香港新地平线公园

Park of the New HorizonLocation: West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong KongClient: WKCD AuthoritiesCollaborators: OMA, Atelier Urbanus Shenzhen, Mc Kinsey & Company, Michael Schindhelm, Hou Hanru a.o.Scope of work: Landscape masterplan, including all infrastructure above and below ground: Park of the New HorizonDate: 2009 - 2010Size: 42 haThere is barely a quiet moment in Hong Kong Central or Kowloon; barely private space outside the home; barely a place to view the horizon, to enjoy the sunset, to see the mountains that shape Hong Kong Central and that gave Kowloon its name – unless one stands on the highest levels of a skyscraper or on a mountaintop.So if one discovers that slither of land along Kowloon’s southern edge; the man-made strip that lies right opposite of Hong Kong Central, looking at it from across the water; one cannot help but feel a breath of air filling one’s lungs. For right there before us is an open, un-defined, un-shaped space – in the middle of one of the world’s densest cities...The WKCD site’s narrowness, openness and horizontality; and its panoramic views in almost all directions are unique for Hong Kong. This is why, on the one hand, we would like the future park to stay as open and relatively flat as possible. On the other hand, one should never get a complete view of a garden from one single point. This is why we introduce topography and variation of form, why we fill the irregular fields with trees, grasses and plantings of different height and degrees of opacity.The fields (that draw inspiration from Hong Kong’s aqua culture ponds) can be filled in various ways: with low or high, dense or sparse, opaque or transparent, colourful or colourless, spontaneous or cultured plantings.. The composition of patches organize the WKCD site and connect its entirety with a system of angular paths. The strong linear paths counteract the architectural logic of the three cultural ‘villages’. Sometimes, the ‘fields’ infiltrate the village. Sometimes the ‘fields’ disappear underground, giving way to architecture.Team Inside Outside: Petra Blaisse with Aura Luz Melis, Ana Beja da Costa, Jana Crepon with the assistance of Kuanchung Huang, Sara Van Holstein, Hao Wu, Marieke van den HeuvelImages: © Inside Outside