The red steel bench runs for half a kilometre through the park in Qinhuangdao, the Tanghe River Park, China. With a background of natural vegetation, is a “red ribbon” spanning five hundred meters, which integrates the functions of lighting, seating, environmental interpretation, and orientation.

 

While preserving as much of the natural river corridor as possible during the process of urbanization, this project demonstrates how a minimal design solution can achieve a dramatic improvement to the landscape.

 

The site is a linear river corridor, with a total area of about 20 hectares. The site was covered with lush and diverse native vegetation that provides diverse habitats for various species. Located at the edge of a beach city, the site was a garbage dumping site with deserted slums and irrigation facilities such as ditches and water towers that were built for farming years ago.

 

The natural river corridor was likely to be replaced with hard pavement and ornamental flower beds unless the new red ribbon design was implemented. Four pavilions in the shape of clouds are distributed along the ribbon, which provide protection from the weather, meeting opportunities, and visual focal points.