The Park and New Town upon the Fishponds——2007 Xiamen International Garden Show Park

Location: Xiamen, Fujian Province

Client: Xiamen Landscape Architecture Bureau

Area: 676 hm2

Competition: First Prize, 2004

Planning and Completion: 2004-2007

Award: Honor Award of 2007 ASLA Professional

Awards, category: Analysis and Planning

The 6th Xiamen International Garden Show was held in Xiamen in 2007. Considering future urban development, the city government decided to build Garden Show Park in Almond Bay and launched an international design competition in 2004. Atelier DYJG won the competition.The site was located in a reservoir and existing conditions was occupied by a large number of fishponds which was constructed for economic profit. In addition to a linear motor road, there were 2-meter-deep fishponds on most parts of the site. This conventional fishery production landscape conveyed rich humanistic information and invoked our creative passion. We believed this kind of topography will benefit for future Garden Show Park.

Considering the multi-functions of the planning area, we came up with an archipelagic structure, i.e. different functional areas are arranged in different islands. This distinctive structure is a metaphor of the geographical features of Xiamen and good both for flood control and being implemented step by step. It also provides a large number of waterfront spaces.

Nine islands, one peninsula and one waterfront area have been laid out on the site. Two islands are used for garden show, another two small ones for ecological bird habitats and one island as an arboretum for the nearby university. The rest of the islands and land area are reserved for urban development. The waterfront is developed into a public open space system, acting as the regional green infrastructure. As a matter of fact, this decentralized green space is much more accessible and effective than a large green space.

The garden show is held in Garden Show Island, with Cultural Island as an assistant exhibition area. The existing landscape of Garden Show Island is characterized as boundless fishponds. This site feature has been developed into a design language, which makes the context continued and reduces the budget, as well as brings about a unique space structure. Some of the fishponds have been re-used as the landscape elements, such as ponds and lakes; some of them have been filled up for construction. A fair proportion of the fishponds have been transformed into sunken exhibition spaces with parterres or gardens. Each fishpond is a separate exhibition space. The paths between the fishponds naturally separate these areas and form grid circulation system. Special terrain provides visitors rich visual experiences and three-dimensional itinerary for tours. The existing linear road has been renovated to a 2000-meter-long Garden Show Promenade, acting as the backbone of the archipelagic structure. Other spaces and facilities, such as garden show plaza, show areas, exhibition halls, amphitheatre, café area and a footbridge, have been laid out too. Replacing the exhibition gardens and flowers with trees and lawns after the festival, the Garden Show Park will be transformed into a central park of the New Town, providing recreational places for people.

The guiding principal of Xiamen Garden Show Park is utilizing the city event as a driving force of urban development, integrating the park into the city, and transforming the disadvantage site conditions into a unique landscape form. The result of the planning is an artistic and unique park and structure of new urban core area. It is a complete and artistically solution to the challenges facing the project. This planning won the 2007 ASLA Analysis and Planning Honor Award, and the jury’s comments is, "Wonderfully contextual. It makes a great effort to preserve the meaning of the fishponds and the landscape architect deserves credit for this. It makes for an interesting strategy and the analysis is very thorough."