2017 China International Horticultural Expo Urumqi Garden / Lab D+H

3: Lab D+H
Location: Zhengzhou, Henan, China
Architect In Charge: Huicheng Zhang, Xu Jie
Design Team: Huicheng Zhang, Xujie, Feimin Song, Zhongwei Li, Bingxing Lin, Hao Lan, Qin Zan
Architects: Lab D+H
Client: Urumqi Garden Bureau
Area: 600.0 m2
Project Year: 2017
Photographs: Xue'er photography Tang Xi

Text description provided by the architects. The Urumqi Garden of the 11th China International Horticultural Expo was Lab D+H’s first built garden expo project.

With the sudden boom of the garden expo in China recently, local gardens that represent individual cities tend to be stereotyped to miniature landscapes or traditional gardens of local landscapes.

Keeping this in mind, Lab D+H participated in the competition at Urumqi Garden with a reflection perspective and won the 1st place.

The design strategy aimed to bring back the core value of horticultural expo. We achieved this by implementing fundamental landscape approaches such as space making and planting design.

Simultaneously, we also tried to express local identity in a new and unique way. We designed a music-themed tour route which was inspired by the traditional Urumqi stringed instrument– rawap.

The route was made up of a meandering “string” path, creating a rich spatial experience of rising and descending drama clubbed with both open and closed spaces.