The project brief calls for a Landscape Stitch to reconnect land and river across the dike. Healthy landscapes are connected landscapes, so broken connections must be mended.

The stitch is an apt metaphor for this work. However, our proposal aims further and operates with more nuance, since Huwei faces other challenges beyond its river barrier. These issues and opportunities extend beyond the immediate territory of the river and reach into the larger watershed. Infrastructure of the past has divided the landscape into a series of disparate patches and discontinuous lines, each operating independently without clear relationships.

We aim to make the plain whole once again.

Rather than a simple stitch, we propose a “Quilt” of landscapes brought together to form a new, future-forward vision for a reconnected Huwei. A stitch is a line, but a quilt is a patchwork of panels and lines whose interactions create a whole. In our proposal, buildings operate together with streets, streets with channels, and channels with rivers. These lines no longer represent a division but a connection between two more certain figures. Edges remain but are far more complicated and variable, creating an opportunity for exchange between one patchwork and the next.

Our design concept is centred around three themes: Blue network/Social Network Intersections, Complex, Productive Edges, Stronger figures

Blue network/Social Network Intersections

A successful landscape framework depends on both healthy ecological systems and social networks. Making our urban environments and dynamics as inclusive as possible is necessary to achieving resiliency. For too long, our single-purpose infrastructure has been employed at the expense of the people it supports. Social benefits were costs too steep to justify the capital costs.

Complex, Productive Edges

As we have said, edges still exist; however, we propose revisiting them to make them more diverse and complex to facilitate movement across the landscape. All urban species, whether insects, microbes, mammals, birds, plants or people, require mobility.

Stronger figures

Productive landscape spaces have clarity and purpose. As we restructure the edges, new figures will emerge that will provide space for people and nature.

The proposal merged a conceptual approach to the project brief with our professional experience to create a vision for a new Huwei Township. The conceptual approach breaks down into four sections. The first looked at reshaping the landscape to reduce flood risks. The second described a new blue/green network that will emerge from these new infrastructural installations. We then looked in more detail at specific approaches for the river, channel and retention pond. Finally, we introduced a path to the existing cultural landscape and how it will merge with the future “Water City.”