The Mangdao Eight
Mangdao River West Bank: Young Designers’ Creative Competition

Mangdao River, Yangzhou, CHN
June 2016
Group Work Competition - Best Creative Award
Team Members: Yutian Wang, Ruoyun Xu, Ruichao Li

the "emerald necklace"

As an essential component of the 48 km Yangzhou Urban Loop, the area of 8 km waterfront space is highly potential in terms of economic, cultural and spatial influence on urbanism. At the same time, the diverse contexts within the 8 km is challenging for the urban, architectural and landscape design. This project, Mangdao Eight, is not only programming the unique urban space system in the 8 km, but also putting forward guidelines for urban design in the Loop, or even all waterfront space of Yangzhou. Mangdao Eight is a leisure place for citizens as well as an attraction for tourists.

In terms of urban design, this project uses the strategy of implanting small-scale buildings which can radiate the surrounding area with its programs and therefore influence a larger realm. Eight spots are offered to citizens and tourists: a traditional Opera Courtyard for the nursing home, an Artist Village transformed from oil tanks, a Viewing Tower in the middle of a vernacular building cluster, an Agricultural-tourism Club next to fruit fields, a Riverfront Park for music festivals, a Shipyard Museum on top of retired ships, a Craftsman Market underneath a bridge, and an Ecological Institute across the wetland. Every spot transforms or reuses the valuable contexts of agriculture, industry and nature so as to respond to the site.

In terms of architectural design, all eight buildings shares the language of pitch-roof so as to recall the memory of vernacular or industrial buildings, yet employs disparate scale and material according to the specificity of each site. In terms of landscape design, eight sites are treated differently with specific ecological strategies.