Hangzhou

weave a new memory for Westlake (Hangzhou, China)

Name	Comprehensive protection project of Westlake
Place	Hangzhou
Country	China
Topic	Water, human and City
Author(s)	Chinyi Gu
Completion	2006
Client	Government of Hangzhou City
Project costs	(if known)
<googlemap version="0.9" lat="30.264405" lon="120.231628" zoom="11" width="300" height="250"> </googlemap>

Rationale: Why is this case study interesting?

• Please summarise:- e.g. Design Innovation? Planning Exemplar? Theoretical Insights? Lessons learned from its failure? [It doesn’t have to have been successful]

It has never been such a story and would never be such a story which could clarify the relationship between human, city, life and nature more expressively in Chinese history. The story is deposited by struggles, hardship, repetitions, as well as joy, triumph and harmony.

Westlake, located in center of the city Hangzhou, boast one of the most prominent scenic spots in China. The coexistence of the city and the lake has gone through more than thousand years. The lake is surrounded by mountains from three sides and face with the dense urban construction on eastside. In this senses, westlake and the adjacent mountain played a critical role in prevent the sprawl and actually become the last oasis without being perished.

In 2002, the third time of dredging and comprehensive protection project of Westlake. Hangzhou China, was initialized. Superficially, it was only one of thousands dredging projects in the history of Westlake. However, considering the pretermission during the last 300 years, the quality of lake existence, the symbiotic relationship between human and lake had deteriorated into a severe condition, this project carried more commissions both ecologically, culturally and pragmatically.

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Author's perspective

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Landscape and/or urban context

• Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration: Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses Trace back to the origin and history of West lake, the whole span of the lake falls into two phases with the former one attribute to no more than a natural evolution of a lake——from a bay nearby the Yangzi delta, to a lagoon and finally enclosed by soil brought by Qiantang river. This is approximately the phenotype of the Westlake we are familiar with. However, if evolution was straightly going through, the lake should have been swallowed by the sands and soils from streams that merged in, then finally be converted into farm land or swamp. However, the settlement of inhabitants in this area absolutely changed the fate of Westlake, as a result unravel the second phase of Westlake——from a natural lake to an artificial lake that is protected by dam and dredged consistently. Due to the need of drinking water for the increasing population, whereas all the water from river, even from well deeply digged in this region are all contaminated with the water from east China sea, the residents had to rely on the precious water from Westlake. The coexistence relationship was reinforced with the establishment of Hangzhou as a capital city of China in Song dynasty, to be continued

Cultural/social/political context

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History

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Spatial analysis of area/project/plan

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Core Questions Working Group Nature Conservation / Water

What is the role of the city?

The coexistence of city and lake is pretty striking in this case. Initially, the lake served as a functional element for the city with which development, the lake is no longer used as a source of drinking water.The lake, with the mountain beside the lake, are enclosed by the city and actually doomed to be dependend on the development of the city.

What is the role of water?

Compared to the city, which is the leading domain in the 'coexistence' relationship. the water is changed by the activities of human being. Nowadays, the role of the lake is purely for recreation, which boasts as the most famous scenery spot in China. It is because of the significance of the culture heritage it carries that make the existence of the lake more prominent than ecological means.

Analysis of program/function

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Analysis of design/planning process

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Analysis of use/users

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Future development directions

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Peer reviews or critique

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Points of success and limitations

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What can be generalized from this case study?

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Image Gallery

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  The overview of westlake in 1940's

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References

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