This is the planning and design of a large-scale sports facility. As the protagonist of urban designers from beginning to end, Sasaki led architects to accomplish their tasks brilliantly.
As a new sports center located at the important entrance of downtown, Cleveland Gateway is an important part of the city's economic recovery strategy. The plot covers an area of 1.87 hm2, adjacent to a large open green space along Kayahoga Valley, and Gongx Square is two blocks away. At the same time, the plot is directly related to the regional expressway and urban public transport system.
Sasaki's main task is to complete a master plan with urban characteristics, and he hopes that through this plan, he can start the road of economic revival in the adjacent areas. This plan involves all aspects of urban design and landscape design. Despite the challenges, Sasaki made full use of the base conditions to make Cleveland truly the gateway to the urban area.
What is most worth mentioning is that architects carefully use stadiums to form the boundary of the city and establish an organic connection with the original streets and public spaces in the city. These sports facilities are arranged along the edge of the street, and the building facade cleverly defines a series of urban pedestrian walkways, which are perfectly integrated with the original street and block model. By lowering the elevation of sports facilities and the plane of the sports ground, all the places where people gather and distribute can be directly connected with the sidewalk. The treatment of this architectural form is a model of the perfect combination of architecture and urban design.
Secondly, designers actively respond to the surrounding urban landscape conditions and natural ecological conditions, making the sports center an important node in the urban open space system, thus playing a role in attracting people and effectively dispersing and diverting people to urban areas. Only by analyzing the spatial relationship between sight, surrounding landscape and buildings, as well as various problems such as traffic connection, visual connection and functional connection, can we determine the shape of buildings and the position and form of open space. There are two tall lighthouses in the entrance square of the gymnasium, which not only define and mark the entrance space, but also connect the landscape opposite Kayahoga Valley with the skyline of high-rise buildings in the city center. The main entrance of the stadium is part of a sequence extending from the nearby Cleveland arcade and connected to the stadium along a new street through the planned new open space. Many entrances and exits are arranged near the city center, and crowded people naturally flock to restaurants, bars and shops adjacent to the city center.
Through the setting of mixed functions, this plan has stimulated the urban vitality of this area and become an important area that can attract a large number of people and a real city portal with a good image. The space and squares in this area provide many urban functions. The important service department of the complex is placed in an invisible underground service area under the entrance square, mainly by lowering the elevation of the competition venue and carefully coordinating the location of the service area.
All the design concepts of the firm have been put into practice in urban design. Build a rich material space and guide individuals to get in close contact with the public; Provide mixed-use functions for land to meet the requirements of competition and use; Integrate ecological operations into cities and so on. The realization of the design concept is not obvious, but it has been realized. Sasaki's unique and well-thought-out urban design leads the architectural design in the lot, and establishes strict and flexible control criteria for the determination of their architectural boundaries, shapes, functions and even internal space forms.
Project 1990 started and 1994 was completed. Although the architectural design of the stadium was completed by the prestigious HOK Sports Department in the United States, and the gymnasium was also designed by the famous E B company that completed the Olympic Stadium in Atlanta and the Olympic Stadium in Guangzhou Ninth National Games, most of the applause was given to Sasaki. The reason lies in the success of urban public space design. As Alan L. Ward, the project design director, said, "We are not only responsible for the overall design, but also police dogs guarding the public space." Because of Sasaki's excellent urban design in this respect, this project won the PA Urban Design Award of 1992. After the completion of 1996, the Cleveland Portal Project won the AIA Gold Award for Urban Design. On the list of winners, Sasaki's name comes before HOK and EB. Sasaki Company has successfully transformed from a landscape designer who used to pay attention to cooperation to a dominant urban designer. This process reflects its excellent professional ability. Since then, urban design has increasingly become the core work of the company.
2. Urban design and development planning in taipei main station, China.
The rise of Asian economy has not only satisfied some material life, but also brought various urban problems. Congestion, traffic jams, environmental degradation and so on are plaguing some Asian cities. Taipei has encountered similar problems in the process of urban construction. In order to adapt to the improvement of the transportation network and continue the historical features and urban spatial connotation of the city,1September, 989, Taipei City chose a planning advisory group headed by Sasaki to carry out urban design and development planning for a specific area of Taipei Central Station.
How to integrate Taipei's historical and cultural traditions and urban climate factors into the design is a challenge for Sasaki. The streets are arranged in the north-south direction according to the principle of geomantic omen. Streets and outdoor open spaces are based on arcade buildings, and a series of buildings in the north of outdoor open spaces are connected by a kind of "advanced arcade". As the oldest relic of this historic city, the historical value of the North Gate has been strengthened by the setting of Lin Yin Avenue. Lin Yin Avenue is set along the original city wall with a green belt in the middle. The understanding and continuation of the original urban connotation is also reflected in the plane form of open space, and the architectural interface is perpendicular to the old streets facing the city, rather than parallel to the existing roads. Starting from these old streets, the newly set large open space will have a more complete space experience. In this plan, Sasaki set up a continuous large-scale open space to alleviate the extreme lack of high-quality open space in Taipei. It spans almost the whole lot, east to Danshui River, and is connected with the waterfront space. Large-scale commercial shopping corridors are connected with them through north-south open spaces or streets, and the continuity of ecosystem and pedestrian space is reflected here. For the location and form of the building, the planning has also fully considered the requirements of urban landscape and functional use. All kinds of landmark and landscape buildings have been highlighted, and detailed control schemes have been formulated. An iconic tower was placed at the intersection of the new outdoor open space and Lin Yin Avenue, designed as a symbol of Taipei's emerging international commercial city. The building height varies from 15 m to 75 m, which is related to the building height in three periods of Taipei's urban development.
The organization of pedestrian line is one of Sasaki's main considerations. In the planning, the good public transportation conditions of the base are used, and the mass transportation system is the main vehicle traffic, which makes the organization of pedestrian lines the key to the success of the planning. Pedestrian walkways with different functions are set on different floors. The underground pedestrian line connecting the public space on the ground, the underground pedestrian line connecting the public transport station and Taipei main station, and the underground pedestrian line separating people and vehicles form an effective, clear and complete system.
A typical vertical use of each ground floor in Taipei is applied to this plot, that is, a continuous typical retail industry is arranged on the lower floor, and occasionally cultural use is arranged. While the upper part is used for multifunctional purposes. In addition to living, the current design scheme of this block is extremely flexible in public strategy, enough to meet the use of future residents.
This scheme is the embodiment of Sasaki's design concept in Asian cities, and it also includes the adjustment of design ideas and means by the firm according to the specific characteristics of Asian cities, especially how to treat the eastern history and culture which is very different from the west. They made their own attempts.
3. Urban design of the central area of Guangzhou Science City in China.
Science City is located in the northeast of Guangzhou, covering an area of about 3 700 hm2. Its establishment is one of the important measures for Guangzhou to establish its competitive advantage in China, Asia and even the world. The central area of Science City is the core of Science City. It is a difficult problem for Sasaki to arrange various development plans reasonably based on the principle of creating a high-quality city image for the Science City while considering the basic physical characteristics of the site.
Science city base has unique geographical conditions. It is located in a low and continuous hilly area, from the southern Pearl River Plain to the northern mountainous area. In the surrounding mountains, low hills are gradually replaced by steeper and higher mountains. Under the collision of natural environment and human environment, the firm takes the balance of history, culture and environment as the first priority in design, and expresses the mutual adaptation between natural and artificial environment with modern ideas.
The full combination of natural factors and urban design is undoubtedly the focus of this urban design. The natural ecology here is not the constraint of design, but the source of inspiration. The scheme retains the dominant mountains in the city and organizes them into visual landscape design, such as the deliberate arrangement of traffic routes. People who walk through it can obviously feel the endless changes of the terrain, so as to determine their position in the city. In the planning scheme, the buildings are laid out according to the terrain trend of the mountain to achieve the balance between architecture and nature. According to the local climate conditions, most buildings in the central area are arranged in the south to obtain the best ventilation and lighting.
Establishing an extensive open space system to provide necessary high-quality venues for residents and workers in the Science City is another concept that we insist on in this urban design. The design not only establishes a perfect open space system in the central city, but also connects with the open spaces in the surrounding areas (such as hills in the south and mountains in the north). The overall framework of the open space organically links all the blocks together, and provides a visible physical connection for the center of the Science City. Even the city itself is considered as a connection between two public open spaces, the southern and northern mountainous areas. The integration of architecture and open space is also an organic part of base planning. Buildings are arranged in the open space, forming an open skyline, and forming an environment suitable for human scale on the surface plane. The combination of architectural group and open space creates a complete and unforgettable image of science city, which provides freedom for the creation of individual buildings. What is rare is that the planning does not regard the whole open space system as a one-time design work once and for all. Sasaki also made a careful plan for his long-term development, and reserved development space, such as residential landscape, center and road greening, water elements, etc., which may become special development units.
The design attempts to meet the different needs of different residents and tourists by mixing various functions. The flexible development of land use and the allocation of architectural functions can accommodate the changes in demand and functions, and show people a picture of a vibrant city center and urban space. The mutual expansion and infiltration of functional areas such as residential areas and educational and scientific research areas give people more opportunities to walk to work, thus reducing traffic pressure.
Different from the urban design and development planning of Taipei Central Station Special Zone, this design pays more attention to balancing the relationship between nature and man-made environment due to the special geographical location of the base, and the nature of urban areas involved in the two schemes is also very different, which leads to the adoption of an incomplete solution on the basis of maintaining the basic design concept. According to the specific situation, we can flexibly change the direction, focus and means of design. This open design gives us some clues about the company's longevity.
Sasaki described the research scope of landscape architecture from environmental planning to urban design in several articles published in 1950s. He wrote in 1953: "We need to observe the natural forces in the planning area in an ecological way." "This observation can determine which cultural form is most suitable for these natural conditions. All kinds of operational ecological tensions can be stimulated from this kind of research, thus creating a more suitable design form than what we see today. " This concept is not only reflected in his landscape design creation, but also deeply imprinted in his urban design creation. Paying attention to the harmony between the ecological environment and the city is reflected in many urban designs of Sasaki. In 1950s, when Sasaki and his company were working on projects in Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago, they thought about some potential problems in these cities. 1955, he wrote in the article: As the carrier of function and cultural expression, the city is in danger. In 1956, he specifically mentioned the new field of urban design, and he thought that landscape architects could make great contributions to the field of urban design by using their professional knowledge. They can also decide the relevant aspects of land use together with planners, and even decide the design framework and form of the whole project. These remarks reflect that Sasaki has seriously and deeply thought about the interactive relationship between landscape architecture and urban design and some fundamental problems of urban development, and his urban design thought is gradually maturing.