PLAT Studio

PLAT Studio is a research–driven and design-oriented landscape architecture and urbanism firm based in Berkeley, CA. Our practice works to bring sustainable and timeless places to life by integrating landscape architecture, urbanism, and research in our process and by thinking about our designs as a part of a larger environmental and societal framework. We strive […]

Parkhill Greens Just twenty minutes from Shenzhen’s urban districts, the Jiangangshan neighborhood has become the city’s largest, most desirable low-density residential area. Over twenty years, it’s grown from garden houses to plans for high-rise apartments. However, ecological, civic, and recreational infrastructures haven’t matched this residential growth. To address this, the district government and a land-owning […]

The project aims to create a new open space linking the existing community park and the new Community Center in Huilongpu District, Shenzhen, China. It seeks to unify fragmented spaces along a newly constructed roadway, surrounded by a new residential development and the existing park. It addresses challenges like increased housing density and connections between […]

Kunshan City, 20 km northwest of Shanghai, is a historically rich watertown. 8,000 hectares of the city are covered by water due to extensive canals, driving its transition from irrigated farming to a 70% GDP contribution from innovative industries. Kunshan West, between Kuilei Lake and the old city center, is expanding. A North-South axis links […]

Parkhill Greens project is a hub that unites local residences, schools, retail, streets, and pre-existing vegetation into a socially and environmentally conscious green space. Located on a hillside of the Jiangangshan neighborhood in southern China, this newly constructed 7,000-square-meter public realm presented challenges in its relatively small size and slope condition. The landscape architecture team […]

CONTEXT AND CONCEPT Historically, Hangzhou is famous for its scenic landscapes, poetry and tea cultivation. Today the city is highly urbanized with some protected national parks, but vastly reduced green space overall. Hangzhou’s rising population has pushed the urban boundaries outward, where city dwellers seek space to breathe, exercise and engage with each other and […]

Nestled between Shanghai and Suzhou, Kunshan is a rapidly developing county-level city. The recent influx of industry workers and residents, drawn to the newly flourishing tech district of Kunshan West, has created a need for conscious inclusion of green infrastructure to support the district’s core as it continues to grow. Typical of cities in southern […]