Gold Landscape Planning and Garden Design · 2020
Riverside Study Landscape Renovation
- A' Design Award 2020 Gold Winner in Landscape Planning and Garden Design
- Awarded April 15, 2020
- CLIENT: Lacime Landscaping
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 47,416
- Verification code 06264FFA51 · Verify this award
About Riverside Study Landscape Renovation
Riverside Study is a landscape renovation on the bank of the Liwa River in Shanghai, China. The site was originally a campus warehouse, which was converted into a study. The design considers the architecture, terrain and light, and draws elements from the school badge, the red brick building and the natural growth of plants. A sunken square with soft yellow wooden steps forms seating for rest. The walks along the river are paved with gray stone. Large reflective glass walls protect the privacy of the interior and connect inside and outside.
Within the evolving discourse of contemporary landscape architecture, this work by Shanghai Lacime Design Co. Ltd. exemplifies a sophisticated approach to threshold design that dissolves conventional boundaries between interior refuge and exterior garden realm. The composition demonstrates remarkable sensitivity to the phenomenological experience of dwelling, employing a perforated brick screen that references vernacular building traditions while achieving thoroughly contemporary spatial effects through its rhythmic interplay of solid and void. This architectural element functions simultaneously as environmental mediator, regulating light and air passage, and as visual filter, establishing a layered transparency that enriches the spatial experience of transition. The landscape beyond reveals careful attention to ecological layering, where mature canopy trees provide overhead enclosure while mid-story shrubs and groundcover perennials create successive planes of visual interest and seasonal color. The presence of hydrangeas in their varied chromatic expressions suggests an understanding of plant material as both living sculpture and temporal marker, their blooms announcing seasonal progression within the garden's cyclical narrative. The integration of a reflective water body extends the spatial experience horizontally while introducing the contemplative dimension traditionally associated with water gardens across numerous cultural traditions. The restrained material palette of the interior furnishings, their quiet grey tones and geometric simplicity, demonstrates how contemporary design sensibility can achieve dialogue with natural landscape without competition for visual attention. Visitors may find themselves contemplating how this threshold condition invites meditation upon the relationship between shelter and exposure, the constructed and the cultivated, offering a spatial experience that rewards extended contemplation and repeated encounter across different times and seasons.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- In order to achieve creativity and integrity of the project, the design team takes into account the architecture, terrain and light, and extracts the design elements from the school badge and the red brick building, as well as from the form of natural growth of the plant. The interior and exterior spaces are strikingly beautiful under the natural conditions of site.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The original parking shed on the south side of study was demolished, and the terrace and gallery frame were expanded based on the original red brick architecture. The classic red-brown rust panels were adopted to increase the design change, pace connection and function of study.
- Tags
- landscape, renovation, school, reverside, plant
- Production Technology
- Because the square on the south side of study was too flat, the designer built a sunken square which is popular in modern design, forming seats for rest through the soft yellow wooden steps. The plants were growing in the center, increasing the sense of enclosure and bringing some unusual rustic charm.
- Design Challenge
- The sunk square is adjacent to a pavilion which is harmonious with the study. It is made of white and reddish-brown stone, and is repaired into a small boat in the base, which means the boat of history and carries the glorious past of East China Normal University. It is also like a burning candlelight floating in the river.
- Project Duration
- The project is completed in 2018 in Shanghai, China.
- Operation Flow
- The landscape walks along the river are paved with gray stone in fold lines, with different ground covers on the sides. The wall of study is made of a large area of reflective glass, which ensures the privacy of interior and forms front view of passage space, finally achieving the boundlessness between the inside and outside conditions and natural condition.
- Research
- The building was transformed from a warehouse to a study. As its function and gas field changed, the behavior of people interacting with it changed as well. The process of reshaping the space concept is also a way to reflect art and humanity.
- Inspiration
- Located on the bank of Liwa River in East China Normal University, Shanghai, China, the project was originally a warehouse for storage in the campus. The ECNU, known as the Garden University, features Chinese garden landscape and Western classical teaching buildings, many of which are cultural relics registered by the government.