Rehabilitating the Pearl River Delta through Environmental Infrastructure 
{"autoplay":"true","autoplay_speed":"8000","speed":"1000","arrows":"true","dots":"false","loop":"true","nav_slide_column":5,"rtl":"false"}
{"autoplay":"true","autoplay_speed":"8000","speed":"1000","arrows":"true","dots":"false","loop":"true","nav_slide_column":5,"rtl":"false"}

DETAILS

LocationShunde, China
ClientShenzhen Urban Planning and Land Administration Bureau
Size19-kilometers

SWA participated in a competition reimagining 19-kilometers of the Guipan River waterfront in Shunde, China. While the Pearl River Delta is one of the fastest growing regions of Southern China, one of the many casualties of this growth was the delta itself. Presently, Shunde has a growing flooding problem enhanced by channelizing, condensing, and containing the river system. What was once a healthy delta with countless braided river ecologies has now been constrained into 3 river systems. SWA’s design for the Guipan waterfront reflects the local Linnan waterway and “mulberry-and-fish-pond” agricultural system as the typology of new wetlands and park spaces, expressed as a series of wetland filtration ponds. The larger setting for the waterfront park is the 72-square-kilometer master plan previously developed by SWA and focuses on five unique zones: Urban Park, Wildlife Park, Recreation Park, Office Park, and Wetland Park. The concept focuses on restoring the constructed wetlands as the armature for a multimodal city while restoring the wildlife habitats for the larger Pearl River Delta. The plan develops individual islands as pedestrian-scaled mixed-use villages that are linked by a proposed environmental infrastructure of greenbelts, water corridors, rail, trails and a multilayered transportation system. In order to maximize edge surface area and increase opportunities for exchange, the 19-kilometer Guipan River project proposes a braided system of fine-grained waterways to increase filtering capacity and reconnect the new planned City of Shunde to the river. SWA’s design for the site maximizes the social and economic value of the river by emphasizing and expanding its inherent qualities of place, ultimately creating a comprehensive and connected waterfront to rehabilitate and reestablish the Pearl River Delta as a healthy ecological landscape.

Related Projects

Golden Shoal Riverfront Park

Located along Chongqing’s Jialing River, this new linear public park offered unique challenges: a 30-meter annual river fluctuation, steep topography, and low-impact maintenance of a continuous riparian corridor. Adjacent new urban development, with attendant needs for green space, called for a flexible and resilient approach to the park’s landscape and infras...

Sava Promenada at the Belgrade Waterfront

This one-million-square-meter waterfront development, the single largest regeneration project in Serbia’s history, aims to create a world-class, sustainable destination for civic and cultural attractions, forging human and physical connections to the Sava River where none existed before. Located near the historic town center of Belgrade, the site’s...

Long Beach Shoreline

SWA prepared a land use and urban design plan for six miles of waterfront adjacent to downtown Long Beach. Through a series of meetings with local community stakeholders, we were able to determine the different needs of each district in the plan: of critical importance was the need to preserve valuable open space inland, and to maintain an ecological corridor ...

Qatar Public Realm

SWA’s set of illustrative Design Guidelines promotes a public realm that is a relaxed manifestation of the Qatari vernacular landscape, and serve to maintain the locale’s cultural integrity. Unique among the fast-growing areas of the Gulf region, Doha’s landscape reflects a balance of cultural imp...

Dubai Opera District

The elegant and the everyday coexist harmoniously in Dubai’s new Opera District, is a stylish cultural destination set to promote culture and the arts, stimulate global exchange, encourage local talent, and serve as a vibrant events venue. Dramatic view corridors lead to both to the opera house and to the adjacent spectacle of the world’s tallest building—the ...

Rio 2016 Olympic Park Competition

SWA was awarded 2nd place in the 2016 Olympic Park Competition in Rio de Janeiro for their master plan and landscape architecture proposal. The Olympics will be located on a 118-hectare site in the neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca. The underlying concept of ‘Embrace’ weaves through the design in a grand planning gesture, which both defines the Olympic Games and...

Hennepin Avenue

Hennepin Avenue is the oldest street in Downtown Minneapolis, and has gone through multiple transformations over time. The street is undergoing a major reconstruction, and SWA is leading the effort to enhance the character of Hennepin for years to come. The conceptual approach was developed through a robust public engagement process, and touches on the three m...

Fort Wayne Riverfront

As a city that was built and thrived because of its location as a crossroads between wilderness and city, farm and market, the realities of infrastructure both natural and man-made are at the heart of Fort Wayne’s history. We consider waterways as an integral part of open spaces of the City, forming a series of infrastructural systems that affect the dynamics ...