Project Description
2015 Urban Open Space Award Competition Shortlist Project
Text from the Urban Land Institute:
The Thousand Lantern Lake Park system represents a defining infrastructural success that’s integral to Nanhai’s strategic approach of urban transformation over the past 15 years. The Nanhai District exemplifies a successful, people-oriented urban development mode, and provides creative solutions for attracting people to its newly constructed Guangdong Financial High-tech Industrial Zone. The development solves one of the greatest challenges similar third-tier Chinese cities face: how to retain a community’s vitality while the city upgrades its industrial structure to modern functionality, including a redefined spatial layout.
When many new cities of its kind suffer from being “empty towns,” Nanhai attracts investors, new residents and tourists for its celebrated Thousand Lantern Lake Park, now synonymous with the city’s identity. Sited on land reclaimed from old industrial uses, the park system features “Big Water” features that connect all new city blocks with a system of lakes, grand canals and water alleys. It provides an active and passive waterfront for development properties as well as an important drainage infrastructure. As the core piece of this public open space, Thousand Lantern Lake has become the primary destination for recreation, events and retail in the region, displaying the life energy that contributes a significant competitive edge to the city’s growth and value generation.