Yun Sun Portfolio

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

/Rapid Urbanization/

China's Reform and Opening Up in 1978 greatly stimulated the Pearl River Delta's economic development and urbanization process. Under the influence of national policies, thousands of foreign-invested manufacturing factories were developed and attracted a crazy surge of immigration from outside Guangdong Province.

/Ecological Degradation/

In 1966, the land reclamation of the local army significantly reduced the size and changed the natural environment. The grasslands disappeared, together with precious species like the brown-winged cuckoo and the tiger frog, categorized as the national class II protected animals. Tonghu was artificialized into thousands of hectares of paddy fields, satisfying the growing population's needs.

/Flooding Risks/

The wetland's flood regulation capacity was greatly decreased by decades-of reclamation and canalization. This has caused severe floods throughout history, resulting in significant casualties to population and property.

There are several major flooding problems:

The objective of this research is to:

EXPLORE POTENTIALS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A RESILIENT LANDSCAPE FRAMEWORK THAT PROVIDES CONDITIONS FOR ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT WHILE IMPROVING STORMWATER REGULATION CAPACITY AND BIODIVERSITY IN TONGHU AREA.

In order to deepen this research topic, the following sub-questions need to be considered:

1. HOW DOES THE LANDSCAPE FUNCTION?

- How have nature and urban evolved? What are the major components of these landscapes, and how do they interrelate?

2. HOW TO CREATE A RESILIENT LANDSCAPE FRAMEWORK?

In 2010, the PRD became the largest urban agglomeration, with the highest population density, the most innovative industries, and the highest urbanization rate

In 2016, the urban population in the PRD region was 50,897,000, an increase of 20,187,000 compared with 2000. The 2015 World Bank report showed that the PRD surpassed Tokyo, Japan, becoming the world's largest urban agglomeration in terms of population and area.

Along with rapid industrialization and urbanization, factories and small family workshops started to agglomerate. Factories directly discharged the wastewater into the river with concentrated chemicals from electroplating, bleaching, and dyeing industries.

Without waterway maintenance, sand, gravel, and mud with nutrients and wastes continuously flowed into the wetland, resulting in the 0.8m lakebed rises, severe eutrophication, losing biodiversities, and toxic invasive species.

The first problem is that the current flooding defense system is a 1-in10-year standard, with soil-constructed levees, which could collapse easily in a flooding situation.

The second problem is the limited water drainage and storage capacity of shallowed and narrowed water channels. This characterizes most local canalization projects, which lack a long-term vision of climate change and sustainable development.

The project intends to build a blue-green framework implementing multiscale Nature-based Solutions to create a safe-to-fail future for Tonghu Area. The framework is based on the existing natural landscape structure and the identification of spaces for ecological-based interventions.

- What are the criteria for a resilient landscape framework to assist ecological restoration and sustainable urban development? Moreover, what spatial strategies and design principles can be applied to promote this framework?

3. HOW TO SPATIALIZE IT?

However, rapid urbanization caused many problems, such as the low-ended industrial structure, incomplete public services systems, unsustainable land use patterns, and the losing historical landscape characteristics.

The Tonghu Area (Huizhou) started its urbanization process relatively late, compared to other regions, but with an increasingly significant trend in recent years. As statistics illustrate, there were 230 industrial enterprises in 2010, with high pollution discharge but low water purification capacity. Meanwhile, industrial and residential land expansion occupied a large percentage of wetlands, fishponds, and farmlands, with intense deterioration of the ecological environment.

Tonghu became a threatening dying waterbody forgotten by people.

The third problem is the lacking of systematic green-grey infrastructures for sewage treatment, especially regarding excess nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. The eutrophication problem caused the proliferation of water hyacinth, which on the one hand, has a severe impact on the run-off discharge efficiency; and, more importantly, infringes on the living environment of other water purifying plants, ending up in a vicious circle in the long run.

By applying research-through-design and design-oriented research approaches, we restore the local landscape system to enhance the city's adaptive capacity to climate change. The robust green-blue structure will facilitate stormwater management to reduce flooding risks, mitigate water pollution, and assist the eco-transition of contemporary cities by creating a symbiotic habitat for humans and nature.

- What are the spatial interventions for achieving specific goals like stormwater management and green corridor connections? Furthermore, how can these strategies be applied adaptively to different geographical environments?

4. WHAT IS THE TAKEAWAY?

- Is this resilient framework able to scale up as guidance to address similar challenges in the PRD or even the world? And how to implement it in reality through co-work with multi-stakeholders to consider different voices and interests?

The last but the most significant problem is the gap between the ecological restoration policy and the decision-making from urban planners and designers on selecting and implementing effective design interventions.

Urbanization of the PRD, NASA

Photo Collage, source from the Internet

Biodiversity Section from Mountain to Valley, drawn by the author

FLOODING RISK ANALYSIS

/Landscape as a System/

“Involving a number of subsystems, landscape can be considered as a complex and dynamic system.” (Yılmaz,2014) This system includes many layers, such as nature, transportation network, and infrastructure. Each layer includes many elements, for example, nature includes elevation, soil, humidity, plants, animals, etc. Each layer has its characteristics and interacts with other layers. In the design, we need to understand the characteristics of each layer, but at the same time we need to see the landscape as a whole, and through some adjustments we can bring some improvements and this can lay the foundation for future development.

/Layered Approach/

The Layered approach is a way of understanding landscape as a system.

The landscape of Tonghu Area can decompose into three layers: natural, cultural, and urban. Data is collected by integrating government planning policies, literature review, and QGIS analysis.

The natural layer covers the existing green-blue network and ecological substrate, which serves as the base for resilient development. The cultural layer includes the gathering of historical villages. The urban layer integrates three typologies of industrial land and urban residential areas with different densities.

In total, there are two types of typical landscapes in this project - natural and urban. The natural landscape includes water, soil, vegetation, and wildlife; the urban landscape includes residential areas, industrial areas, historical villages, wastelands, and transportation systems. By studying each layer's characteristics and the relationship between them, we can understand the evolutionary history and the reasons for forming the natural-urban landscape of Tonghu. Furthermore, later provide ideas for identifying and solving problems.

Meanwhile, the Mapping Method is also applied. ‘The unfolding agency of mapping may allow designers and planners not only to see certain possibilities in the complexity and contradiction of what already exists but also to actualize that potential.’(Corner,2011)

The overlap of different landscape elements helps to explore the potential challenges and opportunities of the site. These evaluation analyses can scientifically support the design exploration.

/Landscape-based Regional Design Approach/

The landscape-based regional design aims to afford spatial development by applying bioregional planning and design principles that regard the urban landscape as an inclusive, dynamic and complex system. (Nijhuis et al., 2019)

For example, by overlaying the green structure and urban industrial and residential areas, we can see that the existing green spaces in the city are small and scattered, resulting in a discontinuous ecological connection in the city. However, those wasteland and class III industrial land (heavily polluted) have great potential for regeneration and can therefore be converted into urban green spaces and absorbed into the green network.

Based on natural and urban landscapes, the design helps identify strategies and interventions for the future sustainable development of nature and urban by taking advantage of the landscape's diversity, dynamics, and adaptability.

The landscape-based regional design identifies and guides the most advantageous places, functions, scales and inter-relationships for a region's sustainable growth — strategy — and sets the scene for local initiatives — intervention. Regional design forms the physical shape of regions based on knowledge of the natural and urban landscape physiology and functioning and focuses on generating circumstances for future development. (Nijhuis et al., 2019)

/Multi Scale Approach /

Because landscapes are spatially heterogeneous areas, their structure, function, and change are scale-dependent (Turner, 1989). Many designs only consider the site's function at its scale, ignoring the connectivity and interaction with other scales, resulting in the envisioned effect not being realized. Hence, the integration of different landscape scales of analysis provides a significant opportunity to develop further the scale and benefits of the existing frameworks (Taneha & Richard & William & Meta, 2013 ).

Meanwhile, landscape-based regional design is not only the landscape itself. It more reflects the significance of landscape as a crossdiscipline by integrating multiple disciplines such as water, engineering, ecology, and environmental protection. It also considers the opinions of government, people, NGOs, academic institutes, and other stakeholders to give the most appropriate regional landscape solutions.

So the multi-scale approach proposed here includes three main scales-macro scales, mesoscale and micro scale. The macro-scale aims to create a resilient blue-green network that integrates the existing landscape spaces and potential ecological value areas. The mesoscale focuses on how the different categories of design locations achieve their proposed functions. The microscale will address the specific design details, such as ecological engineering methods and the communities of native species.

The locals described it as the treasure from nature - ‘fertile soil with sufficient daylight; abundant rainfall with exotic flora and fauna.’ This superior natural condition nurtured an in tegrated wetland ecosystem with natural forests, migratory birds, native crops, domestic aquaculture, and local villagers’ symbiosis living with nature.

/Natural Freshwater Wetland/

Tonghu wetland was one of southern China’s most typical inland freshwater wetlands. Tonghu wetland locates down stream of the East River, and because the topography is low, it forms a natural catchment basin. Historically, during the monsoon season, the excess runoff rushed into the Tonghu and created a seasonal freshwater wetland. According to the historical records, there were 670 hectares of lakes, 630 hectares of rivers, and 1350 hectares of reservoirs.

/Flora and Fauna/

The alternation of monsoon and dry seasons caused continu ous water level changes in the Tonghu wetland, thus creating vibrant ecological habitats. According to statistics (Dongfenng Li, 2011), there were 203 species of vegetation, 51 species of birds, and 30 kinds of fish, 12 of which are nationally protect ed species.

/Ecosystem Services Values/

There were once extremely high ecosystem services values, including water purification and conservation, flood produc tion, drought prevention, and climate regulation.

/Precious

Cultural Heritage/

The development history of Tonghu illustrated the old Chi nese saying, “The unique features of a local environment always give special characteristics to its people.” Traditional settlements began to appear between the water and the mountain. Although it was hard to trace back to the earliest records, through discussion with historical village experts, we can preliminarily determine that most villages were developed after 1900. More interestingly, some palimpsests, such as traditional spatial patterns and construction techniques, could still be recognized even after decades of reconstruction

NATURE-ADAPTIVE LIVING

/Living with Water/

Three principles for historical villages' site selection:

1. Food Production: proximity to farmland

2. Water Resources: sufficient water supply

3. Safety: high ground level to mitigate flooding risks

These criteria explain why most villages that remained till now could be found halfway up the mountain. Within the proximity to the wetland and rivers, people can satisfy their daily needs for irrigation and drinking water; meanwhile, this improves their efficiency for domestic aquaculture maintenance. And this distance also guarantees their safety against flooding, especially during the monsoon season, when there are months of intense precipitation.

The other eco-wisdom is the morphological pattern of the historical village, a typical housing layout in Southern China because of the humid and hot summer seasons. In most situations, the houses follow the southeastnorthwest direction, identical to the summer wind. In this way, when the wind blows, the Fengshui Pond at the front cools down the air first. Since the alleys' width-height ratio is low, it forms continuous shadows between houses. This creates the so-called cooling alleys as shelters to mitigate heat impacts.

Meanwhile, there is usually a grouping of trees behind the village. It functions as the connection between villages and surrounding nature and as an ecological barrier to prevent the cold winter winds from the northwest.

LANDSCASPE NARRATATION

/1900-1960

Living with Water/

The earliest human intervention (small fishponds with historical villages) demonstrated a humble and respectful way of adapting to nature. The map shows these historical villages dotted in the mountains delicately by following and preserving the surrounding natural environment.

/Stepped Drainage System/

The whole dike-pond system could be categorized into two parts. The outer protection system contains canalized waterways, regional dikes, and sluices. The inner system is productive-oriented, including internal rivers, township dikes, canals, ditches, fish ponds, and upper-lower gates.

Upper-lower Gates:

/1960+ Production with Water/

The land reclamation started around 1960, aiming to meet the surging population's food demand. The stepped drainage system was applied locally, significantly improving the production efficiency while mitigating the flooding risks. However, the land reclamation greatly interfered with the balance between humans and nature, transforming the Tonghu wetland from the natural reservoir of the East River to the burden of flood regulation during the monsoon season.

The fish ponds near the ditch are designed with two gates to control the water exchange. When the water level is low, the regional dikes would be open to direct water from the East River to recharge the internal rivers and flow into the fishponds. When the fishponds are overfull with water, only the clean surface water will flow through the upper gate to the ditch system and then be pumped out to the external rivers.

Township Dike:

The dikes are constructed to prevent the excess water from overflowing from the fishponds into the internal rivers and sometimes also function the other way around.

Three typical problems are identified in Tonghu Area:

1. Flooding risks. The wetland reclamation and the river canalization caused the shrinking water surfaces and the shallowed urban waterways. Meanwhile, the 2010 real estate development boom nearly encroached on every piece of land without considering the preliminary planning of green-blue corridors. With the undeveloped municipal drainage system, stormwater management has become the most severe problem. These years' rainstorms have emphasized Tonghu's limited resilience capacity against flooding risks, not to mention the challenges of future climate change.

2. Water Pollution. Due to the lack of effective policy regulation and green-gray water purification interventions, the water pollution problem has become increasingly severe. It raises the financial burden on the existing wastewater treatment system, and the pollutants accumulated in the soil affect the plants' growth and further deteriorate the ecological condition. Research has proved the three main sources of pollutants: heavy polluting industries, especially the domestic family low-ended workshops; fertilizers from agriculture and aquaculture; and domestic wastewater without reparation from rainwater. Furthermore, these pollutants accumulate in the waterways and then flow into the central wetland, threatening the local biodiversity.

3. Fragmented Green Networks. After the national 'development first and protection after' period, Tonghu sacrificed its fantastic natural conditions for production benefits. The deforestation of natural forests, the reclamation of wetlands, the mechanized agriculture production, and the popularization of livestock breeding along these decades scattered the original green connection between mountain and valley. Things worsened when urban sprawl came in since it consolidated the subsurface and hardly left any green spaces to breathe. The scarce green spaces also reduce ecological services values, posing a sharp fragmentation between man and nature.

/Resilient Blue-Green Structure/

The blue-green structure aims to achieve resilient development in the Tonghu area. The man-made and natural patches (forests, farmlands, rivers, lakes, wetlands, and cities) are interconnected through ecological corridors in this blue-green network. It aims to improve stormwater management and natural restoration capacity, meanwhile, enhance ecosystem services delivery.

STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS

Stakeholder participation is crucial to enhance the operability of the plan. Taking the Chigang Village Conservation and Renewal Project as an example, the stakeholder analysis involved historical experts, villagers, and the tourism bureau, combined with the exploration results from NGOs and design workshops. This helps to draw a bigger picture of the supporting policies, funding sources, and public attention, which could facilitate the design implementation.

The basic needs of the locals who still stay in the village are worth mentioning. For example, their requirements for drainage system renovation, public spaces for gathering, and their attitudes on the ongoing eco-tourism.

Overall, Chigang Village, one of the provincial protected historical heritage, has already attracted some discussions. In this context, this design exploration could be used as a flagship project and scaled up to explore other possibilities regarding historical village rehabilitation.

/Site 1: Chigang Village

Historical Landscape Structure Blue Structure Sections

DESIGN EXPLORATION

Site 1: Chigang Village

The Chigang Village is a typical historical village with traditional nature-adaptive morphology. Although the landscape pattern has been modified through the decades, we can still recognize its original Fengshui Pattern by reading the palimpsest.

During rainy seasons, a terrain-adaptive drainage system directs village runoff to Fengshui Pond. Upper-lower gates connected the Fengshui pond to the outside aquaculture ponds. This water regulation system reduced overflow and ensured freshwater circulation.

During the rainy season, village water flows to the Fengshui ponds. Upper-lower gates exchange and replenish water with fishponds to prevent overflow and ensure water circulation.

Plan Blue Structure

Current Interfaces

Every village has a giant banyan tree as Genius Loci for belonging. The grouping of trees at the back is a barrier preventing cold northwest winter winds. The farmlands and orchards connecting the village with the natural environment.

Flood Regulation /Rainy Green Structure

In the dry season, people can pump water from the wells for daily use, like washing clothes.

Water Regulation /Sunny Public Space Organization

This blue-green structure also creates public and informal social interaction spaces for the villagers.

Historical Landscape Interfaces

This interface shows the village is connected to the pond at the back by a small group of trees.

This interface shows the giant banyan tree indicating the boundary of the village.

This interface shows how the ancestral hall front square Fengshui pond are connected.

The plan shows that the current construction no longer follows the historical layout. New infrastructures replaced some blue-green spaces and broke the ecological connections between villages and nature and also inside villages.

The interview revealed that the new generations have moved to the city for better employment and education opportunities; furthermore, those who remained also gradually moved to the new-developed multi-story apartments. The drainage ditches are abondonded. The Genius Loci is forgotten along with the faded clan culture. Fengshui ponds are filled up for either construction or vegetable growing.

The new interfaces demonstrated what is called the relic landscapes. The abandoned houses with banana trees growing inside the ruins, the broken cobblestone pavements, and the concrete ancestral square for car parking. Even the old banyan tree lost its significance as a symbol of coherence.

DESIGN EXPLORATION

/Site 1: Chigang Village

Blue Structure

The water structure is restored by reconnecting the drainage system to improve flood regulation capacity.

The drainage ditches are reactivated. On rainy days, water will be directed by the ditches from the village to the pond in front. Soft edges with aquatic plants are designed to purify the surface runoff. After dredging, the underground pipes will re-help the pond to exchange and replenish water between each other.

The water stored in the well can be taken out and used for washing clothes. The ancestral square, again, functions as the public space for social interactions.

The new interface is based on traditional ones while integrating the current needs, especially when considering promoting the heritage tourism industries. For example, in Feng Shui Square, the current concrete pavement is replaced by a new permeable flagstone to restore the traditional look on the one hand and improve the permeability on the other. In addition, the design fully respects the palimpsest of the site. The old historical relics are preserved as a heritage landscape, combined with new possibilities: enclosed gardens, mini croplands, and water landscapes.The new interfaces aim to connect the different landscape elements inside the historic village on a small scale and continue the blue-green structure to a large scale.

The transition from the back of the village to the pond can be connected by farmland. The relics marked in pink can be preserved and made into a relic landscape, together with the spontaneous growth of banana trees and other plants.

The relic can link drainage ditches between the houses for water storage and create a small water landscape. The old banyan tree at the village entrance can be combined with the typical paving of this village to make it a public square. People can gather here, chat and enjoy the landscape.

Historical paving can be reused for the ancestral square to replace the impervious concrete. A gentle slope incorporating aquatic plants achieves the transition from land to water. People can sit, lie on the grass, or approach the water through the walkway.

DESIGN EXPLORATION

/Site 2: Tonghu Wetland Restoration

In order to address the existing problems like flooding, pollution, and losing biodiversity and restore Tonghu Wetland's capacity for flood regulation and biodiversity conservation, the design aims to create an integrated landscape with different diversified ecological interfaces between different landscape typologies. It ranges from the broadleaf forest, ecological agriculture, meadows, shoals, shallow wetland, and deep wetlands. Diversified vegetation communities are selected, matching the changing water level and the topography to create a rich type of habitat.

Plan Ecological Section

Ecological Restoration Strategies

1. Enlarge the water body by flooding fishponds and farmlands and expanding the inlet

2. Create a soft ecological interface between water and land which will gradually transform into a habitat through natural succession

3. Connect fish ponds and let the water in.

Gradually, these fish ponds will turn into wetlands.Preserve the rest fishponds for fish farming and bird habitat. The high water level can help ducks survive the winter. In spring, the low water level benefits sandpipers' migration.

4. Replace traditional agriculture with ecological agriculture. Develop orchards with local fruits, like bananas, dragon fruit, and lychees, for both fruit production and ecotourism, which generate interest for fishers as compensation.

5. Apply substrate remodeling technology to pile up the nutrient-rich soil at the wetland bottom into slopes, and trees planted on top could help absorb the nutrients and form forests as habitats.

6. Enlarge the marshlands as feeding and resting habitats for birds.

‘A world of harmony and balance’

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Social-Spatial Segregation

Existing GBA Framework

Developing Global Mega Region

Competitive Polycentric Expansion

Living & Working Exploitation (disharmony) Environmental Pressure

SymbiotiCity Proposed Framework

Developing Global Mega Region

Cooperative Polycentric Expansion

Social-Spatial Justice

Living & Working Harmony (livability) Environmental Relief

Dominant Global Mega Region

Symbiotic Global Mega Region

The existing GBA framework

Now that a some benchmarks for a suitable expansion model have been aquired a critical review of the exiting GBA framework is needed. As mentioned at the beginning of this chapter the current framework of the GBA defines the area as a developing mega region. It is based on competitive polycentric expansion like the theorist Soja suggested. The fragmentation of this system leads to social-spatial segregation, living & working exploitation and an overall decrease of livability, and lastly adds unnessesary pressure to the environmental systems. This system is used to transform the GBA into a dominant global mega region, that will be recognized as the number one global economic powerhouse.

Again underlying the need for a more inclusive system that also takes into account the informal social and ecological systems.

The SymbioCity framework

Although the SymbioCity proposal has the clear goal of a balanced and symbiotic GBA the developing nature of the region is still the starting point for the new framework. The SymbioCity framework starts to differentiate itself from the old because it is based on the proces of cooperative polycentric expansion, that encourages new collaborations between the exisinting administrative zones of the GBA and is even creating the space for new functional zoning like Cardoso & Meijers (2019) discuss in their work.

The rearrangement of the administrative zones based on funtions should ensure the development of a system that increses social-spatial justice between the formal and informal actors of the region. In the GBA there are large sums of informal settlements that take the shape of industries or even so called urban villages. These places will be actively integrated into the formal urban fabric by optimizing and developing more harmonious living and working environments. These transitional spaces should become a true melting pot of the GBA’s economy and it’s diverse group of residents. Lastly, the new system should provide environmental relief for the existing ecological structures that are under constant pressure from both economy and the local society. If these strategies are combined and implemented they should result in to a symbiotic global mega region that is cooperative and mutally benificial on both a global and local scale.

ENVIRONMENTAL

Scattered Ecosystem

According to the Guangdong Greenbelt Ecological Network Construction Division, based on Supply and Demand of Ecosystem Services (2020), three main factors claimed eco-services for their purposes: construction land use, population density, and GDP. This raises the question of Environmental Justice. On the one hand, the Greater Bay Area has the potential to develop itself further and truly become one megacity. However, on the other hand, marginalized groups such as migrant workers, or even silent stakeholders such as animals and plants, are threatened to lose their liveable and secure living environment. There are already plenty of species that have lost their habitat. Many of the historical ecosystems, to name those in the city of Huizhou, irrevocably disappeared due to human activity. Although their restoration is possible, it would demand another decade of determination and restructuration of the industrial chain - a process that needs to happen.

SOCIAL ASSESSMENT

Informal Settlement

The overall image of the low-income settlements leads to tensions with higher-income neighborhoods. The low-density villages, once surrounded by high-rise buildings, stopped fitting to the overall vision of an XXI-century metropolis, despite their vernacularly and local importance. Some of the major cities in the GBA started a brutal policy to reclaim valuable lands from the villagers and replace them with typical high-rise contextless investments.

Being pushed outside the cities, the underprivileged people became even more vulnerable to their hostile working and living conditions. The new situation also affects their daily mobility, as previously, these villagers tended to settle down close to their workplaces. In the cities, lowincome people have more opportunities to run small household businesses. However, living on the edge of an urban area means that different types of jobs are available, most likely associated with production. However, working in the industry for the majority equals exploitation. Thus, the relationship between the living and working environment is essential and determines people's quality of life and income opportunities.

Main Road Railway Urban Integration Eco Services Source: Google images 2. XIASHA VILAGE Source: Google images

Urban village

Low-rise settlements |

Inadequate municipal facilities

Peri-urban village

Rural village condition

Mostly farmers

Mostly farmers Large amount of farmland Types of informal settlements 1. NANTOU OLD TOWN

Farmland preserved

Ongoing modernization of agriculture

Village Rural style Original village condition Workers migrations Transportation density Employment density

PROBLEM STATEMENT

The rapid development of the GBA brings both opportunities and challenges. Here we analyze the critical problems that GBA is posing from environmental, social, and economic perspectives.

On the ecological level, GBA is facing the same environmental degradation as many other developing regions in the world: biodiversity decline, uneven distribution of eco-supply and demand, and water resources shortage.

Environmental problem

From the social perspective, it faces the shrinking job markets, es pecially the low-ended industries, which subconsciously excluded the migratory people these decades. Meanwhile, the exceptionally high housing prices and living costs led to social segregation, which further encroached on the surviving opportunities of vulnerable groups, not to mention the poorly-connected transportation system, significantly decreasing the exchange efficiency of information and resources.

Regarding the economic situation, the informal settlement, which here mainly refers to urban villages, is the greatest threat. The complicated land ownership and the decentralized administrative system have led to inadequate municipal infrastructures, such as drainage and water supply systems, on the one hand. Residents have limited access to clean drinking water while facing serious flooding risks during the monsoon season. Previous rainstorms have caused severe casualties and property loss, but not enough attention has been paid to the problem. On the other hand, the informal economies, such as the street vending economy, used to provide primary livelihood supports for migrants but failed to incorporate into urbanization due to policy restrictions.

STRATEGIC INTERVENTION

The backbone of our interventions is the natural environment, especially water distribution and purification. A cooperative is proposed instead of a competitive model. The framework is based on a functional collaborative region, which aims to reach a fair distribution of people, resources, and opportunities.

The multiscalar approach is applied to carry out our interventions. Starting from the macro scale, the research-design explanations gradually move to zoom-in areas to look for new dependencies and shifts in power lines. The knowledge gained from the Morphological Game and Space Syntax experiment is applied to materialize the concepts. Meanwhile, the drawings and digital models are applied to picture a scenario for the future and engage the audience in visioning the symbiotic life.

Multiscale approach

Social problem

Affordable & qualitative living environment Smart industries (engaging and optimizing environment)

MESO: Landscape Formation restructuring the landscape backbones that help to shape the development.

MICRO: Interactions and Transitions between functional zones and find opportunities for regional cooperation.

NANO: Activities with a certain precision.

MINI: Liveability see how to create a symbiotic living environment from environmental, economical, and social perspectives.

HUIZHOU

DONGGUAN

SHENZHEN

NANSHA

HUIZHOU DONGGUAN - NANSHA SHENZHEN - HONGKONG

Huizhou's multi-scale planning and design aim to address three main problems: nature restoration, urban regeneration, and industrial transformation. The landscape is the backbone. The Nature-based Solutions are applied to address stormwater management problems, meanwhile, provide green-blue spaces for social interactions, stimulating urban vitality. The brownfields are reactivated as rainwater parks or community gardens, which could also hold small commercial activities like street vending or weekend markets to promote urban regeneration.

Dongguan-Nansha is urbanized due to the forest-investment-oriented electronic industry and policy-stimulated emerging industries like Computer Science. Today's challenge is balancing development and environmental protection. Even though the national policy promotes reconfiguring green-blue connections in the urban context, it is far from spatialization in practice. Wetland reclamation and river channelization in Nansha have damaged the delta's ecology and connectivity. Few steps were taken to stop urban sprawl. The vision of a symbiotic city is based on this reflection. The abandoned areas are reactivated as rainwater parks or community gardens to promote urban regeneration.

The majority of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong border transformation is carried out in three phases. The first step of the strategy is to alter the water's structure. Due to the water shortage in Shenzhen, it is essential to use water resources efficiently. Water decentralization can accomplish this objective by using water landscapes to purify, infiltrate, and store water for future use. The second stage entails giving migrants more employment options in technical fields like landscape maintenance, water resource management and service sectors like catering and logistics. The third phase is to enhance cross-border flow exchanges, which include the construction of municipal infrastructures and green corridors and exchanging people and information.

The vision for Nansha is to transform it into a new tech nological cluster of mixed living, working, and natural environments. On the ecological level, the design aims to reshape the water banks to provide an interactive and open socio-ecological environment. From a so cio-economic perspective, the reshaped urban mor phology of dense road networks will facilitate transpor tation and information exchange efficiency.

Dongguan

The vision for Dongguan is to strengthen its climate-adap tive capacity through ecological approaches. Dongguan is situated at the Pearl River Estuary, with high flooding risks and sensitive coastal environments. The primary design in tervention is to create an inundation zone to tolerate water fluctuation. By giving room for water, the soft edges reduce the wave impacts and prevent the salinization of saltwater intrusion.

Onion Diagram

The onion diagram reveals the actors' hierarchy and how they could cooperate for the specific strategic goal. The circle's core is our goal: to establish symbiosis in GBA. These strategies will interact with different actors at different levels, and these actors in multiple levels correspond to three concentric circles.

As we know, vulnerable groups are silent stakeholders; thus, placing them in a more comprehensive environmental ring is crucial to secure their right to fair living conditions. Meanwhile, the local water boards are the primary actors and all the institutions representing environmental interests.

The first circle represents actors who have the right to speak and make decisions. Typically, the government in GBA has always played a leading role. The second are actors with voices but no decision-making power, including some non-profit organizations and village owners. The third is actors without voice or power, such as informal workers. When China changes rapidly, these people are most vulnerable.

As shown in the figure on the right, the core of aggregation defines participant collaboration. The three small pictures show the cooperation in the social-environmental-economic aspect.

becomes

The new Transport Hub at the intersection of the A12-Vaartse Rijn creates opportunity for the whole zone to have better connectivity to Utrecht and Nieuwegein.

PATTERNS; THEN, NOW, NEXT?

The station is envisioned for trams in the initial phase. This enables the area to boom with economy and development.

TEAM ORANGE

to create a new identity to Vartse Rijn while connecting the new design to the historic and future elements throgh elements of design. focuses on creating harmony with the proposed Ring Park conceptby means of creating a new urban centre with quality living, better connectivity, self sufficient food production, recreation and enhancement of water quality.

DEVELOPMENTAL PLAN

New Commercial and Recreation Zone acts as a focal zone for the neighbouring housing and nature zones.

The New Central Park completes the third ring of the Ring Park vision of this region.

‘A regional sustainable food network’

Old agriculture land and inundation terrain are converted to give a new meaning in the new development. They become orchards and farming areas that produce enough food for the locality and also be able to provide for the urban areas of Utrecht and Nieuwegein urban tissues.

Expanding the Amsterdam canal, give more space for the water, the water level will go down. When it rains heavily, the water level goes up, the landscape varies between flooding and no-flooding. Also, the fish can have a rest here to lay eggs. Last but not least, this can be combined

LANDSCAPE HISTORY

for recreation and transport (Pedestrian and Bike). Edge conditions are changed in order to facilitate new biotopes and water quality.

The cultural square in the kanaleneiland creates a void in the urban mass of the neighbourhood filled with people of diverse ethnic cultures. The fringe area is famous for bad living conditions and crimes. Creating an open green strech, temporary markets, festivals, cultural exchange helps in providing the people a new identity along with the whole neighbourhood. This new spatial strip is part of the second ring.

Before Design: Vaartsche Rijn has a variety of landscape elements along the coast, as well as various historical landscape layers.

BIOTA: Multiple green patches added with different habitual characteristics, diverse vegetation structures and low maintenance.

New Urban Farm penetrates into the Hoograven neighbourhood along the old Agricultural mining pattern. This helps make the now low quality neighbourhood have a spill out space and a self sustaining nutrition flow. Forms part of the second ring of the Ringpark vision.

Kromme Rijn: Northern border of ‘Fort Fectio’ of the Roman Empire. Known for the settlements along the river.

THE RING PARK VISION

The new Transport Hub at the intersection of the A12-Vaartse Rijn creates opportunity for the whole zone to have better connectivity to Utrecht and Nieuwegein. The station is envisioned for trams in the initial phase. This enables the area to boom with economy and development.

CLIMATE: People can enjoy the comfortable environment(including the quiet atmosphere, temperature and fresh air) caused by air flow and buffer.

different housing densities, the neighborhood can reach the maximum of self sufficiency.

Food and shelter are housing blocks to maximize community gardens farming and combine fertilizer from the community interaction and bring

WATER: Build circle purification system to clean vaartse rijn, combined with the wetland area which can collect and clean residence water. This cleaned water can also be used for fishery.

THE BIG PICTURE

Vaartse Rijn: also known as Straight Rijn. Dug after the damming of the Kromme Rijn. One of the oldest canals of the Netherlands, and used to be an important waterway.

After Design: Community continues large landscape structure.

A NEW LANDSCAPE SPATIAL EXPRESSIONS

Vaartse Rijn: also known as Straight Rijn. Dug after the damming of the Kromme Rijn. One of the oldest canals of the Netherlands, and used to be an important waterway.

Merwedekanaal: a new route after the opening of the Amsterdam harbor because the Keulse vaart was not sufficient anymore. Industry along the banks.

Merwedekanaal: a new route after the opening of the Amsterdam harbor because the Keulse vaart was not sufficient anymore. Industry along the banks.

Amsterdam-rijnkanaal: After a few decades also the Merwedekanaal wasn’t sufficient anymore, the more wider and deeper Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal was dug from het IJ to de Waal.

Amsterdam-rijnkanaal: After a few decades also the Merwedekanaal wasn’t sufficient anymore, the more wider and deeper Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal was dug from het IJ to de Waal.

Before Design: Vaartsche Rijn has a variety of landscape elements along the coast, as well as various historical landscape layers.

The Ring Park Vision: The regional scale proposal aims to construct a green network to link the current ring parks and further landscape systems. The models can interact with landscapes such as ecological transportation routes, biodiversity conservation areas, croplands, and neighborhood parks.

CONCLUSION: What was once a natural river landscape where settlements took place along the nutritious soils, is now much more a waterway portrait of human artifact. Instead of altering the landscape it is now aimed to adapt to the existing flows.

Kromme Rijn: Northern border of ‘Fort Fectio’ of the Roman Empire. Known for the settlements along the river.

NEW LANDSCAPE

Rijn: also known as Straight Rijn. Dug after the damming of the Kromme Rijn. One of the oldest canals of the Netherlands, and used to be an important waterway.

Merwedekanaal: a new route after the opening of the Amsterdam harbor because the Keulse vaart was not sufficient anymore. Industry along the banks.

Amsterdam-rijnkanaal: After few decades also the Merwedekanaal wasn’t sufficient anymore, the more wider and deeper Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal was dug from het IJ to de Waal.

Three problems were identified: 1. the third circular park lacks horizontal connections and many gaps; 2. there is also a lack of connection between the rings; 3. the transportation connection from Nieuweign to Utrecht is inconvenient (no tram and bus with 30-40 waiting minutes)

After Design: Community continues large landscape structure.

The proposal aims to strengthen the connection between green spaces. It links the third ring horizontally and vertically from Nieuwgein to Utrecht.

Extend the river landscape from wet to dry. Ponds environments with corresponding in. This way, multiple created, and people spatial experience. The Orchard comes the A12, works as the residential area to block create a recreational

ORCHARDS

First,

the fish can have a rest here to lay eggs. SCALE: 1:10,000

there is also lack of connection between the rings. There is no tram from Nieuweign,

Farnoosh Bazrafkan | Gary Gilson | Kailun Qi Pu Jiang | Theo Braekman | Sun Yun | Yu Liu

border of ‘Fort Fectio’ Known for the settlements river.

Vaartse Rijn: also known as Straight Rijn. Dug after the damming of the Kromme Rijn. One of the oldest canals of the Netherlands, and used to be an important waterway.

Merwedekanaal: new route after the opening of the Amsterdam harbor because the Keulse vaart was not sufficient anymore. Industry along the banks.

The old inundation systems are converted to new role of water treatment and

The Vaartse Rijn acts as an axis penetrating through all three stages of the Ring Park and thus connecting this new neighbourhood to the historic city centre of Utrecht. The edges of the Canal becomes more navigable and usable for recreation and transport (Pedestrian and Bike). Edge conditions are changed in order to facilitate new biotopes and water quality.

The cultural square in the kanaleneiland creates a void in the urban mass of the neighbourhood filled with people of diverse ethnic cultures. The fringe area is famous for bad living conditions and crimes. Creating an open green strech, temporary markets, festivals, cultural exchange helps in providing the people a new identity along with the whole neighbourhood. This new spatial strip is part of the second ring.

New Urban Farm penetrates into the Hoograven neighbourhood along the old Agricultural mining pattern. This helps make the now low quality neighbourhood have a spill out space and self sustaining nutrition flow. Forms part of the second ring of the Ringpark vision.

Food, Water, Energy and People

The vision is to create a new identity for Vartse Rijn while connecting the new landscape structure to the historical pattern and future scenarios. The design aligns with the regional Ring Park framework by creating a new urban center with better living quality, enhanced transportation connectivity, self-sufficient food production, recreation activities, and enriched water-related functions as a local identity.

The high-density housing blocks are located around the central park and near the transportation center. The combination of floor area ratios and housing densities meets the basic housing requirements for the new A-12 community. The central green space and public space in the middle, with green roads connecting the surrounding areas, is a significant landscape features of this area.

On both sides are low- and medium-density housing, characterized by wetlands, forests, and agricultural landscapes.

VISION SCENARIOS

The new Transport Hub at the intersection of the A12-Vaartse Rijn creates opportunity for the whole zone to have better connectivity to Utrecht and Nieuwegein. The station is envisioned for trams in the initial phase. This enables the area to boom with economy and development.

Amsterdam-rijnkanaal: After few decades also the Merwedekanaal wasn’t sufficient anymore, the more wider and deeper Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal was dug from het to de Waal.

This

New Commercial and Recreation Zone acts as focal zone for the neighbouring housing and nature zones.

Water is also a crucial landscape element in facilitating urban metabolic flow. According to the butterfly landscape concept, water is used for aquaculture, recreation, transportation, and daily necessities. The community will be surrounded by trail lines, increasing travel efficiency in the reorganized transportation system. It creates a carfree environment within the neighborhood by promoting an eco-friendly way of life and promoting walking, biking, and boating among the locals.

Before Design: Vaartsche Rijn has variety of landscape elements along the coast, as well as various historical landscape layers.

DEVELOPMENTAL PLAN

The New Central Park completes the third ring of the Ring Park vision of this region.

After Design: Community continues large landscape structure.

Old agriculture land and inundation terrain are converted to give a new meaning in the new development. They become orchards and farming areas that produce enough food for the locality and also be able to provide for the urban areas of Utrecht and Nieuwegein urban tissues.

horizontal connections and has many gaps. Second, between the rings. There no tram from Nieuweign, center, only buses, but the waiting time for bus is inconvenient.

Expanding the Amsterdam canal, give more space for the water, the water level will go down. When it rains heavily, the water level goes up, the landscape varies between flooding and no-flooding. Also, the fish can have a rest here to lay eggs. Last but not least, this can be combined with multiple activities, boating, cycling and bird watching.

WIND CORRIDOR

The street makes use of surrounding high-density buildings to shape the wind corridor, so that the buildings around the corridor can enjoy a suitable environmental temperature and luxury wind. The green space in the middle of the street is dominated by low crops. Related community and agricultural programs, such as restaurants, markets, and culinary school, are located immediately adjacent to the street, creating further opportunities for economic development

Regional Scale: We visualize our site as a connection for the ring park and further landscape system. The models can interact with landscape such as the transportation system, biodiversity conservation area and green-blue structure by being part of them.

A Food-related public space

Learning from the local agricultural heritage and the traditional allotment gardens, this novel form of urban agriculture invites newer residents to engage in local farming practices, stimulating social interactions and enhancing community coherence. The pollinator paths are also places for holding programs like food markets, workshops, and festival activities, as extra bonuses for socio-economic development.

Publicsquare|Softriverbank

Waterlandscape|Aquaculture

Plant species: fruit trees and floral tree species are matched to attract insect pollination and increase biodiversity.

Self-sufficient Neighborhood

This design illustrates an innovative idea for integrating agricultural, social, and ecological heritage into the community development in Utrecht. This new vision cultivates—within the context of an evolving urban district—an ecosystem that actively supports sustainable regional food networks. The pollinator paths, the community gardens, the backyard aquaponic ponds, and the circular system represent a new paradigm of healthy urban living.

Sharingfarmingplots

Crop species: According to the soil type and soil moisture, different crop types are matched to meet the daily vegetable supply of nearby residents.

How to reconnect Nature and Local Residents through redesigning the abandoned quarry?

Natural Succession Coloring the Autumn

By incorporating plant communities into the design, seasonal characteristics are intended to be accentuated. The proposal incorporates native species native to the site as well as colorful species that could create seasonal diversity. Spring is ideal ly characterized by cherry blossoms, while summer is characterized by varying shades of green that create shifting textures and shadows. As the passage eloquently illustrates, autumn is bolstered by the colorful foliage species to evoke a warm and fruitful scene.

Compositional Scheme

Modeling as a Spatial Experiment

Modeling is the highlight of this project to test various spatial perceptions creat ed by different plant species (shape, height, volume, and density of leaves). The model uses everyday materials such as sponges, cotton, and wire to simulate spatial experiences.

More importantly, the model is a design tool that allows reflection and feedback on the design target. In the model-making process, designers can develop a more detailed understanding of site conditions, such as height difference, slope, shading, etc. This also helps designers to reflect on whether the design implementation is suitable, which might lead to an optimized design proposal by editing the model.

These diagrams explained different spatial perceptions created by boundaries, enclosurement, combination, and sequence of planting arrangements.

Site Analysis - Current Stormwater Regulation

The downpipes and slope analysis were completed through the on-site survey, which helps us draw an overall picture of the current runoff regula tion pattern and the potential water accumulation points.

Slope Analysis

UBC Holistic Living Roof & LID Calculator

As the calculation illustrates, the total runoff of the BFU campus is 5460 cubic meters, with an infiltration rate of 76.18%. Most LID treatments on campus aren’t maintained, so the actual runoff number should be 3-4 times the calculated one, or 10380-21840 cubic meters. Since most buildings lack green roofs, the roof-reduced value is low- only 2.65%. The final runoff reduced is 68.34%; this is attributed to BFU’s large number of green spaces. The proposal aims to optimize this number by identifying the potential greenery spaces. We also get the amount of water (around 41w RMB) the university needs for irrigation, which could be saved by adding underground water storage tanks to collect LID-treated water.

LANDSCAPE BIOGRAPHY

Downpipe Analysis

‘Nature heals nature’