DongJiang Gang Competition
Tianjin, China
Project Type: Master Plan Competition
Project Status: Planned
Completion Date: March 2010
Site Area: 17.3 acres
Team: PlusUrbia (lead) + Studio LFA + LopezJaimes
Client: Vanke
The site’s advantageous zoning and planning directives have resulted in a design closely related to the best traditions of Northern European Harbours such as Haffen City, Borneo in Amsterdam, and Malmo in Sweden while creating a new Chinese architectural paradigm.
The design considers all the conditions conveyed to us during our visit to Tianjin and builds upon its relationship to the Harbor by not only being inspired by it but actually reusing shipping containers and learning from their dimensions to define the design’s form.
The Wetlands have provided a very romantic story for this project where the port can disintegrate into ruins, “a memory of place” similar to the writings of J.B. Jackson. The port is therefore reused artistically within the project’s architecture, both in its units and as monuments at key points. They become gateways into nature and, finally, part of nature itself, an economical and environmental way to construct architecture and the landscape – two very important aspects of any project these days. Above all, and even though this type of architecture has been attempted before, very few whose use of recycled elements is inherent in the history of the actual site, a port, and waterfront where nature intrudes and creeps into the architecture such as here.
