Huwei Resilient Township Waterfront Landscape

International Open Competition Nantun District, Taichung City, Yunlin County, Taiwan

with JIM (CAN)

2022

Before the 19th century, the Beigang River and its riparian landscape operated in a symbiotic fashion: the flooded river supported terrestrial ecology. But modern infrastructure, specifically the flood control dike, broke that link by an over-engineered landscape focused on efficiency and control. The river became an isolated conduit and the landscape an industrial territory, with concrete channels supplying water. Modernity tamed the volatile river and reformed water distribution to serve the Anthropocene.

Our priorities have shifted again as we now recognize and reassert the value of healthy ecosystems and landscapes. Healthy landscapes are connected landscapes, so broken connections must be mended.

We propose a “Quilt” of landscapes brought together to form a new, future-forward vision for a reconnected Huwei. A stitch is a line, but a quilt is a patchwork of panels and lines whose interactions create a whole. In our proposal, buildings operate together with streets, streets with channels, and channels with rivers. These lines no longer represent a division but a connection between two more certain figures. Edges remain but are far more complicated and variable, creating an opportunity for exchange between one patchwork and the next.

Our design concept is centered around three themes: Blue network/Social Network Intersections, Complex, Productive Edges, Stronger figures. Our proposal aims for the future and operates with more nuance, since Huwei faces other challenges beyond its river barrier. These issues and opportunities extend beyond the immediate territory of the river and reach into the larger watershed.

Infrastructure of the past has divided the landscape into a series of disparate patches and discontinuous lines, each operating independently without clear relationships. We aim to make the plain whole once again.