Nanchang Fish Tail Park
Nanchang, China
5,488,560 sf. Sponge Park
(Video)

Greenroofs.com Featured Project April 18, 2024

Image: Turenscape via v2com newswire

With this Featured Project, we’re very excited to be showcasing our first Sponge Park, the Nanchang Fish Tail Park designed by landscape architect Dr. Kongjian Yu, the world’s preeminent sponge park and sponge city designer. In fact, he’s credited as the author of the sponge city concept, with hundreds of completed projects across China.

What is the sponge city?

“A sponge city is an urban planning model that emphasizes flood management through strengthening green infrastructure instead of relying only on drainage systems. The concept is that urban flooding, water shortage, and heat island effect can be alleviated by having more parks, gardens, wetlands, and green spaces which will not only improve ecological biodiversity but also reduce floods by serving as reservoirs for capturing, retaining, and absorbing excess water.” ~ Kongjian Yu in Design Magazine

The founder of the Beijing-based firm Turenscape (1988), Kongjian received his Doctor of Design degree at Harvard, and is professor and founding dean of College of Architecture and Landscape at Peking University. Turenscape’s projects have earned considerable international acclaim for their innovative and environmentally sound designs, and the firm has won 13 consecutive American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Awards in the past 10 years, as well as 5 World’s Best Landscape Awards at the World Architecture Festival.

Nanchang Fish Tail Sponge Park. Image: Turenscape via v2com newswire

Also, Kongjian Yu is the second laureate (2023) of the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize, a $100,000 award issued every two years by the Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), a non-profit focused on landscape heritage and education. He’ll also receive two years of public engagement activities focused on his work and landscape architecture more broadly.

We at Greenroofs.com are very fortunate that Kongjian Yu was one of our esteemed Keynote Speakers at our Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2019: Connecting the Planet + Living Architecture – People, Projects & Design. He presented: Sponge City Starts with Home Green.

Are you lucky to be going to Porto, Portugal on May 23-24, 2024 for the “Nature Based Solutions Summit: Urban Edition“? Make sure you don’t miss Kongjian Yu! On May 24 he will be presenting a MASTERCLASS on Nature-based Infrastructure for Resilient Cities.

Excerpt from the Greenroofs.com Project Profile:

Nanchang Fish Tail Sponge Park. Image: Turenscape via v2com newswire

In the city of Nanchang within the Yangtze River flood plain in east-central China, Turenscape transformed a badly abused 126-acre landscape into a dreamlike floating forest that regulates stormwater, provides habitat for wildlife, offers an array of recreational opportunities, and gives local residents a new way to connect with nature.

Nanchang Fish Tail Park is part of a larger effort by the landscape architect Kongjian Yu to show that it is possible to open up new space in cities, not just for people, but also for nature, and for powerful forces like monsoon storms that drive critical natural processes.

Nanchang Fish Tail Sponge Park Site Plan. Image: Turenscape via v2com newswire

Inspired by the ancient concept of farming atop marshland and by simple cut-and-fill techniques such as the floating garden system, the coal ash dumped on site was recycled and mixed with dirt from the fish pond dykes to create numerous islets. At the same time, a lake able to accommodate two meters of water-level rise was created, providing the capacity to catch a full 1 million cubic meters of stormwater inflow.

Various species of emergent, floating, and underwater plants adapted to large water-level fluctuations are planted around the edges of the islets and cover the otherwise muddy shorelines during the dry season. Tree species that are able to survive a flood-adapted forest include common bald and pond cypresses and dawn redwoods, and lotus plants provide highly efficient lake cover.

Nanchang Fish Tail Sponge Park. Image: Turenscape via v2com newswire

Nanchang Fish Tail Sponge Park. Image: Turenscape via v2com newswire

The central forest on the water, which is submerged during the annual monsoon floods, provides opportunities to explore nature with immersive marsh experiences.

The waterfront at the periphery of the park with its flood-resilient boardwalk is designed to accommodate 20-year floods and provides a recreational zone with natural playgrounds, beaches, fountains, and lawns. There are also terraced constructed wetlands designed to filter urban runoff.

Nanchang Fish Tail Sponge Park. Image: Turenscape via v2com newswire

More

The floating forest provides holistic ecosystems services and offers a replicable model of designed urban nature for regions with monsoon or variable climates. Built in just 3 years at an extremely modest budget of $4 US per square foot, the former heavily polluted urban dumping ground and fish farm has been transformed into an urban oasis that has quickly become one of the most-visited urban parks in the entire city.

The Nanchang Fish Tail Park recreational waterfront with its island-jeweled lake is where the city and nature meet.

Nanchang Fish Tail Sponge Park. Image: Turenscape via v2com newswire

Year: 2021
Owner: Nanchang Gaoxin Real Estate Investment Co., Ltd
Location: Nanchang, China
Building Program: Park
Type: Sponge Park
System: Custom
Test/Research: Yes
Size: 5,488,560 sq. ft.
Slope: 1-5%
Access: Accessible
Privacy: Public

Nanchang Fish Tail Sponge Park. Image: Turenscape via v2com newswire

Credits:

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT & DESIGN LEAD:
KONGJIAN YU, TURENSCAPE

TURENSCAPE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS:
YU HONGQIAN, FANG YUAN, TONG HUI, JIA JIANMIN, WANG DEZHOU, WANG HAIXU, WEN XUANYING, CHEN LINGXUE, WANG RUI, BANG MINGHUI, CHEN YUNYING, ZHANG CHAO, LIU JIAHAO, WANG XIAOMING, ZHANG FAN, JIANG JINGRI

TURENSCAPE ENGINEERS:
YU FUMIN, ZHANG WEI, CHEN RAO, LU ANG, LI BO, HUANG SONGTAO

Nanchang Fish Tail Sponge Park. Image: Turenscape via v2com newswire

See the Project Profile

See the Nanchang Fish Tail Sponge Park to view ALL of the Photos and Additional Information about this particular project in the Greenroofs.com Projects Database.

Nanchang Fish Tail Sponge Park. Image: Turenscape via v2com newswire

Did we miss your contribution? Please let us know to add you to the Project Profile.

Would you like one of your projects to be featured on Greenroofs.com? Read how, and remember we have to have a profile first! Submit Your Project Profile.

Love the Earth, Plant a Roof (or Wall)!

By Linda S. Velazquez, ASLA, LEED AP, GRP
Greenroofs.com Publisher & Sky Gardens Studio Principal