new town in an old landscape cultural heritage and the use of water in landscape design
urban order | sanya new town , china by eddie wu
new town planning water control
metaphor landscape identity
idea was to establish a ‘water story’ of various condi- tions based on the natural and cultural use of water in the region. Hainan Province, and in particular Sanya City, is a beautiful area of white sandy beaches and extensive palm groves set against rolling hill terrain and rivers. The province contains rice paddies and wetlands, with fish farming taking place along its edges. It is well known for sun, water and natural beauty. These elements provided the design inspiration for the water story. A total of six water conditions were developed in Sanya Bay: Palm Beach, Wetlands, Ponds (Fish), Plantation, Water Terraces (Rice Paddies), and Foothills. Each water condition has its own distinctive physical characteristics, extended into many design levels: physical layout, visual character, spatial expression, amenity program, features and elements, material choices, colour and texture, planting design and species selection, site furniture, and waterscape.
In 2003 the HOK Planning Group proposed the Sanya Bay New Town master plan for a private developer in Hainan province in China. The site, approximately 9km long by 0.5km deep, runs parallel to a sandy beach on the Pacific Ocean, but as it sits behind a layer of existing hotel resorts and residential buildings, it is without direct access to the beach. HOK has proposed a waterway system as the heart of the new community and which will link it to adjacent neighbourhoods. The waterway is fed by ground water, collecting surface runoff in a series of detention ponds with reed beds to filter the water before recharging it into the waterway. It also ac- commodates storm flooding and overflow from an adjacent river, channelling excess water to the sea through a marina. After approval of the plan by the local planning depart- ment, the second stage looked at landscape and engineer- ing design, including a series of bridges over the waterway. The challenge was to create an attractive environment for the entire development while establishing distinctive and appropriate amenities for adjacent neighbourhoods. The
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