"Natural Landscape Locates Cities in Parks, Artificial Landscape Builds Parks in Cities"—Discussion on the Planning and Construction of Park City

Wang Hao

1 Introduction

"The expectation of a city is that it becomes a grand park itself, so that when people come out they would feel like they are still in their own garden." This is the vision of President Xi for the future city. At present,cities in China are developing rapidly, and people live happily. However, the problem of the expansion of urban area and ecological infrastructure destruction, usually caused by the urbanization process, still threatens national living. In the effort to solve the existing urban crisis and in order to adapt to the growing spiritual and cultural needs and the expectations of beautiful future of the people in the new era, the idea of park city is proposed.

Tracing back to the history and development of gardens in China and abroad,the pursuit of ecological outlook has never changed. In the design of Chinese traditional gardens, the natural landscape garden emphasizes the gardening concept of "state and wild as one, organically interlocked"; the artificial landscape garden respects the design principle of "made by human, appearing as nature". In addition, the Western gardening has also transformed from the pursuit of formal beauty to the appreciation for natural,protective and restorative characteristics of design. As a modern inheritance of traditional Chinese garden concept, the park city absorbs its essence and draws on the classical theories of Western urban park system and pastoral city to continue the development of modern Chinese cities. The idea also consulted the concepts from landscape cities,garden cities, forest cities and ecological landscape cities. The development features have formed a planning model of "the city is built in the park and the people are living in the park" and portrayed a beautiful picture of"city in natural landscape garden, and park in artificial landscape city".

2 Methodology System for the Construction of Park City

So, how should the park city concept be implemented? The planning and construction ought to begin from the infrastructure modeling, space creating, facilities improvement to the living environment. We should create a method of "four creations,one core" which integrates new ecology, new ideology, new business form, and new state and culture. First, we merge the city into the park by natural landscape planning. By combining the natural pattern of mountains,water, forests and fields, we construct an ecological infrastructure which can reflect the new ecological construction. Second, we can constrain the urban development by using the ecological infrastructure, coordinate the urban and rural patterns and establish an urban space which is surrounded by green spaces.This strategy reflects the construction of new forms. Third, we can improve and industrialize the infrastructure system which reflects the development of new business forms. At last,we create the ecological living environment of"the city is built in the park and the people are living in the city", which reflects the new state of construction. Culture becomes the "core"connecting the ecology, ideology, business and state of the development of the park city.This is to promote the soft power of the city and multiculturally-themed spaces.

3 The Development Model of the Park City

As an ideal concept of urban planning in the new era, park cities should have a unique development model. That is adhering to the human as the core, culture as the axis, and integrating the green spaces and urban lands.The center consists of a living and gathering area and radiates out to form five rings which represent urban greenways and transportation network. The city is divided up by the distance that people travel to the living and gathering area. The closest place is designated as the residential area, and the farthest is the countryside. A system of "park-community park- composite park-country park" is formed on the green space infrastructure.

In order to better realize the concept of park city system, its planning and design need to reflect the development strategy of "three approaches, three shapes, and three senses". The "three approaches" are grand co-ordination, grand integration, and grand agglomeration. "Grand co-ordination"is aiming at coordinating urban and rural patterns and promoting the development of park cities. "Grand integration" is to integrate industrial models to upgrade the park cities and at last to agglomerate functional benefits and promote intensive construction of park cities. "Three shapes" is to shape the green infrastructure by natural landscape design,to shape the spaces by artificial landscape design, and to shape the characteristics of the park city by merging natural and artificial landscape. The "three senses" refer to people's feelings of acquisition, existence and happiness. We can use this as a starting point and a foothold for urban construction. As the core of development of park city, landscape architecture should actively respond to national policies, explore a more functioning method and system, and offer theoretical basis and strategic policy for park city development.