Zhifu Bay Masterplan

Location: Zhifu, China

Client: Zhifu Municipal Government

Competition: 2013 Competition

Total Area: 60ha

Budget: Undisclosed

Team credits:

AZPML:  Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Maider Llaguno, Pep Wennberg, Tieying Fang, Ravi Lopes, Matteo Giammartini, Javier Ponce, Jordi Marfà, Nuno Pinto, Maria Bento, Giuseppe Pizzulli

Renders: Silkroad

Our proposal for the Zhifu bay is aimed to optimize the benefits for the Yantai former Harbor area in the face of major development opportunities. Yantai should be able to control the development of these territories in order to produce a new urbanity for the 21st Century which will allow Yantai to compete in the future.

The key is to make a plan which will provide sufficient flexibility to be able to adjust to the different market conditions and construct a coherent whole over the next few decades. We have resorted to a model of city which has proved to be successful over the centuries: the gridded city. By selecting an adequate grid structure we will ensure that the future Yantai embraces the future investments into a coherent fabric which will bring together different activities, cultures and ages.  Another important consideration of our plan has been to preserve the qualities of the existing cities and to project them into the future. Rather than practicing a tabula-rasa approach we have aimed to preserve some of the local industries and activities, and to integrate them in the new fabrics.

The gridded structure will allow us to preserve activities like fishing and shipbuilding, passenger shipping, industrial landmarks like the Old Railway or the large cranes, the landscape and natural qualities of Zhifu Island, Dongkou Village or the Hongli market. To develop the city, it is not necessary to erase some existing assets, but on the contrary, to capitalize on them. Finally, it has been crucial for the development of the proposal the ambition that a contemporary city needs to engage productively with its natural environment. Zhifu Island has a long tradition of health-related activities and a beautiful natural environment, which has already been heavily compromised by the harbor activities. This is a great opportunity to reconnect the future city with its natural environment, to produce a continuum nature/city which will provide a high quality urban environment.