PROJECT STATEMENT
The project is located in the old town of Xichang City, north of Qionghai, and has opened to the public at the end of 2019. Designer converted the 61,000㎡ of construction waste accumulation into an ecologically protected lakeside park. The main purpose of the design is to repair the ecological damage caused by city development, reshape the land and restore the ecological balance of the wetland. At the same time, the project creates public interest and achieve sustainability in ecological and social benefits. We intend to restore the site to a wetland ecosystem in strategy, establish a connection between nature and water bodies, result in created a resilient design that human coexists with nature. Based on design concept “recovery the wasteland’s vaitality”, three strategies for ecological restoration are proposed, including water system planning, water ecosystem construction, land restoration and forest restoration.
PROJECT NARRATIVE
The base is located southeast of old town in Xichang City, north of Qionghai and next to Qionghai tourist resort. There are many scenic spots, beautiful environment, rich landscape resources and complete supporting facilities surrounding the base. A large number of residential communities are planned within 3 kilometers of the project. As a result, citizens are convenient to travel and can quickly arrive at the project base. This project can be used as the main place for citizens to gather.
This design aims to reconstruct the woodland and waterside wetlands in the original area, in the meantime introduces a flexible multi-level entertainment and ecological base to lead citizens to the park and leaf the park to the water front.
The long-term urban construction has caused serious water pollution. The once-wetland landscape turn into a wasteland due to irrational planning and man-made destruction during urban construction. The diversity of ecological in the region was severely affected because of the damage of bank caused by the accumulation of construction waste. There are there major problems on the site through in-depth macro and micro analysis.
1）Wetlands are gradually shrinking because of soil and water loss caused by plant damage.
2）The semi-finished building products and construction waste left over from the site have brought huge obstacles to the ecological restoration.
3）The site’s biodiversity was damaged and invaded by external species.
The site has become a scar that is difficult to hide from the perspective of ecological nature and public society. It will bring more serious consequences if we do not take corresponding measures. A large number of residential areas have been planned around the site, and the ecological restoration of the project will be faced more challenges with more human activities in the base.
Based on the analysis of the status of the site and the particularity of the project location, the landscape features and tree species selection should be consistent with the features of the Qionghai. Secondly, the site will become the first wetland protection barrier in urban areas and scenic areas, and providing high-quality water for Qinghai by reducing pollution input and achieve zero discharge of pollution. We carry out dredging and terrain treatment of lake to create a variety of micro-environments, thereby promoting the diversity of wetland ecosystems. The rainwater is recycled according to the requirements of the sponge city and the types of banks in key areas are guided. Different types of wetlands, spring ponds, which guarantees rich and diverse plant communities.
1）The selected aquatic and animals will be subject to preliminary regional environmental surveys. Native animal and plant species will be selected to prevent the entry of invasive outside species into the ecological environment and unsafe factors in Qionghai and its Wetland.
2）Enriching species diversity as much as possible like submerged vegetation will choose many good indigenous varieties. Enriching underwater vegetation layers by adapting to various way of planting such as patch planting and row planting, etc. so that make stable and diverse underwater ecosystem environment with aquatic animals.
3）Improving the overall ornamentality by beautiful underwater scenery with underwater forests, underwater grasslands and clear bottoms from the view of the overall water environment landscape.
Binhu Park is arranged along the lake, providing citizens with waterside walks, children’s parent-child, and recreational places to enjoy a pleasant time. The activity area, road and water bodies adapt to wetland as a way of transition so as to protect water bodies by a method of ecology. At the same time, it provides a new model for improving the lake area environment and effectively protects nearly 61,000 new wetlands.
The recycle of rain water is in combination with children’s water play areas, rainwater gardens according to the requirements of the sponge city, which creating a rich and diversified hydrophilic experience for the citizens and embodying the symbiosis of human and nature.
In addition, the design makes full use of the topographical characteristics of the site itself, creating many attractive space scenes: In the breeze of the evening, the moon rises on the lake, and a slight starlight sprinkles in the lake. A striking cantilever lookout “floats” above the lake.
Biodiversity is both a preliminary guide and a measure of project effectiveness. Put forward biodiversity protection and management measures to lay the foundation for long-term and effective ecological benefits of the project. There are a series of leisure spaces between the trail and the wetland, where people touch nature and enjoy life.
Utilizing shallow concave naturally formed or artificially excavated green land to gather and absorb rainwater from the roof or the ground. Purifying the rainwater through the infiltration and filtration of plants and sand, and gradually infiltrate the soil to conserve groundwater or supply landscape water.
A children’s playground which is popular with local citizens. Citizens in Xichang expressed their hopes for children’s activities through a series of previous surveys. The project is based on rehabilitating the site, and more space for public participation is planned. We hope to create a diverse and symbiotic, ecologically harmonious wetland space.
Conclusion
Xingyue Lake will not only contain the mysterious treasure in the bottom of the lake, but the “resilience” of this ecological infrastructure will become a treasure revealing the future of Qionghai. With the design method of “naturalization and de-artificialization”, the “clear water ecosystem” structure is established. The use of the aquatic plant purification system to establish a healthy and complete lake water ecosystem could improve the self-purification ability of the water body and fully reduce surface runoff pollution from external sources which ensures the long-term stability of the overall landscape.
The achievement of biodiversity is guided by the food chain pyramid and built the basic habitat needed to introduce target organisms. It is designed to increase the aquatic habitat section on the base of the original coastal plant habitat so that form a rich biodiversity. Constructing elements of the food chain at various levels and enriching gradually the aquatic biological communities in the lake build a complete food chain system, are not only maintain the integrity of the ecosystem but also enrich biodiversity.
Project category: Public Project
Role of the entrant in the project: Landscape design
Project location: Liujiatun Village, Xichang City, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China
Design year: 2019
Year Built: 2019
