Turenscape, one of four finalists to compete in the Minneapolis Riverfront Design Competition.

1. TURENSCAPE
BEIJING, CHINA
TIANJIN QIAOYUAN PARK
The Adaptation Palettes
Through regenerative design and by changing the landform, the natural processes of plant adaptation and community evolution are
introduced to transform a former deserted shooting range used as a garbage dump, into a low maintenance urban park. The park provides
diverse natural services for the city, including containing and purifying stormwater, improving the saline-alkali soil, providing opportunities for
environmental education, and creating a cherished aesthetic experience.
TURENSCAPE
BEIJING, CHINA

2. TURENSCAPE
BEIJING, CHINA
This is a park of 54 acres in the northern coastal city
of Tianjin, China. Rapid urbanization had changed a
peripheral shooting range into a garbage dump and
drainage sink for urban stormwater; the site was
heavily polluted, littered, deserted, and surrounded
with slums and temporary rickety structures
that had been torn down before the design was
commissioned. Densely populated at the south and
east boundaries, the site is bounded on the west
and north sides by a highway and an overpass.
Challenges
In early 2006, in response to residents’ call
for environmental improvement of the site,
the municipal government of Tianjin engaged
Turenscape with the difficult task of an immediate
transformation of this degraded site.The overall
design goal for this project was to create a
park that could provide a diversity of natural
services for the city and the surrounding urban
residents, including containing and purifying
urban storm water, improving the saline-alkali soil
through natural processes, and recovering the
regional landscape with low maintenance native
vegetation. The park also provides opportunities for
environmental education about native landscapes
and natural systems, storm water management, soil
improvement, and landscape sustainability.
Design Strategy
The regional landscape is flat and was once rich in
wetlands and salt marshes, which had been mostly
destroyed by decades of urban development and
infrastructure construction.
Inspired by the adaptive vegetation communities
that dotted the landscape in this region, the solution
for this park was called the “Adaptation Palettes.” A
simple landscape regenerative design strategy was
devised, one that included digging 21 pond cavities
varying from 33 to 132 feet in diameter, and from 3
to 16 feet in depth. The garbage was handled in the
earthwork. Some cavities are below ground level
and some above on mounds.
TIANJIN QIAOYUAN PARK
Tianjin, China

3. TURENSCAPE
BEIJING, CHINA
During the rainy season, due to the shallow
groundwater, some cavities turn into water ponds,
some into wetlands, some into seasonal pools, and
some stay as dry cavities. Through the seasons’
rain wash and filtration, the saline-alkali content of
the soil in the dry cavities improves, while nutrients
deposit in the deeper ponds that catch stormwater
runoff.
Diverse habitats were created and the natural
process of plant adaptation and community
evolution were initiated. Seeds of mixed plant
species were sowed initially to start the vegetation,
and other native species were allowed to grow
wherever suitable. Through the seasons’ evolution,
patches of unique vegetation establish in
correspondence to the individual wet or dry cavities,
and various pH values.
Within some of the cavities are wood platforms
that allow visitors to sit right in the middle of the
vegetation patches. A network of red-colored
asphalt was designed to weave through the
palettes. Along the paths is an environmental
interpretation system that gives descriptions of
natural patterns, processes, and native species.
TIANJIN QIAOYUAN PARK
Tianjin, China

4. TURENSCAPE
BEIJING, CHINA
Conclusion
The park achieved its goals in just two years.
Stormwater is retained in the water cavities,
allowing diverse water-sensitive communities to
evolve. Seasonal changes in plant species occur
and integrate with the beauty of the “messy” native
landscape, attracting thousands of visitors every
day. In the first two months of its opening, from
October to November of 2008, about 200,000
people visited the park. It is a successful park which
changes throughout the year and is constantly
visited by the community.
This project helps to define the new aesthetics of
landscape today, defined by a continuous evolving
process. Untidy forms, unplanned biodiversity, and
nature’s “messiness” expose a genuine beauty
that enriches the landscape. The ecology-driven
adaptation palettes have become a valuable and
remarkable site for the community of Tianjin.
TIANJIN QIAOYUAN PARK
Tianjin, China
TURENSCAPE
BEIJING, CHINA