Songyang County is rich in Chinese medicinal herbs, which nurture the tradition of Chinese medicine and home-therapy and cultural practices. The historical district in County Urban Center still remains the original fabric and historical buildings such as the Wen Temple, the Wu Temple, the City God Temple, the Medicine Palace, the Heavenly Empress Palace, and the Taibao Palace. The Chinese medicine recreational and cultural district has been planned centered around the Palace of Medicine to introduce practical programs such as medicinal cuisine and teaching, which also integrates with the residential and living areas in the surrounding.​ In this densely populated area occupied by private housing on narrow lanes, a local commodity trading market built with light steel structure has been vacated due to the fire regulations. According to the district planning, the demolition of this market block will open up a main access to the main Taiping Fang Road and connect to the Songyang Opera Theatre in the south. This will also provide an open leisure plaza in the dense residential area.

We became involved in the design of this public square project while the Commodity Trade Market was already undergoing demolition. The total timeline to complete both design and construction was only six weeks according to the schedule. Therefore, to adapt to the program needs, the schedule requirement, and also the planning theme of this district, we propose a “Chinese Herbal Garden” to define both living and cultural characters of the square, which will also consolidate both district planning and landscape design.