The Axis Park is an urban rejuvenation project located in the heart of CBD in Nantong city. Due to the new city development and new needs for public space, the previous park calls for redesign in 2018. YIYU is honored to be selected for the renovation task. The new park is constructed in 2020 and reopens again in 2021.

▼南通中央公园整体概览，Overall of the park ©一宇设计

The previous park composed of an axis walkway, a large-scale linear fountain, two green belts, and multiple decorative statues along the axis. Before the renovation, the park was underused due to the lack of functional spaces for urban activities. The park also suffered from ill maintenance owing to previous high-cost design for operation. The center linear waterscape was shut down for years due to the insufficient budget to operate. The green belts was poor maintened due to overly dense plantation. The park fell into a messy and shady status where potential safety risks could reside in the city.

The layout of the park is based on careful studies of functionality for the CBD, neighborhoods, and visitors. The structure includes flexible lawns for events and markets, community gardens, a playground, and leisure areas for the elders. Two sunken parks connecting to the underground commercial street are renovated with identical red glass railings. With the opportunity, our proposal is to seek a park as a window to showcase urban lives, a gallery to curate activities. The new park includes four areas: A central event lawn, a landform performance park, two interactive sitting areas, and a playground.  People and social engagement become the keystone of the project – “ People as the scenery, and activities as the landmark”. Our design step is to replace the non-operational elements with clear and functional spaces. Such as removing the center linear waterscape with multi-functional open lawn, and replacing the decorative statues with interactive benches for sitting and playing.

The old park also had an imbalanced condition where the original design focused on decoration and grandiose, rather than functionality and engagement. Visitors could hardly stay due to a lack of sitting area and activity space. The park became a park only to look at, but not a park to stay and interact. YIYU uses this opportunity to explore the possibility of functions for the new park, and study potential identity for the new urban landscape. In the research, we discover that the surrounding of the site is highly populated. With shopping malls, office towers, and hotels in the vicinity, the location of the park could be the perfect central open space for the CBD, and a variety of urban activities can happen at the site.