Yujidao Park Enhances Waterfront Landscapes with Ecological Design in Sichuan

Sichuan, China

Project Status: Built

Year: 2021

Size: 1,000,000 +

Budget: Unknown

Yujidao Park, Sichuan – “People say that I live in the city, and I suspect that I am in the mountains.” In the bustling city of Nanbu Shuicheng, the Yujidao Park offers a tranquil escape from the hustle and bustle of urban life. Nestled in the mountains, the park balances the need for river channel development with a commitment to preserving the area’s natural beauty. With its de-stylized approach to landscaping, the park seamlessly blends into its surroundings, creating a new and enduring waterfront landscape. Throughout the changing seasons, visitors can enjoy the park’s natural beauty and reconnect with the city’s water-loving heritage. Whether strolling along walking trails, picnicking in the lush greenery, or simply taking in the scenery, Yujidao Park offers a peaceful retreat for all who visit.

Architizer chatted with Yun Du, Partner and Architectural Director of BLVD International, to learn more about this project.

Architizer: What inspired the initial concept for your design?

Yun Du: In view of the current waterfront scenery belts that focus on wetland construction, the lack of transition from inland to riverside vegetation has led to the emergence of strong traces of design belts along the river and lack of focus on landscape ecology, the Yujidao Park project ingeniously completed the transition zone design with primary forests, replanting forests, artificial plantations and characteristic landscape forests, perfectly realizing the conversion from native to artificial landscape.

This project won in the 10th Annual A+Awards! What do you believe are the standout components that made your project win?

In the principle of respecting nature and advancing into the future, the design puts forward the concept of “Jialing Pearl, Brilliant Riverside”. It introduces the Jialing River water into the site to create Nanbu Shuicheng where the city is on the water and the water is in the city, creating a closer and intuitive experience for people’s water activities.Through combing the terrain of the landscape and planting vegetation, it strengthens the natural context, and strives to form a glorious picture scroll of Nanbu in a trance. The construction of modern landscape venues effectively improves the quality of the city, and finally creates a special space for people’s leisure, image display, and festival celebrations in Nanbu.

What was the greatest design challenge you faced during the project, and how did you navigate it?

The essence of this method focusing on the construction of riverside wetland is to save the functional solid River, but it leads to the lack of the overall transition from inland vegetation to the riverside, which makes the interaction between human and nature, natural pattern and spatial pattern form a state of separation.

The design adopt the low-impact forest landscape design strategy, through the terrain combing and planting of the land landscape, combined with the aesthetic of Chinese garden, engineering design under complex geological conditions, rainwater design, so as to build a harmonious living environment that integrates culture and city, industry and city, and scenery and city.

How did the context of your project — environmental, social or cultural — influence your design?

Nanchong City, Sichuan Province, where Yujidao is located, is a pilot city for comprehensive reform of small and medium-sized cities in China. It has rich natural resources – Jialing River and profound historical cultural heritage – Dayu culture. Based on the site conditions, we have planned the Southern scenery, Shuiyun Tianjie, Dayu trace, Aquatic forest and Dreamland, to form an Southern picture scroll.

What is your favorite detail in the project and why?

Before the design, we conducted a three-month survey of the site,20 groups of families were selected for touring route tracking, and their staying time in each scene and response to the site were recorded, so as to sort out the activity distribution area of the citizens on the site, then quickly establish the demand model.

From the daily situation, we found that the park has become the ideal place to observe the changes of local seasons and the diversity of residents’ activities. The local Photography Association has also spontaneously formed a photography team to record. Every weekend, many citizens come here for parties and picnics, and some elderly service centers also take this place as a must-go for relaxing. Both men and women, young and old, can get happiness and satisfaction from it.

Team members

Design company: BLVD International Chief designer: Yun Du Landscape designer: Chulin Hu, Weiyi Li, Lemsic Arnel Manga, Gang Huang, Li Zhang, Jin Li, Weishui Lin, Yingru Hou, Songhong Cai Architecture Designer: Deliang Liu, Yinghong Tan, Dela Liu, Zhe Tao Construction company: Beijing Orient Landscape & Environment Co., Ltd. Photograph: Shining Laboratory

For more on Yujidao Park, please visit the in-depth project page on Architizer.