Bridged Gardens
In the northern coastal city of Tianjin, a series of differently designed gardens form this L-shaped linear open space located along a small man-made lake between the city and the large Tianjin Qiaoyuan Wetland Park. The site was heavily polluted, littered, deserted, and scattered with slums and temporary structures. The Wetland Park and Bridged Gardens, built simultaneously, were designed to improve local water and soil conditions, to create an environment that celebrated the local culture and its landscapes, and to provide recreational opportunities for the surrounding communities of more than ten million people.
This open space presented challenges and opportunities: How could it be made adaptable to the site’s soil and water conditions? How could the city be connected to the nature? How could a boring, flat landscape be made interesting?
Bridged Gardens combines five areas—Hilled Gardens, City Windows, Sunken Gardens, Terraced Waterfront, and a Skywalk—to create a banded landscape that provides ecological and recreational services as well as aesthetic pleasure.
The regional landscape was once rich in wetlands and salt marshes; many were destroyed by decades of urban development and infrastructure construction. Because it was difficult to grow trees in the saline and alkaline soil, a thick layer of balanced soil was imported. But uniformly raising the soil level would have blocked the view to the water’s edge from the city. The landscape architect approached these challenges by digging earth to expand and integrate the existing ponds and swales into a linear lake, and by using the excavated soil to make eleven terraces, which were then bridged with the Skywalk. A series of city “windows” were created between the terraces relinking the city with nature: From the city one can see through the windows to the sunken gardens, and from the gardens one can see back to the city.
In the valleys are nine sunken gardens and at the crests are ten hilled gardens connected by a red elevated path that intersects ten watchtowers. To allow park users, including the elderly and handicapped, to easily enter the gardens and the Skywalk from the street, the hilled gardens gradually slope to the waterfront.
Both the “windows” and the high areas provide views not only to the water (fed by rainwater and a nearby canal) and lower gardens but also to the man-made wetland beyond. Finally, the continuous red bridge Skywalk links each hilled and sunken garden with separate watchtowers offering fresh perspectives on the wetlands and gardens.
At the waterfront edge, cascading planters hold diverse species. The inclined stone retention walls are composed of varying rocks excavated in the region. The sum of references in the park to its region makes it embody its own place and culture.
The nine sunken gardens, 20 by 8 meters (22 by 9 yards), are inspired by the local land patterns: water borders, crop fields, harvested farmlands, flowing rivers, marshes, meadows, and pastures. The designer reinterpreted these patterns with sustainable materials and contemporary designs that allow people to make playful use of the space.
Five meters above the main garden level, large observation walkways run the length of the site and provide ideal points of observation and connection among the various small gardens and the large park beyond, with vistas of the water and the metropolis of Tianjin.
Site area: 10 hectares (28 acres) within the 22-hectare (54-acre) Tianjin Qiaoyuan Wetland Park
Designed May 2005 to October 2006
completed May 2008
