A Flow to Enliven the Life

Award

2018 Student Merit Award

Site

Urbana Champaign, IL

Category

General Design - Graduate Project

Landscape Architects

Project Details

The design site was originally an 8 miles rail with low operating frequency. The areas crossed by the rail face a series of problems, including lacking of vitality, the decline in ecological environment and the risk of flooding. The existence of the rail brings the separation of the north and south regions, which prevents the communication and activities between the residence of two regions. The whole concept of the design is flow, which means to revitalize the site through a dynamic process. In terms of ecology, the design includes a variety of ecological facilities of storm water collection to make water flow along the surface and reduce the risk of flooding. Meanwhile, the design of ecological facilities also provides spaces for the exchange of different species. In terms of public space, a variety of public Spaces are created in combination with the current buildings and the site condition in order to meet people’s various use needs and enable them to flow in the space with enrich spatial experiences. Traffic design includes some trails with curve shape and vertical bridges, aiming to increase people’s flowing experience in space. The whole project is a personal project, and the individual is responsible for the whole process from the concept generation to the design of spatial forms and then to the presentation of the design results. The low frequency of using makes the existence of rail itself a waste of space. Local residents hope that the transformed rail space can become a part of their life, a space they can use and enjoy in daily life to maximize the use of space. The whole plan hopes that through the transformation of the site, more people can utilize the space and increase people’s sense of participation. The preliminary analysis of the design carries out some detailed analyses of the problems existing in the site, including field research, site investigations and analysis of land value and ecological sensitivity with GIS. The design provided some solutions corresponding to the existing problems of site. In the space design, the design would pay attention to the implementation of the design concept to the specific space. In the whole design plan, some stones and woods materials are used. Meanwhile, Invasive species inside the site are removed and native species are encouraged to be protected. The estimated budget is around 200,000 us dollars. In the future, how to use low cost materials to achieve the design intention has become a problem to be considered.

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