Baiqi Lake

MASTERPLAN BAIQI LAKE

The task from this city planning competition was to develop a part of the city center of Quanzhou as a ‘New Town’ with a holistic concept, development structure, landscaping, skyline and traffic concept that connected harmoniously within the urban fabric. The 15.25 km² area was located to the east of the main city around the Baigi Lake and belongs to the four most important developing areas in the entire city of Quanzhou.
Surrounded by bodies of water and mountains, an administration and innovation center should be built with the focus on ecological landscape design. This is why the goal was to incorporate the Genius loci of the place and to keep and protect the natural conditions. New lots and the street grid delegated the structure of the landscape and water was brought into the foreground as an identifying elements. The newly formed islands were imbedded in the water landscape through axes connected with the green heart of the administration center. These three main axes radiated outwards and connected the new center with existing nodes in the area. On the three coast areas and along the respective axes a new identity for the places become a theme for the axes, which also connect the administration center with the city center on the other side of the lake.
In the northwestern part of the plan area, the sub-center for the northern residential area on water is located on creek. Each of the islands in the south has their own character. The most southwestern island is mostly used as a central business district and is very dense and expressive. It marks the entrance to the plan area. It is a kind of Central Park in front of the solitary special buildings in the landscape. The southern most island is for entertainment and was also conceived for service and office space for the health industry. It is less dense and has many green areas. The most eastern shore was planned for education and research. The southern most area included an ecological residential district wit ha strong relationship to landscape. The design of the new government center as the “heart in the green” came through the crossing of three axes that built a star in the center.