Project Statement

The Enning Road Urban Renewal Project is an endeavor to rejuvenate a historic neighborhood in downtown Guangzhou City. The Enning Road neighborhood is unique yet typical – it represents the comparable challenges of such community in today’s urban China, rich in history, poor in growth planning, high density, severely run-down infrastructure, shrinking population of young generation and declining living quality. Here the landscape architecture took in charge of the public space. Through the overhaul of the infrastructure, creating dynamic and safe public space and identifying the key elements that matter to the community, the landscape architecture acted as simultaneously a creator and preserver. The historical Banyan trees play pivotal role as the organizer and generator of the spaces and activities as well as a connector among history, present and future. With the involvement of the policy makers and the developers, the project transformed a declining neighborhood to a dynamic, open, modern and culturally unique urban oasis.

Project background

The project is on the north side of Enning Road and southside of the Lichi Bay Chung. Particularly the renewal endeavor covers the community in the middle part of the road. Back in 1931, the neighborhood was one of the most flourish neighborhoods in the region. The street was “wide enough for eight sets of sedan chairs”. Over time, the building density grew to meet the ever-increasing demand from the growing population. Without functioning infrastructure, the untreated waste water and run-off rain water poured into the bay from the northside of the Lichi Bay Chung. It overwhelmed the sewage system. The aging architecture and crumbling infrastructure overshadowed the legacy of the Enning Road neighborhood and drove young generation away. By the 2000s, the community had become an urban decay and dominantly resided by elderlies.

Issues of the site

Based on the given development strategy for mixed-use project, in the new neighborhood, the residential component should take 45 per cent of the total area, the new public facilities should include creativity studios, retails, preserved intangible cultural heritage, waterfront eateries and homestays. The landscape design needed to respond to the following challenges:
For decades, the unruly and spontaneous growth of structures in the neighborhood has taken the space that were meant for public and created a network of narrow and unsafe passageways.
As a number of historical banyan trees have grown into the essence of the community, the enormous aerial roots also had become an obstruction in the streets, the public space and the buildings physically. A new strategy was needed to preserve the trees yet integrate the enormous roots into the overhaul of the infrastructure.

The safety issue and the pollution had kept the waterfront becoming valuable space for the community. The design was needed to address these issues, reclaim the value of the river and transform the waterfront to a dynamic space.

The modern infrastructure was virtually not existing in the Enning Road community. The arrangement of the sewage, the rainwater drainage, freshwater supply pipes and other wires should be planned and gone underground. It would also free the street space to the community use.

Solutions

The design team identified the potential spaces that could be transformed for community and public use. These spaces include the intersection of the streets, the triangular in-between space formed by the streets and buildings, the space surrounding the preserved banyan trees and the freed space from the overhaul of the water management facilities. The design took a strategy that is flexible and contextual, which is to transform these in-between and marginal spaces to inviting places where people linger, conduct social life, rest, and to be inspired. For example, the design introduced a variety of seating in different heights, types and integrated into the enormous tree roots to these spaces, and several water features. As the design makes the spaces highly adaptable to a variety of behavior patterns, it gives the individual spaces distinctive and memorable characters.

Banyan tree is one of the staples of the communities in southeastern China. However, in the urban context, to accommodate the ever-growing aerial roots is problematic. According to the different circumstances, the Banyan trees’ aerial roots grow and appear differently. The design needs to be systemic yet flexible. For example, there was a large Banyan tree growing against a wall. The aerial root had grown taller than 4 feet high. The design removed the wall and created a platform seating in various heights to house the root. With the combination of small water features, the Banyan tree became the anchor in the center of the courtyard that is the living room for the community. It transformed the obstruction to a generator. For the trees on the side of the street, a series of seating were designed to house the roots, the quality of the streets and sidewalks were highly optimized, as the roots of a few large trees in between buildings had grown together, the design consolidated the space for the trees and the activities around them.

Among multiple treatments taken to improve the water quality in the river, the landscape architects designed a series of plant floating islands on the both sides of the river. A waterfront walking system for pedestrians was established to increase the accessibility to the river. The railing system was integrated to ensure the safety. The design also included trees along the riverbanks to create a green waterfront passageway.

Infrastructure is the foundation of the design. Without the overhaul of the infrastructure, the renewal of such neighborhood is only superficial and non-lasting. The first step of the design was to rearrange and add the necessary water management system. The sewage, fresh water supply, and other pipes and wires have gone underground. The move freed the space in the already overcrowded streets to allow the planting of new trees. New rain water drainage system was introduced. The pattern of cast iron drain grate is inspired by the local architectural elements on the traditional windows. The boulder strip stones were reclaimed for the use of the pavement. The texture offers the road and space identities and connection to the history.

Location:
Guangzhou，China
23.114160, 113.238683
Design year:
11, 2018~09,2020
Year Completed:
10, 2020