A Basic Study on the Sustainable Design Elements in China's Houtan Park

Abstract

With industrialization, environmental problems have become severe worldwide as resources are exhausted for mass production purposes and pollutants are produced in excess of nature's capacity to absorb them. Since modernity, urban parks have emerged as an important element for addressing challenges facing urban environments, which include environmental degradation. In 1987, the Brundtland Commission’s report presented a sustainable developmental perspective in solving environmental problems and provided ideas for sustainable design and sustainable urban park landscape design. The purpose of this study is to analyze sustainable design applied to Houtan Park in central Shanghai, China from the perspective of social culture preservation, ecological restoration, and economic effect, and to provide the basic data for urban park design in similar areas in the future. This study consists of a literature survey and a field investigation. The field investigation lead to analysis from three perspectives: social culture preservation, ecological restoration, and economic effect. The literature survey examined sustainable urban parks and Houtan Park based on relevant papers, newspaper articles, and reports. Through actual visits (Aug. 28 - Sep. 1, 2018), it also examined the elements of sustainable design that were applied to the architecture. The three sustainable design elements derived from this study, being a sustainable design for the future, will be used as an important basis for developing urban parks for the regeneration of brownfields in many areas in China.