Urban Design

Concept Masterplan for the San Cun Cun Area Hangzhou China

The Hangzhou Coral is a concept masterplan for the San Cun Cun Area in the North Eest of Hangzhou, China. Commissioned by the Hangzhou Zhongyi Ecological Environment Engineering Company.
Hangzhou is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang Province in East China. It sits at the head of Hangzhou Bay, which separates Shanghai and Nin. The Hangzhou metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in China and numbers over 21 million inhabitants. The San Cun Cun Area, is around 60 hectares (150 acres) and houses over 100,000 people.

To fight back the urban sprawl and protect the original agricultural identity of the area, one of the last green area’s within the city (next to the Unesco Heritage Site, the West Lake), we have been asked to design a planning instrument to facilitate future developments. By densifying area’s that currently hold 50% or more dwellings and light industry and reversing the urban sprawl back to agricultural use and landscape in area’s that currently hold less than 50% dwellings, a new map of the area emerges.
The introduction of a new set of waterways linking up with existing waterways to form the Hangzhou Coral, strengthens and shapes the new boundaries between landscape and city. The coral creates a new form of poetry in the landscape, unforeseen accidents and lots of interesting possibilities for both urban area’s and the surrounding landscape.

By creating a strong sense of place, imbedded in the surrounding context, the likelihood of positive interaction and engagement increases. People visit and choose to stay and invest in a place primarily because of the positive experiences they have in the public realm – the streets and spaces. These meaningful experiences are the capital of urban design and a key factor in generating future commercial value. Since we’re all part of and competing within a connected worldwide economy, a successful place will need to generate moments that have the potential to instantly go global through social media. The Hangzhou Coral is a good example of a poetic concept with a strong sense of place, generating meaningful experiences to make sure the younger and future generations continue to appreciate and to invest in Hangzhou.

At EYKING we’re good at coming up with poetic concepts that have a strong sense of place, generating meaningful experiences to make sure the younger and future generations continue to appreciate and to invest in our cities.

Bart Eyking holds an Urban Design, Msc (Hons) degree of the Delft Technical University in the Netherlands. He has over 20 years of experience as an urban designer, working on significant national and international integrated developments and master planning projects in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and China. He was instrumental in the development and implementation of the vision for the Deltametropolis of late Dirk Frieling, a prominent Dutch urban planner and civil servant. To transform the Randstad  (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht) to a city region of international size: a European Deltametropolis. As director of Urban Design at Bo.2 in the Netherlands he was responsible for the urban design of various urban expansions, town centres and public spaces.

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