flowing gardens

Xi'an, China

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flowing gardens

Xi'an, China

Firm

YEAR

2011

Xi'an International Horticultural Expo 2011within P L A S M A STUDIO and GroundLabThe International Horticultural Expo has become the instigator and hub for the redevelopment of a large area between the airport and the centre of the ancient city of Xi’an. The city is known as the home of the Terracotta Army of the Qin Dynasty (210 BC) and is also a major business centre for the vast interior of the Chinese mainland.Plasma Studio, in collaboration with GroundLab and local landscape practice LAUR Studio, were successful in winning this international competition following invitation, with a radical self-sustainable vision for the future. The project entitled 'Flowing Gardens' creates constant functionality using water, planting, circulation and architecture harmonized into one seamless system.The proposal comprises of a 5,000m2 Exhibition Hall, a 4000m2 Greenhouse and a 3,500m2 Gate Building sitting in a 37 ha landscape that will house the International Horticultural Expo and create a park for Xi’an City as its legacy. The opening will be in April 2011, and is expected to receive approximately 12 Mio visitors.Flowing Gardens unfolds into many sinuous paths, creating a network for intermingling circulation, landscape and water. The given topography and its existing slopes were used as inspiration to draw out paths in a similar way to roads around a mountain, negotiating the steepness with gradients. These paths vary in width, ranging from main walkways and arteries to towpaths. The patches between these paths become zones for various types of planting and natural wetland areas.The three projected buildings, located at the intersections of the major pathways, are developed as articulated nodes of the landscape.LandscapeThe project proposes a hybrid of both natural and artificial systems, brought together as a synergy of waterscapes. With consideration to the amount of water required for irrigation, the project seeks to introduce various technologies and designs found in nature, but it is enhanced to meet the specific needs of the new population. Rainwater is collected and channeled into the wetland areas, where natural plants and reed beds clean and store the water, which is then later dispersed and used for irrigation. These integrated wetlands and ponds are also to be enjoyed by the visitors as oasis and points of personal tranquility.More complex water cycle issues are sensitively controlled with the introduction of grey and black water treatment systems.The proposal aims to make use of the initial investment and organisation during the exhibition, to set up an environment, which becomes autonomous in function and character. The gardens transform the artificial and natural conditions of the site into a sustainable system that becomes increasingly more maintenance-free once the exhibition is over, allowing the park to develop into a new model, or paradigm, within the horticultural industry. The park area manifests in a variety of scales in association with very specific planting, surfacing and lighting, thus providing a sandbox of experiences that ranges from the very intimate with semi-enclosed, shaded, self contained, one- to-one spaces, to the very public with communal plazas formed by wider pedestrian paths with full exposure to the sun and a direct, uninterrupted visual link to the main hiatus on the site.

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flowing gardens

Xi'an, China

flowing gardens

Xi'an, China

Product Spec Sheet

Collaborating Firms

Team