Xi’an Yannan Park

In the centre of an ancient capital, a large, low-maintenance park of 41 hectares was built to serve a wide range of public uses while protecting the archaeological site beneath it. A preliminary survey found 25 ancient tombs and other remains dating from the Han Dynasty back to the Neolithic Yangshao culture, which the authorities chose to protect in place. About half the site, on higher ground, was designated a sensitive protected area. The rest drops 10 to 15 metres along a steep slope to a concrete drainage channel carrying heavily polluted urban runoff.

Heritage rules ruled out any excavation deeper than 30 centimetres and any deep-rooted woody plants. A community survey before design showed demand for activities that do not sit easily together: jogging, cycling, folk dance, children’s play, family gatherings, camping, dog walking, kite flying and places for elders to meet. The budget was about 50 US dollars per square metre, and the park also had to bring a human scale to a very large open space.

Instead of digging, the soil and construction debris already on the site were reshaped into raised walls one to three metres high, good ground for dense, shallow-rooted bamboo. The bamboo walls enclose 39 gardens from 10 to 70 metres across, each with its own ground cover of perennial herbs and grasses and its own theme. Some are amphitheatres for dance and music, two near the most accessible edges are playgrounds, others hold herbs for quiet and meditation. Narrow entrances give each enclosure a sense of discovery, while a central lawn stays open as a common for everyone.

A web of paths ties the gardens together. Two main routes are flower corridors that give shade and shortcuts, a loop for cycling and jogging doubles as the service road, and some paths split into parallel lanes with planting between them so that crowds can pass without losing the feeling of being in nature. A skywalk along the high ground looks out over the city. Toward the drainage channel, planted terraces with retaining walls of reused stone and tiles soften the slope, and some of them work as constructed wetlands that filter nutrient-rich runoff.

The park was busy from the start. People camp at the edges of the central lawn, grandparents follow children through the meadow, elders watch folk dance from circular benches and musicians play in the pavilions, while the archaeology stays undisturbed below. The project received a 2024 ASLA Honor Award in Urban Design.