城市儿童公共空间 —广州俄罗斯方块商业广场景观设计

Tetris Square is a commercial plaza located in a corner of a large mixed-use development in Tianhe District, Guangzhou. Designers treated the site as an urban public space rather than a commercial place simply for children play, with focus on younger users and core families. Landscape architects attempt to respond to a series of community demands with a smarter proposal. Instead of a direct use of finished play equipment, designers create many flexible spaces for diverse play experience, and “hide” a grove by integrating it into the play facilities, which introduces an urban oasis attracting more visitors to the square. This does not follow the conventional design principle of commercial spaces which is to plant as few trees as possible for a maximum storefront display. The grid modules of squares make facility fabrication and installation much easier, helping save the costs and ensure the construction quality. Assembled precast concrete outdoor furniture was used extensively in the whole complex. Landscape architects designed only two basic precast concrete modules, which could be assembled into more than twenty combinations. Now Tetris Square is an urban playground for children and their parents, as well as a public space for other residents in adjacent communities. The project provides children with fun and happiness through user-friendly and naturalized design, encouraging children’s cognitive learning from the external world, and simulating their imagination and creativity in play.     

儿童友好型城市建设背景下景观设计师的职责和角色转变

More than 20 years have passed since the launch of the Child Friendly Cities Initiative. However, relevant practices in China are still insufficient and laggard. This article concludes two reasons: 1) children participation in the design process is far insufficient and results in the failure of the expression of core users’ demands; and 2) landscape architects less think of the holism of such children spaces at a city scale with considerations on city’s cultural identity and societal backdrops, and also ignore the influence of such places on children’s development. With these problems in mind, this article proposes that landscape architects can draw inspiration from the Ecological Systems Theory and Public Participation Theory, actively expanding their responsibilities in the establishment of Child Friendly City. Following that, three international case studies, namely Growing Up Boulder Initiative, Play and Informal Recreation Strategy of London, and Green Schoolyard America, are introduced to demonstrate that landscape architects should not just design proposals, but act as coordinators among different parties and leaders of innovative urban space renovation. As the integrator of the urban spatial framework, landscape architects should go beyond the design of individual playgrounds and focus on improving community environment and the spatial pattern of the whole city, in order to protect child rights and to realize integration and improvement of urban spaces.     

应对人口流失的景观设计改进方法:以美国宾夕法尼亚州约翰斯敦的 城市更新为例

Over the last 50 years, 370 large cities worldwide have severely depopulated, or shrunk, by at least 10%. Johnstown, Pennsylvania, is the third fastest U.S. shrinking city. Primarily a victim of deindustrialization, Johnstown faces severe decline issues related to depopulation, including social disorder and lowered quality of life. This project develops a framework for urban design for shrinking cities, integrating permanent functions into high development potential areas but temporary functions into declining areas. This approach allows for future development to occur through time as the city recovers. Using a GIS-based weighted overlay model to assess the threat level of decline, 4 sites were identified and strategies for each were developed. Master plans to retrofit new functions integrating residents' desire and demands into vacant / abandoned properties were then generated for each site. Rather than chasing hefty attempted quick-hitting developmental incentives, this approach will bring new long-term economic engines and lifestyles to the city due to a diversity in the economic base; it also pays attention to the social dimension of urban regeneration by providing a structured way to promoting social justice and equity in shrinking cities.     

路缘沉积:利用原型思维过程探究如何通过路缘及路肩设计截留暴雨中的路面污染物

The design of a curb is straight forward. The curb itself provides a conveyance of stormwater, facilitating the movement of water and pollutants from the street into waterways. Pollutants such as sediment, nutrients from lawn fertilizers, bacteria, viruses, pesticides, metals, and petroleum byproducts accumulate on the road surface and are released during storm events, carried to storm drains, and deposited into waterways, often without treatment. Once pollutants enter the waterways they impact the ecosystem and affect water quality. How can discrete standards—like a curb—be leveraged to have larger systemic impacts? The redesign of the curb to perform as a magnet for pollutants can challenge this design standard. During the summer of 2019, the interdisciplinary research team tested alternatives to the standard concrete curb and apron at Ohio State University. The team used an iterative design process to add patterning and crenellations to the face of the curb and apron. Using full scale models to test simulated storm events, the team collected data to evaluate the performance of 21 alternative designs. The results suggest the new combined curb and apron designs can abstract pollutants from roadways before they are detrimental to water bodies and aquatic ecosystems.     

区域“脊柱”太浦河:基于原型设计的国土空间规划补充途径

Since 2018, the integrated regional development of the Yangtze River Delta has been subjected as a national strategy to intensify the interconnection between its cities. However, the questions of open space conservation and planning have so far remained essentially quantitative and strongly informed by regulatory and top-down principles. Focusing on the vast green heart between Shanghai, Suzhou, and Hangzhou, this design-driven research project hypothesizes that Taipu Canal can be upgraded from its current technical role into a civic spine that frames new developments and articulates the rich diversity of open spaces, ecosystems, historic water towns and villages. The research adopts a crossscale method of “contextual prototypes” that combines sampling, typological classification, and prototypical design explorations in pilot projects. A reflective phase zooms out to critically assess how these prototypical strategies can be systemized as structuring principles at the regional scale. The conclusion of the article discusses how this prototypical approach offers an opportunity to inductively complement the top-down Chinese territorial planning system, which needs to cope with increasingly complex conditions and vaster scales.     

城市儿童 需要怎样的乐园?

Although there were few of play facilities or artificial toys, the author enjoyed his childhood playing with various natural plants and wild animals and is proud of his knowledge about animals’ habits and characteristics, as well as the fun of playing in the creeks, woods, and fields. Regrettably, all these precious experiences are rarely found in city today because the prevalence of artificial landscapes and industrialized lifestyles highly relying on electronic technologies has deprived children of the opportunity to explore nature. By refreshing his memory of childhood, the author reflects what kind of play space do children need in city today — borderless natural ones may be an answer.