Beijing Xingfa Cement Plant Quarry, founded in the early 1990s, was an exposed scar of rocks between the Great Wall and Yanqi Lake. The site was reconsidered as a picturesque rural park in relationship with the adjacent cement plant, which also underwent revitalization. Established around the region’s culture, research, and technology-oriented outlook, the design focuses on the potential to host a variety of outdoor culture and art events. With a sunken water space and an elevated rock space, the park’s mood ranges from meditative to otherworldly. Carefully considered cliff stabilization, rock reuse, industrial accessory reuse, water collection, and planting strategies allow the park to become an incubator of ecology, culture, and art, reversing a history of negative landscape intervention.
The project’s initial phase encompassed a hiking trail to establish an initial image of the project. Reused quarry rocks and carefully considered natural water management methods portrayed a highly ecological integrated landscape. A hilltop pavilion provides phenomenal views, setting an industrial memory with corten steels and strengthened design languages.
Bayou Greenways
As one of the largest U.S. cities, Houston’s sprawling, car-centric infrastructure is underpinned by a vast arterial system of over 2,500 miles of bayous—an untapped ecological feature that could redefine urban life.
Recognizing this potential, the Houston Parks Board worked alongside SWA to develop a visionary plan for nine central bayous as an i...
Changchun Tractor Factory Renovation
Once-industrial site re-imagined as a commercial complex with eye-catching public spaces.
For this site, which was once an industrial tractor factory that epitomized Changchun’s thriving industrial past, SWA provided conceptual design through implementation to transform the former of Changchun Tractor Factory into an eye-catching public realm that fulfi...
Homecrest Playground
Part of the larger Shore Parkway, an 816.1-acre collection of parks that stretches across Brooklyn and Queens, Homecrest Playground originally opened in 1942 with a baseball field, basketball courts, handball courts, and benches for community use. This park redesign focuses on providing different playground and recreation amenities for surrounding residents. “Ichigaya Forest” is the privately owned, publicly accessible, major open space on Dai Nippon Printing Company’s 5.4-hectare new world headquarters in the Shinjuku Ward. Vertical development and production modernization that extends underground was made possible the creation of this 3.2-hectare open space. Over half the site is now planted wi...Ichigaya Forest