Taihu Landscape and Urbanism Phase I
The site is in a suburban district of Beijing planned as a new town around a high speed rail station on the Beijing South-Tianjin Line. BAM was invited in to the architectural planning process and worked closely with client to develop an initial landscape planning concept for 11 of the plots, and then contracted for landscape design of the 6 key plots. Plots 020 and 032 are constructed according to the original design vision of the project.
After negotiating changes in project equity, the client re-hired BAM and the architecture teams to redesign the remaining four plots as office-based blocks. The remaining four plots are constructed by a separate builder and supervised by a separate management team within the client.
A major design challenge in this project was the lack of a good connection between the plots. Existing architecture left minimal space for landscaping and therefore challenged BAM to come up with high-impact designs for the hardscapes guiding the city dwellers across the plots to the green and activity zones.
BAM’s landscape planning for first phase of the Vanke Taihu Landscape unleashes the full potential of the existing plots that surround the project location. Catchy and colorful urban landscapes interlink the isolated plots into a cohesive district with at its heart a cozy, green pocket park. Residents and visitors to the shopping and office areas can relax in the shade of this green oasis or have fun in the colorful play zones.
For Vanke Taihu landscape BAM uses patterns, to shape the landscape between the buildings, scaling the large plots and open spaces to human-centered places for various community activities and play environments. On top of that, for this project BAM introduced and designed movable furniture and play equipment such as tetherball, ping-pong tables and balance swings. Colorful highlights in paving, installations and play elements help navigate the spaces between the buildings creating unique sceneries and bringing the otherwise dull urban jungle to life with a bang.
LOCATION: Beijing
LANDSCAPE AREA: 102,800m²
TYPE: Landscape
YEAR: 2015-2019
CLIENT: Vanke