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Architects: VIASCAPE design
- Area: 5600 m²
- Year: 2021
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Photographs:CreatAR Images, Yijia Sun
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Lead Architect: Yijia Sun
The source of Happiness: Reconstruct the public life behind Zikawei - Leshan pocket park, covering an area of 5600m2 in the very center of the Leshan community, appears to be the only integrated open space in the whole community. The pocket park is only 800m away from Zikawei, and within walking distance of various adjacent office towers, Schools, kindergartens, and universities. Before the renovation, the pocket park has an enclosed space with deteriorated conditions, making it hardly feed the current needs of public life. The concept of “shared happiness” of Leshan pocket park is weaved into the fabric of multifunctional spaces for both the elderly and kids, for viewing and wandering, playing and resting, reading and sharing. The final design covers activities for a full range of age groups while providing a holistic solution of landscape design as a public good. The design reconstructs the flourishing public life of Zikawei at the back, making the park itself act as an essential medium to activate urban public life.
Various sightseeing and experiences: Different sides of the Gallery - The 80-meter-long “shared happiness” gallery stretches through the whole site, working as a backbone linking major spaces. It exhibits an essential “Genius Loci” spirit in the green background. Not only providing shelter for the public, but the gallery also integrates multiple functions such as shared reading and maintenance, which response to issues regarding public recreation, community governance, public management, etc. The “Shared happiness” gallery recedes 20 meters from Leshan road, defining the “outside” space of the gallery. The green edge of the park fully merges itself into the green context, leaving the street front a pleasant green pedestrian environment. The edge of the park is also framed by gently unfolding tree planters that imitate the rockwork in the traditional Chinese garden. This indicates a metaphor of joy in the real mountain in nature. The design of the space at the inner side of the gallery pursues a bright, natural, and stable atmosphere. The community stage “source of happiness”, serving also as a dry deck fountain, sits in the center of the space. The stage is surrounded by other functional spaces composed of bespoke fitness equipment, kids' play, etc.
A 400-meter circular race track is designed to organically group the spaces in/out/below the gallery. Traditionally, a gallery is often employed in a garden to address a critical structural symbol. In Leshan pocket park. The gallery “shared happiness” is not only a spatial tool to create a good experience but also a media carrying multiple public elements which indicate a spirit of a place.
Contemporary interpretation: The new Shanshui Method - Presently, the course of urban regeneration in Shanghai has entered into a new era when integrated regeneration prevails. Considering the situation, the design of Leshan pocket park has adopted an overall optimized design approach. The design concept is based on combining modern behavior study and the needs of public experience, as well as digging for new inspiration from classics. Shizhen Wang described his theory in the well-known essay “A visit to Yanshan Garden”—A wonder to encounter Water rise when the mountain ends. Yet again a wonder to come across water in between the Mountain. Following the famous writer’s theory, the design proposes a concept of “mix Shanshui to build Shanshui. This concept restructures the profound design method like “gather and scatter, static and dynamic, curvy and straight， superior and inferior, open and enclosed” in Chinese traditional garden culture, presenting them with a modern design language.
Co-narrating: Pocket park as space text - The regeneration design respects the original site's spatial structure and spatial logic. Meanwhile, the landscape space is viewed as a platform to activate civic activities and to promote public life quality. The built space becomes a readable interactive object by means of landscaping and place-making. Multiple interactive elements design triggers unlimited fun activities. Following a traditional way of searching and finding, the users are able to find a corner that belongs to themselves. Leshan Pocket park regeneration project is a significant page in the book of urban “spatial context”. The park will require the user (book lover) to read, talk and evaluate based on their personal experience. The living art composed of every user’s involvement will be a true hero of the urban regeneration course and public life.
Try to define the pocket park in Shanghai - Currently, the pocket park often refers to public open green space ranging from 1000-10,000m2. This size range is below the traditional definition of a normal park. However, in the urban agglomeration area, the importance of pocket parks becomes extraordinary concerning their social, ecological, and aesthetic perspectives. The design of Leshan pocket park put a special focus on the design of the “mouth”. It exhibits an open gesture to the community and makes what happens in the street speak to what happens in the park. This will make the pocket park the most important sector in the community's slow transportation system. Meanwhile, effectively organizing multiple functions, and blending activities with natural landscaping based on the result of the user survey will make every “pocket” a stable and safe place to incorporate fitness, play, and recreational activities.
Due to the restraint of the size, a more integrated spatial structure combined with paths and recreation activities is created to improve the capacity of the park and extensively exhibits characteristics such as full range of age, full time and space, and non-exclusive. With public participation throughout the whole stages of the project， the finally built pocket park becomes a true community center with a sense of belonging. As a representative of a newly renovated pocket park in Shanghai, the regenerated Leshan park not only possesses optimized functions and a unique appearance but also put emphasizes on full-season planting design and low-maintenance ecological design. On top of all the design issues, a question was also raised regarding blending the park with the city street, merging the street as a component of the park’s system. This might be a critical point in the modern pocket park design that every designer should study.
