Huaiyang Fuxi Cultural Park,
design: Turenscape
In the south of Henan province, the Huaiyang Fuxi Cultural Park, designed by Chinese studio Turenscape under the direction of Dr. Kongjian Yu,has emerged . The project won the AZ Award 2025 for landscape architecture, but its significance goes beyond awards. It's a space where the landscape becomes a teacher - showing that water can be an ally, not an enemy of the city, that sustainability doesn't mean giving up on emotions.
Huaiyang Fuxi Cultural Park - bird's eye view
© Turenscape
A city that learns to listen to nature
Huaiyang, one of China's oldest cities, has been in dialogue with the river for millennia. Floods of the Yellow River have repeatedly destroyed but also revived the region. In recent years, urban expansion has upset the delicate balance, reducing the land's natural ability to absorb water. Turenscape therefore decided to restore nature's voice. On a reclaimed 43-hectare site, a park was created that functions like a living organism - absorbing rain, purifying water, breathing, regulating temperature. The "sponge city" concept was treated here not as a technical experiment, but as a philosophy of life - a return to the wisdom that has shaped Chinese culture for centuries.
Huaiyang Fuxi Cultural Park - park map
© Turenscape
Cosmic plan - the park like a map of the sky
The plan and layout of Huaiyang Fuxi Cultural Park resemble an ancient map of the stars. Islands in the form of craters are scattered in space like constellations - each with its own meaning, rhythm and function. In a layout inspired by Fuxi's eight trigrams - an ancient system of symbols describing the forces of nature and their mutual harmony - each turn of the path has a meaning, and each perspective leads to another story.
Huaiyang Fuxi Cultural Park - The plan and layout of Huaiyang Fuxi Cultural Park resemble an ancient star map
© Turenscape
The soil from the excavation - 860,000 cubic meters - was reused, forming hills and depressions out of it. When the rains come, the crater depressions fill with water, forming natural retention basins. In the dry season, they become places for meetings, concerts, walks and silence.
Huaiyang Fuxi Cultural Park
© Turenscape
Wooden platforms, hovering just above the water, connect individual islands in a seamless network. The lack of barriers makes contact with the water direct - almost intimate. Visitors thus walk not just through the park, but through its story - of balance, return and mindfulness.
Huaiyang Fuxi Cultural Park - the project won AZ Award 2025 for landscape architecture
© Turenscape
Water as the heroine of the modern city
Water is the most important character here. It doesn't just flow - it works. A biological treatment system uses plants and microorganisms to filter the city's wastewater and rainwater. Each day, the park treats about 11,500 tons of water, restoring clarity and life to the water. The flow path is designed to be followed from footbridges and bridges - you can see the water entering, seeping, disappearing and returning. This impression is enhanced by light - the water reflects the sky, blurring the boundaries between reality and its reflection. The entire system runs on solar energy - discreetly hidden photovoltaic panels make the park a self-sustaining ecosystem.
Huaiyang Fuxi Cultural Park
© Turenscape
27 craters - a microcosm of everyday life
Twenty-seven themed "craters" have been created within the park. Each has its own character: from a playground to a tranquil water garden and sports zones. It's a space that changes with the seasons - in winter some of the reservoirs turn into ice rinks, and the hilly terrain becomes a natural track for cross-country skiers. Turenscape has designed a space that encourages movement, but also reflection. Each crater is a bit like a stage - users become actors in a play whose script is written by nature itself. In this sense, the park not only serves people - it teaches them: how to stop, how to observe, how to be part of the rhythm.
Twenty-seven thematic "craters" have been created in the park.
© Turenscape
Vegetation that remembers songs
The plant composition refers to the "Book of Songs: Chen Feng," one of the oldest collections of Chinese poetry. The dominant poplars and willows, often referenced in the ancient works, are not only hardy species. They are also carriers of memories - they evoke the landscape that existed here thousands of years ago. The greenery in the Turenscape project is not decoration. It is a narrative layer, connecting nature and culture. Thanks to it, the park acquires depth - it becomes a place where modernity and tradition coexist in one rhythm. It's a kind of "living museum", where nature tells the story and man just listens.
Huaiyang Fuxi Cultural Park was built on a reclaimed 43-hectare site
© Turenscape
Turenscape - the art of survival
Dr. Kongjian Yu, founder of Turenscape and a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, has been redefining the concept of landscape design for years. His philosophy, summarized in the slogan "nature, man and spirit as one," is that landscape architecture is not for aesthetics, but for survival. Turenscape, with a team of more than 500 experts, has already completed more than a thousand projects in 250 cities around the world, winning numerous international awards. But in Huaiyang, it shows more than engineering mastery - it shows empathy for place. It's a project that teaches sensitivity to the rhythm of nature and the power of community.
Huaiyang Fuxi Cultural Park
© Turenscape
Between earth and sky
Huaiyang Fuxi Cultural Park is the story of a city that has learned to coexist with water, of a people who begin to understand instead of dominate. This is not a park that one just looks at.It's a space that you feel - with your feet, with your breath, with your silence. Here, water, earth and light create a new alphabet for the city of the future - a city that can listen to nature before it speaks to it.
Compiled by Anastazja Gibas
Illustrations provided courtesy of Turenscape studio.
