Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities
Kunshan Demonstration Park
BKK led this competition scheme in collaboration with Realm Studios for China’s Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities.
It is a Water Demonstration Park in a former agricultural area that is subject to a high groundwater table, which is typical of the Jiangsu Province and the Yangtze River Delta.
The site’s primary function is an infrastructure corridor accommodating high-voltage power lines and gas pipeline easement. It contains two sets of four steel towers in a row.
The facility will be used for demonstrating and testing ecologically based water treatment and management technologies in urban environments.
We created an overall site masterplan and designed four new buildings of various scales:
- an entry pavilion
- a reception, exhibition and administration building
- a glasshouse
- an operations, maintenance and research building.
The architectural concepts build on the water-based theme applied to the site planning. We used the concepts of spatial addition and subtraction to determine the shapes.
This approach gives primacy to the landscape: it considers the architecture as an urban-realm element among the open spaces, water bodies, landscape and courtyards.