jiefang Park, we found that it had a lot of potential, but had been left to decay, and was underutilized. One also had to pay to get into the public park, only to find obsolete installations and buildings, and polluted waters. The fact that the park was introverted and enclosed, did not add much to the urban experience of the pedestrians on the streets. We started by removing the walls that were keeping the people out of the park, opening it up to the streets. Admission to the park became free. Big shaded monumental plazas added to the pedestrian experience and gave the park back to the community.

Filtering basins were designed and installed to clean up the waters and to educate the public. Many of the decaying buildings were torn down, and new buildings were designed and erected to serve a better purpose and provide the strollers with adequate services and entertainment, while some of the existing buildings were renovated and put to better uses. The paths and plazas of the park are punctuated with many cultural, educational and entertainment kiosks and buildings to provide a diverse and “fun” experience to the public. We added a varied layer of vegetation, planting and flowers to the already existing mature forests in the park, which lowered the scale of the park a bit, making it more colorful, more humane and friendlier for people to relax, exercise, meditate, learn or just have pure and healthy fun.

© Vincent Asselin