In Park City, a new city outside of Chengdu, China for 100,000 people, simplification is progress. Programmatically organized like an onion, Park City fosters diverse experiences by capitalizing on daily circulation paths. Residents pass between culture and commerce as they travel to and from work, offering an intermediate ground for socializing and recreational activities. Park City utilizes typical building typologies and rational construction techniques. The scale and amount of program offers a massive, dense and diverse cultural and retail environment. An urban landscape provides space for communal events and recreational programs.
The scenographic entity that the context unfolds is for everyone. The blanket of nature which drapes the center of Park City injects a natural landscape back into the city and adds even more back than once existed. Each roof-scape is accessible for recreation, leisure and exploring. Nature grows without constraints in some areas, and is more manicured and controlled in others. The programs below are accessible from both the street and the roof, creating unique experiential scenarios.
The orthogonal urban grid offers a simple and generic street dimension, which allows existing cultural traditions to expand and flourish, just like the nature above. Here cultural events and social activities have seemingly unlimited spaces and venues to come alive and encourage residents to partake as spectators and performers in the intangible events which define the cultural lifestyle of Park City.
With the abundant open landscapes above, and the densely packed streetscape below, Park City offers a diverse range of spaces for community and neighborhood characteristics. The qualitative and experiential contrast offers the community the ability to experience dense shopping areas and plazas rivaling the best in New York, and at the same time a quick walk or elevator ride away and inhabitants can find themselves wandering through the natural roof, a space so vast and diverse it can only be compared to natural forests and national parks.