CLD: As humans expand their habitats, natural ecological structures (such as species) and ecological functions (such as material circulation) are inevitably disturbed and sometimes difficult to reproduce. In order to maintain the site characteristics, if we simply rely on some artificial covering and modification measures such as certain input and continuous maintenance, the consumption of such modification tends to increase in the broader space dimension and the longer time dimension.
Almost half of the original forest and farmland was replaced by residential areas. Among them, the life experience pavilion is planned and built in the mountains on the northeast side of the mountain. After completing the sales task, it will finally open to the public with the function of the cultural hall. The two remaining parts, the camphor cultivation forest belt and the original fish pond on the mountain, have become the landscape resources with local characteristics, and the lake-scenery is also a desired site feature in the city.
It has to be acknowledged that the use of “embellishment” means can create a desirable scene in a small area in the short term, but we also often see the loss of competitiveness due to the lack of maintenance of exotic valuable species; A forest path that is “occupied” by nature without clearing weeds in time; Because of energy consumption, the waterscape that only opens on major festivals every year is even abandoned due to disrepair … If we want to maintain the site features such as green mountains and rivers for a long time, we may need to first realize that the internal stability of the ecology depends on the reproducibility of the composition and function of the ecological structure and implement the minimum human management.
Ecological structures such as species, number of species, and distributed diversity are related to the ability of the ecosystem to resist disturbance. The more diverse the structure, the less the whole ecological chain will be affected by the destruction of a species or a region after the interference. Even if the disturbance affects the ecosystem, new ecological development direction will be generated spontaneously.
Before development, the local ecosystem is stable. Due to the demand of vehicle accessibility in residential areas A and B, the mountain between the two residential areas needs to be excavated. In order to retain the original species base as much as possible, we choose to excavate the saddle of the mountain and use vertical baffle wall instead of slope cutting to minimize the excavation.
The sidewalk road leading to the experience pavilion adopts an overhead wooden plank road, which reduces the interference to the original mountain and also provides the possibility for more plants to grow.
At the same time, we also need to introduce the time dimension into the design strategy, realizing that ecology is a complex whole with life. What we often refer to as “ecological balance” is not the rigid balance in a certain region at a certain point in time, but the sum of the development and decline of various patches in a certain region’s ecological environment over a long period of time.
In the original site, there were isolated islands formed by the camphor group or the paulownia group. We hope to weave each isolated island into a whole through the strategy of mixing local tree species of different tree ages at the edge of the isolated island.
Combing the middle and lower ground cover, adding new shrub species, and planting in patchy mixed mode. In the next few years, after competition among varieties, the development and decline of varieties themselves and even the influence of animals, the ecosystem will spontaneously build up its adaptability to ” balance”.
Due to the construction of the residential area, the catchment area of the lake body is about 1/3 less than the original. When the evaporation rate remains unchanged, the amount of water flowing into the lake body decreases, and the material circulation is difficult to balance. The water level will gradually decline.
We hope to restore the ecology of the lake area through the strategy of rebuilding material circulation. Collect road rainwater, which will enter the lake body after the biological purification of rainwater garden; Set up gullies on the northeast side of the mountain to collect the mountain runoff and enter the lake body after the water lily pond sinks into the sand. A stream connected to the water system outside the site at the northwest corner is brought into the reservoir after being oxygenated through the rock stage of the crab catching pool; In order to ensure the original surface runoff on the west side, sidewalk roads are set up in the form of overhead wooden plank roads.
In the design of the site around the life experience hall, we hope that people can experience the relationship with nature in a diversified way. We want to establish a boundary between artificial space and nature by hide, inlay, traversing, clipping, encompassment, introduction, lift, and integrate: we use low walls, high walls and fences, for making people realizing of their own realm, at the same time, producing multi-dimensional from nature: sometimes nature is the rich shade of woods, sometimes is a cluster of branches out of the wall, sometimes is a spreading shrub …
From the original reddish-brown soil of the site, special texture is formed by layering and compacting.
Landscape Architect: CLD
Project team: Zhang Haoqing, Liu Kun, Liang Yongde, Teng Wan, Li Jiaji and Gu Yueping
Other designers involved in the design of landscape (architects and landscape architects):
Architectural design: 9m design
Interior Design: NEWSDAYS
Lighting Design: ZhuoYing Lighting
Dry Landscape Design: July Cooperative
Project location (Street, City, Country): Yiwu, Zhejiang, China
Photographer: Hai Chang, Li Yao
Design year:2017
Year Built: 2018
