Dalian Eco-Wisdom Business Park is a new commercial development in Dalian, in the Liao Ning Province of the People’s Republic of China. The park includes a 5000-staff call centre, research and development offices, an employee dormitory and a series of luxury executive villas.
Threading these uses together to create a cohesive development was the main goal of the client’s brief. Sydney-based landscape architecture office Loci Studio was engaged to undertake the concept landscape design. As well as fulfilling the client brief, Loci Studio’s greater goal was the establishment of a landscape that would enhance the function of the development in a business sense while enriching the employee and visitor experiences.
While brainstorming ideas for what a 21st century business park needs to succeed, Loci Studio came upon the concept of the left brain – right brain dynamic and this became the inspiration for the landscape design.
Traditionally the left brain has been associated with logical, structured and controlled behaviour, and the right brain has been associated with intuitive behaviour, synthesis and creativity. Bringing these two sides together creates a balance and it is the idea of this balance that Loci Studio moulded into a vision for the landscape design of Dalian Eco-Wisdom Business Park.
The Vision as presented to the client: Long gone are the days of cubicle upon cubicle in sterile buildings surrounded by a series of hedges and lawn. We need more than this. We need harmonious surroundings, we need balance. In business especially we need the balance of the left brain and the right brain. It is related to the way we do things and how we strive to get the best out of our employees and therefore results in them producing their best.
When looking at the characteristics of the left brain and the right brain it’s easy to see a pattern that also relates to the function of architecture and landscape architecture. The architecture provides a system, it provides order, it provides a space in which to do work, to organise, to plan and a space in which to make things happen. It is the structure and the control.
The landscape provides the escape from these. It provides the palette from which inspiration is drawn, a place where the mind relaxes, a place where the mind wanders, and a place where the mind happens upon new ideas and dreams. It is the freedom and the creativity.
Together the architecture and landscape produce a balance which in turn provides a solid base upon which a successful business park can be established. The architecture and landscape unite, as representations of the left and right hemispheres into a harmonious whole.
To physically realise its vision, Loci Studio has ensured the landscape design does what it sets out to do. The landscape is not just a garden surrounding the architecture but rather a place that can be used as much as, if not more, than the architecture that floats within it.
IMAGE CREDIT: LOCI STUDIO
Dalian Eco-Wisdom Business Park
Landscape Architect: LOCI STUDIO
Design Team: Marc Deuschle, Jin Bai, Astrid Brokamp
Client: Da Lian Tai Da Real Estate
Dates: October 2010 – July 2011
Other Consultants
R-Land: Yuanshu Institute of Landscape Planning and Design – Local Design Institute Responsible for Construction Drawings