We encountered an original landscape by the Yanxi Lake in Wuhan City, 20 kilometers away from the city center, which happened to be a suburban escape. The government plans to build a lakeside park here to serve the residents of the surrounding community. Its base is different from most lake scenery in the city, it is more like an undiscovered secret place, wild and poetic, secret and elegant.
Facing this "painting", we hope that people can enter into the painting and become a part of it while watching and appreciating it from a distance. So we make the wetland as the center and divide the site into different spatial experiences according to the current vertical relationship: gazing and immersion. We hope people can experience this land from different dimensions.
Due to the abundant natural resources and complex site conditions, our project team went to the site for exploration many times in order to find the most suitable design method for the site, and each time they were attracted by a native wetland at the end of the site. The wetland is connected to the lake, and the edge cannot be seen. The big trees in the water are even more lonely and tough. The thick branches echo each other, climb upwards, and combine with the lake to form a perfect landscape painting. This scene reminds us of many Impressionist paintings of the late 19th century.
Walking down the platform and strolling on the shore of the wetland, we enter the "painting" unconsciously. Facing the lotus leaves, the forest belts and the continuous wetlands, as the one in the painting, we just want to go in and come out. Being immersed in it and just dazed is the best respect for this land. And everything is naturally filled well.
For this landscape, we decided to design with minimal intervention. When visiting the lake, the inspiration came from the lotus leaves in the wetlands. The lotus leaf is light and elegant, and our thinking extends along the lotus leaf, just like the person in the painting picks a few wide lotus leaves and sprinkles them in the lake at will, scattered into several floating platforms. It is very comfortable to sit on the platform lightly. But two more lotus leaves need and protect from the sun and rain. In this way, the "from the big scene to small" between the lotus leaf and the site has become a clue linking the artificial and the natural. After sorting out the wetland space, two lotus leaf installations and several groups of leaf floating platforms are used as the main functional venues, and are linked by plank roads to preserve the natural features of the site to the greatest extent.
The two groups of "lotus leaves" lie on the lakeside in a natural spatial form, with their openings facing the best view of the landscape. In order to ensure that the installation process does not affect the surrounding natural environment, the device uses a steel structure as the main frame, which is prefabricated in the factory and then transported to the site for assembly. The overall finish is spliced with narrow wooden strips, blending into the site with a soft and warm spatial texture.
The relationship between the "lotus leaf" and the woods is either open and stretched, or tactfully detoured, forming a rich spatial expression.
Standing at the best viewing point, feeling the beauty of nature's brush, so we set up a lookout point here and named it "Studio glazing at the lake". The studio is spread out horizontally, pointing to the center of the lake, establishing a close visual link with the lake. The bottom of the studio is half embedded in the slope, while the top floats forming a strong spatial contrast. Between the lake and the studio, "from the big scene to small room", it seems that all the lakeside scenery can be put in it at some moment. Walking down the steps to the platforms at different elevations, some hidden in the forest, some above the water, together with the studio, forming a public space for residents to enjoy the scenery outdoors.
Between the lake and the studio, "from the big scene to small room", it seems that all the lakeside scenery can be put in it at some moment.
Walking down the steps to the platforms at different elevations, some hidden in the forest, some above the water, together with the studio, forming a public space for residents to enjoy the scenery outdoors.
Looking further into the distance, when the path loses its boundary, when the mottled tree shadows become sparse, and suddenly the waves of the lake come to the surface, Yanxi Lake suddenly comes out, and the landscape fades...
Our low-intervention attempt at Yanxi Lake this time is inspired by the natural resources on site. Through the extension of the locality, the details of the environment, the scale of the installation and the creation of a microclimate, people can learn the nature while having the greatest respect for the environment. Although the landscape scope displayed on the site is only a small part of the overall lakeside green space, we hope that this practice can become a seed that will take root here and spread to the surrounding area, bringing more possibility to the construction of the overall park by the Yanxi Lake in the future.
Project Location: Yanxi Lake, Optics Valley of China,Wuhan CityProject area: 1.5ha
Design time: 2021
Completion time: 2022
Client: CR Land(Wuhan)co.,ltd.
Landscape Design: Change Studio
Landscape construction: HuaYan Guangzhou
Photography: Ning Wang
