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The concept seeks to extend the celebrated landscape of Suzhou — the Chinese garden — integrating ideas of low-carbon and infrastructural urbanism, and with green building concept to forge a new urban center model grounded in natural ecology. Whereas traditional Suzhou gardens were constructed with artificial landscapes within enclosed courtyards, the new garden model adopts an open stance, blending architecture into the natural landscape and accommodating a variety of modern living functions. The specific goal is to craft an urban landscape where artificial structures and natural ecologies coexist harmoniously, supported by an efficiently operated municipal system and a comfortable microclimate.
The core area of the Suzhou Science and Technology Innovation City serves as a critical transportation hub, linking the western new district with the old city, and also acts as a transit center between Suzhou and Wuxi along the Taihu Lake. The area provides a comprehensive public service system with integrated amenities for residents and professionals. The soft, green spatial form enhances public place perception and identity, creating a gateway characterized by new garden traits for visitors. Continuous, soft open spaces bridges the ecological continuity between the northern lake and the southern mountains, and establish visual links with the broader, distant mountain ranges.
Refinement of physical spaces, with environmental adaptation, has enhanced outdoor areas' climatic comfort, boosting summer ventilation potential and minimizing winter monsoon disruptions. This has naturally encouraged pedestrian activity. The improved wind environment has increased the ventilation capabilities of buildings, significantly lowering the energy demands of air conditioning systems. Through mixed-use land development and a multi-layered transportation layout, walking efficiency has been markedly enhanced and reliance on motor vehicles decreased. Expanded ecological green space coverage and vertical green infrastructure, employing strategies like ecological carbon sinks, have cut carbon emissions by 305 tons per day, effectively mitigating the urban heat island effect.
The concept of softness manifests in the organic, non-orthogonal forms of the city and buildings, merging seamlessly with the landscape contours and overlapping with the infrastructure system, reducing clashes between man-made structures and natural landscapes. This integration crafts a harmonious scene with distinctive place characteristics. The feather-shaped core building not only integrates various transit facilities, but also introduces landscape and nature into the interior. To resolve the conflict between pedestrian and motorized traffic, the core area features a multi-level traffic system. Reducing surface road area allows more space for ecological and pedestrian uses. The first underground level facilitates fast regional traffic, while the second underground level serves as a transitional layer for transportation and public activities, connecting with the ground level public spaces and accommodating the shared station hall to serve the metro, high-speed rail and other extra-regional transport on the lower third and fourth levels. The curved, flowing public space system links all blocks, providing the core area with continuous, diverse environmental experiences and vitality. It also integrates elevated, surface, and underground pedestrian networks, offering viewpoints and visual access to both the peripheral and internal urban landscapes. The integration of ventilation corridors and open spaces greatly enhances climate comfort, creating cool, breathable public realms.
The project encapsulates a fusion of historical legacy and contemporary innovation. By adopting a soft and expansive design approach, it layers seamlessly over the new city center’s structured, grid-like infrastructure. Drawing inspiration from the traditional garden design principles of contrast, meandering paths, and strategic viewpoints, the project reinterprets these elements to craft a new genre of landscape that is walkable, visually appealing, explorable, and livable.
The Urban Architecture Lab. (UAL) is a design team based at the Architects & Engineers Co., Ltd. of Southeast University and the School of Architecture, Southeast University. This integrated production-study-research team focuses on urban architecture as its main research area. With a commitment to the integration of urban design and architectural design, UAL explores the entire innovative process, ranging from urban planning and design to the implementation of architectural design. This exploration is facilitated through practical projects, research initiatives, knowledge generation, and application testing across various case types. By engaging in these activities, the team aims to push the boundaries of urban and architectural design, ultimately contributing to the development and advancement of the field.
