Heiqiao Park in Cuige Zhuang, Chaoyang District of Beijing

Located in between the 5th and 6th Ring Roads of the capital city of Beijing, the long-term comprehensive planning and zoning plan for the city has defined the site as a forestry park for the Wangjing District. The 68.4-hectare vacant land was once occupied by unsafe, village farmers' housing and unregulated structures. The whole village had been urbanized and relocated to a nearby parcel of land provided to the villagers as an affordable housing residential compound. This park's master plan has earned grant founding, jointly, from the Beijing municipality and the township for the construction cost.
At the beginning of park construction, the project area cleared out illegally-constructed structures and 'transformed' the majority of the reusable construction waste into a crushed sub-base for recycled paving. Tiles and bricks from the demolition of the unsafe structures onsite were further sorted and reused as a permeable base and filler for landforms to achieve a 'sponge effect' in managing storm water runoff. These methods of recycling the construction waste not only insured a pervious base for roadways and landforms, but also balanced cut and fill throughout the site while greatly reducing construction/demolition waste.
Phase I of the park is the majority part of the entire park, now completed and open to public free of charge. The main operational body is Heiqiao "Blackbridge" Park Management Department. In order to be self-sufficient in future, the design program has taken future community endowment activities into the master plan considerations for landscape maintenance. The Rainbow pavilion and plaza is not only for the recreation of children and adult visitors, but it is also designed as one of the core locations suitable for future community festivals, or farmers markets, which have potential to earn tax income for the town to balance the budget of park maintenance. An existing kindergarten that is also inside the boundaries of the park will remain, becoming one of its key beneficiaries.
Only a few farmland parcels, as shown on the master plan, will retain in their current function. These parcels, protected by zoning due to the soil type, will continue to be urban farming parcels that are worked and managed by the city residents who desire to continue their farming lifestyle.
The client is the township to which Heiqiao village jurisdictionally belongs. The village name of Heiqiao, means "black bridge," originally from a stone "black bridge" landmark in the village. Over the past hundred years, the bridge had been buried underground and was only recently rediscovered within the park site. To protect this historic landmark from which the village gets its name, the master plan carefully retained the bridge intact in its original location within Phase II of the park. After local historic preservation specialists have completed their research and restoration of the bridge is finalized, Phase II will open with the most appropriate plan for exhibition of the historic bridge. Together with the future Phase II, the park will be an even more diverse complementary recreational destination reminiscent of the site's history, for the community as well as Beijing at large.