Connecting a range of newly built commercial, technology and institutional establishments, the 750-metre-long riverside park was designed as a safe and attractive environment where “residents, students, visitors and business people can discover the forgotten riverfront and celebrate its rebirth” as SPARK Partner Lim Wenhui explains. Inspired by the park’s riverside location along with the project’s sustainability goals, the team developed a design language based on the elliptical shape of diatoms - which are single cell algae that naturally clean water - and the geometry of wave-formed ripples.

Four distinct, ribbon-like zones – encompassing pedestrian, cycling, and jogging paths, plus a green zone – snake along the river, forming an abstract, ripple-like landscape interspersed with a series of lawns, cafés, a sports park and events plaza. Painted in a vibrant red, three pedestrian bridges crossing the river stand out against the muted urban palette, as does the swerving red asphalt path that connects them and which together form the park’s backbone

Curved benches, organic-shaped flower beds and sinuous stepped terraces further enhance the park’s riparian sensibility, as do a group of wave-like, timber-clad sculptural elements, which double as benches and chaise longues, and a recurring diatom-shaped motif, most notably featured as cut-out compositions on the balustrades and canopies of the bridges.

Embodying the complementary roles of environmental and social sustainability, Minhang’s riverfront rebirth bodes well for the district’s planned regeneration, having instilled, as SPARK partner Stephen Pimbley says, “a sense of civic pride in the district and set a local benchmark for the quality of life for future residents”.