Tangshan Garden Expo Park: From Brownfield to Green Oasis

Tangshan Garden Expo Park is in Kaiping District, Tangshan City, Hebei Province. It covers 2.18 km² area and was completed in 2021. Tangshan is an industrial city in China with over a hundred-year history. Before its redesign, the site was an industrial wasteland formerly used for coal mining. The geological and geomorphic conditions are complex due to underground goaf, accumulated construction waste, coal mining subsidence, which lie between the downtown area and Kaiping, hindering urban development. The three pillars of ecological restoration, inheritance and innovation, and sustainable development characterized the design. Since 2018, the design team has assisted the local government to successfully create a near natural landscape base and build a stable internal ecological cycle system through land comprehensive utilization and ecological in-situ restoration. Considering post-expo operation in advance, the exhibition function space and supporting service facilities are designed to inherit the traditional garden art, convey the concept of green environmental protection, and present a grand meeting. Meanwhile, it creates the largest green open space in the city's northeast and enhances the well-being of citizens. It is a demonstration project for the transformation of Tangshan from a resource-based industrial and mining city to an innovative ecological and livable city.