For Pujiang – a Chinese city that had lost nearly 200 hectares of river and tributaries to channelization, sand quarries and pollution over four decades of industrialization – the reclamation of a 16-kilometre stretch of riverfront was like turning back time. Pujiang has a monsoon climate, so the first step was to remediate concrete surfacing with resilient, flood-adaptive greenscapes that divert and buffer floodwaters and help cleanse them of agricultural runoff. To reconnect the city’s residents with nature, Turenscape then activated the riverbanks with boardwalks, pedestrian and bike paths and a colourful network of sinuous bridges.

Project: Building a Greenway: Puyangjiang River Eco-Corridor Location: Pujiang County, Zhejiang Province, China Firm: Turenscape, China

Team: Kongjian Yu with Hao Chen, Yuan Fang, Shenghui Li, Huiyang Ma, Yu Song, Ying Xu, Banzhu Yao, Hongqian Yu, Bingyue Zhang, Kaiyuan Zhang, Shuiming Zhou and Jun Zuo