Terra-shifting of Fluvial Ground
Living with the hydrological flux
Haoran Zhou
Design Research Major Project
Master of Landscape Architecture
2022
This is a riverine floodplain regeneration project that adopts strategic shifting of ground. Landscape interventions are deployed on ground and edge conditions to inform new terrain formation and facilitate a new way of living with seasonal floods along one of the most fluctuant river systems in China – Yang Tze River, encompassing Poyang Lake Basin.
In the past decades, China had experienced rapid development where naturally permeable floodplains were transformed into urbanised impermeable infrastructures. Anthropogenic activities such as dredging also influenced the original mud flats and caused desertification. Ecological habitats had since then declined significantly due to the unrestrained expansion of human settlements.
The project intervenes on the urbanised Nanchang City situated along YangTze River and the Duchang Village located at the centre of Poyang Lake. These sites are critical trans-migration hotspots that are encroached by human realms. Thus, ground intervention is required to mediate between these clashing territories.
New common territories are constructed for the riverine wildlife and humans, by manipulating ground, taking opportunities of the rise and fall of the river to harness water, and re-introducing native vegetation to establish the habitats. This project envisions mutually co-existing fluvial grounds that adapt to the dynamic flux of the river.
