Meeting Axis Deers Pocket Park by Yu-Jung Tseng is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2024 A' Design Award in Landscape Planning and Garden Design Competition Category.
IronLandscape Design· 2024
Meeting Axis Deers Pocket Park
Client: Millet Design Co., Ltd.
A' Design Award Winner in Landscape Design Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #152859The Design
About Meeting Axis Deers Pocket Park
This project aims to reshape the site's environmental impression, respecting local topography, meeting societal needs, and creating a low-carbon garden that integrates with nature. Focused on native low-altitude Taiwanese plants, the design reflects flatland terrain, with local wildflowers and grasses enhancing the scenery and fragrance. Surrounding grasslands exhibit unique ecosystems akin to low-altitude mountain forests, featuring a "Fern Garden" beneath trees, highlighting Taiwan's diverse fern kingdom ecology.
The Recognition
About the A' Design Award
Meeting Axis Deers Pocket Park is an Iron A' Design Award winner, a prestigious recognition granted to good designs that meet the professional and industrial requirements expected from well-designed creations. Iron winners demonstrate great skill, high specialization, expert understanding, and creative capacity of their creators. Meeting Axis Deers Pocket Park is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished creation that is practical and innovative. This Iron A' Design Award-winning design integrates industry best practices and has competent technical characteristics linked with know-how and talent. Meeting Axis Deers Pocket Park is respected for its thoroughness and is designed to provide quality of life improvements that help make the world a better place.
Interviews
Design Interview
What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
The inspiration for my design comes from the expansive grasslands of Fengyuan hundreds of years ago, where plains were adorned with flowers and roamed by herds of deer. The main principle behind this design is to demolish old buildings, introduce extensive green spaces, and reshape the environmental landscape of the old city area, aiming to enhance the quality of life and environmental standards for community residents.
What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
Our main focus in designing this work was to create an open space amidst the chaotic urban landscape of the old city, including a pocket park and edible garden, to promote public welfare and a healthy lifestyle within the community. Our goal was to provide facilities where residents can enjoy relaxation, exercise, and social interaction in a natural environment.
What are your future plans for this award winning design?
Our future plans for this award-winning design include further enhancing the urban landscape with a more natural wilderness style, continuing to emphasize the use of green spaces and the promotion of social welfare functions.
Grand Interview
Your innovative approach to carbon sequestration in Meeting Axis Deers Pocket Park promises to absorb 158 tons of carbon dioxide annually - could you elaborate on how this remarkable achievement influenced your plant selection and layout decisions?
Trees and plants have a significant impact on carbon sequestration in the environment. To enhance the carbon storage capacity of the site, we adopted a multi-layered ecological planting strategy, increasing the density and diversity of vegetation to improve carbon sequestration efficiency. During the design process, we specifically incorporated forest-like landscapes around the buildings and reserved large green spaces to simulate the effects of urban reforestation. In the future, a single open space can achieve carbon sequestration comparable to that of an urban park.
The historical connection between Meeting Axis Deers Pocket Park and the ancient Haluton landscape is fascinating - how did this century-old ecosystem inspire your specific choices in wildflowers and native plant species?
The site is located on Haluton, surrounded by abundant natural resources in the nearby mountains and forests. However, these resources have long been overlooked due to population growth and urban development, leading to extensive deforestation and near-total loss. Using landscape techniques to restore greenery and reconnect the original ecosystem will improve the city’s natural environment as a whole and restore ecological diversity. We selected perennial edible wildflowers, shrubs, and trees from local native plants, carefully considering their adaptability and sunlight requirements for replanting. The focus is on herbaceous plants to meet the dietary needs of the deer that once inhabited this area.
Meeting Axis Deers Pocket Park integrates four distinct garden zones - could you walk us through how the Herb Garden, Moss Fern Garden, Cherry Blossom Garden, and Prairie Garden work together to create a cohesive ecological narrative?
Zoning is based on the sunlight requirements of plants, grouping those with similar characteristics into clusters. For instance, drought-tolerant and flowering plants are arranged in full-sun areas, creating an open landscape resembling a prairie, while shade-tolerant ferns and trees are planted in low-sunlight areas to evoke a forest ambiance. In terms of pathways, interconnected routes guide visitors through each zone, presenting a cohesive landscape narrative. This design transitions from the open prairie to the tranquil forest, offering a multi-layered visual and psychological experience.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- The site of the project is hidden within the chaotic and low-rise residential area of the old city. Old buildings will be demolished in order to create green spaces and to promote public welfare in the community.
By maximizing and optimizing the area of green space, the pleasant pedestrian corridors and pocket parks, which are accessible by the public, bring nature and recreational activities into the daily life of the community residents . - Dimensions & Packaging
- The area is 1980 square meters.
- Tags
- Landscape design, Open space, Pocket park, Healthy lifestyle, Edible garden, Meadow garden, Rain garden
- Production Technology
- 1. Carbon sequestration: 158 tons of carbon dioxide will be absorbed every year through the design of a large numbers of vegetation.
2. Air purification: The green coverage rate will be increased to 90% to effectively prevent the pollution of dust and PM2.5.
3. Edible Garden: The garden provides the necessary spices to the kitchen and can be developed as a source of organic food for animals.
4. Social well-being: Space for social interaction and relaxation will be increased to encourage people to go outdoors or to participate in healthy activities.
5. Rainwater management: A large area of grassland is designed to collect heavy rainfall and infiltrate and drain it into a storage tank. During the rainy season in summer, it can collect up to 46 tons of rainwater, which can be used for automatic sprinkler irrigation. - Design Challenge
- One of the design challenges of this project is to transform the originally narrow and difficult-to-access alleyways into pathways that are accessible for firefighting and disaster rescue purposes. Additionally, large green spaces are designed as the evacuation areas that are necessary during the emergency or natural disaster.
Another challenge is of this project is the heavy rains in summer and the water scarcity in winter. The project aims to provide sufficient water resources for irrigating the garden in all kinds of weather condition throughout the entire year.
By using locally recycled stones and gravel, the flower beds and terrain are constructed with curved variations, showcasing local characteristics and reducing costs. - Research
- The diverse planting design creates a community garden that serves not only as a vibrant ecological habitat but also as a pocket park that helps mitigate the urban heat island effect.
- Inspiration
- The inspiration comes from the landscape existed in the same place more than a hundred years ago. The site of this project is in Fengyuan district, which was also known as Haluton in the old time. Hundreds of years ago this area was covered by flowers and grassland with fertile soil that extended for thousands of miles. It was common to see graceful and agile deer inhabiting the meadows and forests of this area. The design concept inspired by the Axis deer is to provide the residents with the experience of multiple atmospheres of joy, soothing, elegance and ethereal and be embraced by the poetry and memories of nature in the old time.
- Project Duration
- The project started in January 2022 and is expected to be completed in June 2024. It is located in Fengyuan District, Taichung City, Taiwan.
- Operation Flow
- The project intends to demonstration some strategies of healthy living against the extreme climates. The green trees are used to soften and blur the boundary formed by the old buildings in the surrounding, while improving the environmental quality and extending the value of ecological sustainability. Considering the users' needs, the space is divided into four garden zones. The concept of this project is conveyed through four separated garden areas, namely Herb Garden, Moss Fern Garden, Cherry Blossom Garden and Prairie Garden. Each of them has their own characteristics and functions.
- Image Credits
- Millet Design Co., Ltd.
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