Soutok, A Productive "Sponge" Park
| Location: | Czechia |
|---|---|
| Status: | Competition Finalist |
| Date: | 2022-2024 |
| With: | Turenscape / Yu Kongjian |
Suburban parks should have three functions: ecology, production and life.
In response to the challenges of frequent flooding and private ownership of land, the design proposes a new agricultural landscape model, which has three major benefits: ecological, economic and cultural.
For ecological benefits, ponds and wetlands are introduced to improve flood regulation and increase water storage capacity. When floods come, ponds can be used to receive more water, create different types of habitats, and increase local biodiversity.
For economic benefits, a variety of livelihood options are provided, in accordance with the current situation of land ownership. Gravel and sand excavated from the pits, that can become ponds, can be sold for economic profits. In the long term, the ponds can be used to raise fish and ducks or carry out water sports. The cultivated land can continue to be cultivated, or it can be used to breed livestock, plant fruit trees or operate homestays.
For cultural benefits, a recreation ring is implanted in the farmland to connect the slow rhythms of agricultural and hydrological systems with places for recreation, forming a diversified and vibrant recreation space. As a result, the existing farmland landscape on the site will gradually transition into a new agricultural model, which has both production functions and landscape recreation functions, and can regulate and store floodwaters and adapt to nature.
The above-mentioned principles of landscape change are implemented across the site. The existing golf course becomes a floodable area, and the mine pit is transformed into a large regulation pond, so as to form the final suburban park landscape according to local conditions. This is a suburban park with an ecological regulation capacity, a suburban production function and a place for cultural recreation, which will create a new model for European suburban landscape park.
The bold, neophilic character of the design reflects the character of the site itself: “a dynamic, and ever-changing, neophilic floodplain, and in it dynamic, ever-changing, neophilic suburbanization."
