case study

1. The Floating Island
 Public Space : Bruges, Belgium
 Architects: Dertien12, OBBA
 Year: 2018

2. Brugge in Belgium, also known as ‘Venice of the North’, is a city designated as a UNESCO World Heritage still
showing the beautiful old section of the city in the Middle Age.
The canal going through the city, along with the well-preserved structure, is the unique element of Brugge
providing beautiful landscapes.

3. In TRIENNALE BRUGGE 2018, OBBA intends to make a small change in these beautiful landscapes. By installing
“The Floating Island”, a pavilion in long streamlined shape floating on the water, OBBA tries to blur the rigid
boundary of the canal and guide people to the waterside.
In this way, by planning the canal as a place where visitors can walk, rest, reflect, and enjoy on the water, not
just as a borrowed scenery, OBBA attempts to connect their relationships more in three dimensions.

5. The pavilion consists of pontoons on the water, metal frames, deck plates, metal pillars, upper metal rails
connecting the pillars, and rope curtains embracing the rails.
The rope curtains and their shadows create ambiguous spaces that seem to be opened and closed at the
same time. In addition, the curtains and shadows reacting to the lights and winds blur the boundary,
repeatedly open and close visitors’ sights, and make familiar landscapes fresh again.

6. There are various spaces with different shapes and forms
in the middle of the linear trail where people can rest
quietly.
Visitors can enjoy sunbathing leaning to the tilted ropes or
rest on the wide rope hammocks looking at the clouds in
the sky. In addition, they can sit on the edge and relieve
their stress appreciating the quietly flowing water, read
books or reflect on themselves sitting in the circular space
alone, or sometimes have a great time playing on the
swings.

7. Zhangjiagang Town River Reconstruction
 Public Space : Suzhou, China
 Architects: Botao Landscape
 Area: 65000 m²

8.  The Town River is located at the south of urban core
commercial pedestrian street, and it is started from
Gudu Harbor on the east and extended to Gangcheng
Blvd on the west with an overall length of more than
2,200 meters and average river width of almost 12
meters.
 Since the early 1990s, due to the situation that nearly half of the
river was covered by house and the rain sewage directly discharged
into the river, and unable to implement river dredging throughout
the year, the river water quality was seriously polluted; for the
surrounding area of Town River, the environment was in a mess,
and the traffic was congested and the buildings were old and
shabby.

9.  The comprehensive reconstruction of Town River is
based on the concept of creating the “City Parlor” of
core commercial area and trying to implement the
pollution control and water import meanwhile recover
the natural ecology of the river; construct the
landscape meanwhile provide a more pleasant
environment; implement comprehensive improvement
meanwhile improve infrastructure functions of the
entire region.
Based on the modern simple style, the reconstruction
of Town River and Gudu Harbor is permeated with
strong water town style and features everywhere.
Designer utilizes pavilion and wall to deduce the
peculiar scenery of south of the Yangtza River---people
who lives near river. The Tsing Lung Bridge, Longyin,
the sound of tide of Gudu Harbor, the Green Fragrant
Pavilion, the bamboo raft dock, the ship dock, the
Jiyang city wall and the “Eight Forbiddens” stela and
the eight original cultural elements in the history of
Old Yangshe are embellished on the two sides of Gudu
Harbor river by creative arrangement to present the
waterfront human landscape features of Gudu Harbor.

10. conceptual sketchs