A colorful and bold people-oriented design brings a community social plaza to the people of Hefei, Anhui, China where community space is dominated by empty plaza or complicated trails. Sitting in a developing district, Paradise Art Wonderland mainly serves for millennials who have a unique pursuit for high-quality urban living environment. Responding to the increasing demand for social interaction in community space and elements of local culture, the design inspired from the flower of the city – the Pomegranate in terms of form, color and composition combined with a dynamic social-oriented landscape program to provide the diverse and dynamic experience of modern urban living from urban plaza, civic parks, pocket parks to play and sports recreation within a singular location for all ages to encourage interaction, community connectivity and communication.

The initial phase consists of three main programmatic zones, urban pocket park, children’s play and community park, creating places where children, adults and the elderly can come together to enjoy the vibrancy of urban environment. Standing as the centerpiece of the urban pocket park is the Pomegranate Flower, a light sculpture inspired by the stamens of the pomegranate flower, reaching high to create an identity within the urban context. On the surface, rhythmic paving representing the wind and the shape of bespoke planters representing the petals blowing in the breeze with the active seating edges provide calm and comfortable clusters for people to stay and connect. The compacted and layered arrangement of the pomegranate fruits provides reference for the shade shelters, creating an interesting shadow play on the ground whilst providing a backdrop to the entire space and allowing visitors and residents to rest in comfort during the hot summer months. The children’s play space offers a diverse play and learning experience within limited space. Mountain-shaped play mounds with layered tonal change imitate the gradual changes and layers of the rock strata, while raising from a blue and green carpet represents the river and forest. Integrated within the spaces are the opportunities for children to come together and build essential social and physical skills: areas of free play and fixed play are all designed to encourage social interaction, sports, activity, challenges and development.

Community gatherings and public events all take place in the grand community park. The open public park is complimented by a collection of spaces for people to come together in smaller social groups. Within the spatial compositions there are large open multi-functional lawn, pergolas and feature seating to create a semi-enclosed space while small plazas, with tree clusters, form a multi-functional shaded space for group gathering. Setting a brand-new exemplar of community space in China, Paradise Art Wonderland Phase 1 has drawn much attention since its opening day. Integrating the diverse urban living experience and human-scale space program, the design creates a place encouraging social interaction to improve the community space and public life driven by our ambition for the betterment of our cities.

 

Entrant office name: ASPECT Studios
Role of the entrant in the project: Landscape Architect
Website: www.aspect-studios.com
Other designers involved in the design of landscape: n/a
Project location (Street, City, Country): Xue Fu Road and Wen Zhong Road, Hefei, China
Design year: 2017
Year Built: 2017

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