Xuhui Runway Park
Shanghai CN
Sasaki Associates
2020
Type
Public Space
Tags
public spaces, playgrounds, spaces of encounter, healthy lifestyle , renaturation, dealing with borders, Huangpu riverside renovation, 200Best
Visitability
Allowed
Description
Xuhui Runway Park is an innovative urban revitalization project that breathes new life into a unique piece of Shanghai’s history. Located in the Xuhui Riverfront Area, a formal industrial zone of the city, this 14.63-hectare (36.15-acre) site was a runway for Longhua Airport, which operated for over 80 years and was Shanghai’s only civilian airport until 1949. The remaining 1,830-meter (2,001-yard) long and 80-meter (87-yard) wide concrete runway was built in 1948 and used until the airport was closed in 2011.With the recent redevelopment of the Xuhui Riverfront Area into a mixed-use district, the historic runway is embracing its new life. Master planned as a public street and linear park side-by-side, this project serves as a runway of modern life, offering a space of recreation for nearby communities, as well as a respite from the high-density redevelopment around. Following its environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable approaches, the site will lead the city’s new lifestyle.To reflect the site’s previous history, the design mimics the motion of a runway, creating diverse linear spaces for vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians by organizing the park and street into one interconnected sequence at a runway scale. While the spaces are linear in form, diverse spatial experiences are created by applying different materials, scales, topography, and programs. The ascending and descending movement, with overlooks created for pedestrians and cyclists, resembles the experience of being on an airplane, which connects visitors to the past while also providing varied viewpoints of the site.(Description provided by the architects)