Landscape Planning of Urban Lake Park in China A case study on Nanjing

Abstract: Urban public spaces have always played an important part in urban development process. In this paper, a redesign proposal of Xuanwu Lake Park in Nanjing, China, will be made. This urban lake park is a symbol of the city and has a very long history. I want to make it as an attractive and ecological city public park which can combine human and natural environments together, so that it will be an enjoyable place for both tourists and inhabitants in Nanjing city. I will reconstruct the lake-ring roads and islands inside the lake based on Amos Rapoport and Stephen R Kellert’s ideas. Rapoport argues that users are more important than designers in the design project, because whether the designed place is good or not depends on users’ perspectives through their use and evaluation. Kellert argues that the human built environments cannot exist independent of the natural environments. If you design a place based on this idea, you can construct a harmonious environment. However, if you do not, it will cause damage to the environment. From this perspective, the human-nature environment should be connected together in design work. Therefore, in my redesign project, I will emphasize the role of the users. I will also combine man-made environments and nature environments together to make the park more balanced and attractive. I developed a set of color guidelines to help me to analyze the presence and use of different elements in Xuanwu Lake Park. From my analysis of the color elements in Xuanwu Lake Park, I found users’ and designers’ opinions for each element of the lake-ring roads and islands inside the lake. Then, I start my new design proposal of Xuanwu Lake Park in details to make it as a successful city park combine users, designers and human-nature environment together. My design proposal for Xuanwu Lake Park also gives an example to other historical and cultural urban lake parks.