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Boston-based design practice Sasaki has been selected as the winning team in an international competition to redesign the storied Suzhou Creek — also known as the Wusong River — in Shanghai. As China's biggest city settled, the natural watershed became a vital trade route, where large ships would transport goods throughout the region. The rapid industrialization that followed left the waterway in a heavily polluted state, and it was largely neglected until cleanup efforts were launched following a grant from the Asian Development Bank. With Suzhou Creek now restored, the abutting riverfront land is primed for regeneration.
The recent unification of the wealthy Jing'an District with the socially underserved Zhabei District has combined 12.5 linear kilometres of waterfront land. Sasaki's vision for the site sees the merger as an opportunity for renewal, one that aims to remedy the social and physical challenges borne in the city's urban fabric. The project will essentially serve as an extension to the waterfront, marking a shift from industrial functions back to public use and enjoyment.
The reclamation would create an urban and cultural watershed demarcated by active recreational edges and populated by vibrant human-scaled hubs. Disenfranchised neighbourhoods that are currently cut off from their surroundings would be connected to major destinations like the central railway station and the M50 Arts District. The scheme rearranges the notion of the creek as a linear experience by filling the abutting land with an array of urban nodes and parks. To ensure an ample supply of community-oriented open spaces, these new green oases would be spaced no further than 500 metres from each other. Highrise office space and retail corridors are interspersed with urban art galleries that reimagine the site's existing utilitarian infrastructure as creative canvases.
Shanghai's vernacular architecture and pedestrian network would be celebrated and enhanced by infusing a broader mix of uses into the site. An as example, the plan calls for the creek's historic warehouses to be preserved and repurposed into vibrant cultural centres. The redesign would not only preserve, but also attempts to restore. Where appropriate, wetland terraces would be introduced to reinstate native habitat and act as a responsive tool against occasional flooding. The ambitious plan unites urbanists, architects, landscape designers, and ecologists to create a 21st century retrofit of a once off-putting area of the city. If the finished product is anything like what's depicted in the renderings, the development would become a model for riverfront regeneration across the globe.
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