Background
An urban square, “SHIJIE” in Ordos of China, is renovated into an all-people-friendly smart sports park to satisfy the necessity of increasing seeks for a healthy lifestyle using the public place. The original square is surrounded by the residents’ zone, office building, school, and exhibition center, with a critical position and convenient transportation. There is a themed sculpture, “SHIJIE,” at the 19.7 ha site, the open-edge urban square assembled with a few public amenities and several gate-ball courts already. However, the lack of a rational configuration, professional runway, and enough service space and place resulted in an unwelcome green land in the city and low efficiency in use, which needed a prompt renovation.
Translate the Land Fabric of Ordos
The Ordos spread over 87 thousand square kilometers, including the desert, steppe, and river context. Translating this unique and coexisting landscape into a spatial experience in the park is the core idea of responding to the locals. Micro-terrain outlines the dunes’ shape; grassland as the steppe elements became the background; runway curves in a river trace.
All-Age-Friendly Comprehensive Sports Park
Deriving from the local land’s texture, it generates the layout and a circulation path. The circular runway symbolizes the river in the field as the first step. The Blue runway represents the Ordos sky and the river’s reflection. The renovation remains the themed sculpture line in the park’s central axis and strengthens a main runway. Grouped by age and habit of exercise, the five arrays in different functions came out. The comprehensive ball courts areas, which are posited in a naked area in the northwest, include football pitch sizes for 5 & 7-A-Side, basketball courts, tennis courts, badminton courts, and table-tennis courts, which satisfy the multiple activity scenes in professional and leisure; the kids’ square in the core of park; the bike field prepared for teenagers; the comprehensive exercise area for elders; the original gate ball courts area get a new gate ball stadium for some professional games; the alkaline soil area which is not available to planting is used to a seasonal place, a sand pits area in summer and skating tracks in winter; a new water pool and gestured-based fountain could flourish the activity with water in park.
Wonderland for Kids: Hug with Nature at a High Sight
The new architecture in the park’s center, which integrated the kids’ playground and the park’s management service center with a roof lookout, overlooks a panorama of the park and the city. The façade of the service center building assembled some recreational equipment for kids. The first floor contains an office, sports store, shop, café, and restroom.
Views of Thresholds: Plants and Shading System
The parkland mainly keeps the character of woodland pasture in the Ordos, allowing some human-scale leisure activities in the grassland, such as camping, a popular lifestyle nowadays. Landscape designers keep the original tall arbor trees well-growing and remove the dense and messy bottom bush that obstructs the sight of open surroundings. This transparent landscape layer benefits from feeling psychological safety in this environment and keeps a connection with people and nature. Plant new native species with original Populous alba, Pinus sylvestris, and Salix matsudana to grow a local plant ecosystem. The shading system keeps one design language. Besides the natural tree shelters, membrane structure pavilions posit in different places and spaces, support a comfortable rest area along the tracks, and encounter space in a walkway to help care for kids, which applies to diverse scenes. Those shelters with curved ridge lines and directions keep out the sun all day and respond to the dunes, especially in Ordos.
Smart and Healthy habitats
The Park applies an intelligent management platform to operate and interact with people. It includes a smart lighting system, navigation system, smart jogging loop, and shading system assembled with smart equipment. Those smart systems help build personalized and sustainable services for foreseeing planning. Healthy habitats focus on water circulation and green materials.
Design for People
Since its completion and opening in August 2023, the park has attracted many people to visit and play there, especially the kids’ playground, which has obtained many favorites. At the same time, the football pitch has hosted some professional games, which have been a landmark park in Ordos. Considerately under the control of a strict budget, the designers complete this challenge of the park’s renovation together with clients, cooperators, and contractors. Ordos Smart Sports Park accomplished the nature of an urban square for people, led a trend toward a healthy lifestyle, and let the green lands return to everyone’s routines.
Project information
Location: Ordos, China
Site area: 19.7 ha
Design period: Dec 2021 – Mar 2022
Construction period: Jun 2022 – Jul 2023
Opening: Aug 2023
