Panlong Tiandi renews a 700-year-old village through a landscape-led master plan that preserves the historic core while reanimating it as a place of civic, ecological, and cultural life. Set within a 55-hectare district anchored by a 22-hectare public park, the project treats landscape not as scenery around heritage, but as the medium through which memory, access, ecology, and urban life align.

At its foundation are Panlong’s cultural landscape and the relationship between settlement and water that shaped it over centuries. Its canals, bridges, narrow lanes, and intimate grain became the framework for renewal. Rather than isolate the old town as a preserved artifact, the design retained and adapted these inherited structures to support contemporary life. New streets were aligned to respect the village fabric, building massing was shaped to enhance key views and reduce visual intrusion, and the pedestrian character of the historic core was maintained as the heart of the plan. What endures is not simply the image of the old town, but its scale, rhythms, and patterns of movement, as well as the intimacy between people, buildings, bridges, and water that gives Panlong its cultural memory and meaning.

The project’s most consequential move was the transformation of a highway setback into PanlongPark, a public landscape woven around the old town and connected to neighborhoods and transit. The park extends the historic waterfront into a more continuous and accessible public edge, bringing people closer to the water while restoring Panlong’s identity as a canal town. What had once been an infrastructural edge condition became the project’s civic heart.

The relationship between the village and the park is deliberately porous. Rather than separating heritage from contemporary public space, a pedestrian-centric environment encourages visitors to move through canalside walkways, bridges, courtyards, and gardens, using them as stepping stones from the historic core into the park. Vehicular access is kept outside both the village and the park, forming a cultural landscape shaped by strolling, gathering, and discovery.

Within the park, contemporary interventions draw meaning from local history without becoming literal reconstructions. A path formed from salvaged roof tiles embeds material memory within everyday movement. The elevated walkway uses subtle landform transitions and tree canopy to open new perspectives across the landscape and toward the historic core. Restored waterways, shaded paths, gathering lawns, play spaces, habitat-rich planting, and spaces for recreation and reflection give the park equal force as civic infrastructure and cultural expression. Art installations, exhibitions, performances, and community events animate the public realm, allowing the site’s history to remain not only visible, but shared and continually reinterpreted.

Panlong Tiandi demonstrates that adaptive reuse is more than preservation alone. By making landscape the primary agent of connection, remembrance, and public life, the project allows history to endure without being immobilized. It is not a museum of what once was, but a living cultural landscape where the memory of water, village life, and collective belonging is carried forward with warmth, dignity, and renewed meaning into the life of contemporary Shanghai.

Panlong Tiandi

Location: Shanghai, China

Client: Shui On Land

Design Team: Sasaki; Ben Wood Studio Shanghai; Design Land Collaborative Pte. Ltd.; Tianhua Architecture Planning & Engineering Co., Ltd.; East China Architectural Design & Research Institute; Shanghai Yingyi Urban Planning & Design Co., Ltd.; Scenic Architecture; Archi-Union Architecture; Laurent Landscape; UNOLAI Design & Associates;

Image Credits: Brandon McGhee; Sasaki; Shui On Land;

Text Credit: Sasaki

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Global Technology Campus is a 72-acre landscape transformation of a 30+ year-old low-density Redmond, Washington, USA campus. Recognizing the value of landscape, architecture, and vibrancy in attracting and retaining world-class talent, the client engaged a diverse mix of architects to design its
buildings. However, a single landscape team was selected to unify the campus and organize the 18 distinct buildings around a common vision. The shared landscape framework is the “Forest Thread”, and four “villages” divide the campus into zones mimicing iconic Pacific Northwest regional landscapes. Each village engages differently with forest, meadow, and water to balance ecological performance, daily use, and visitor experience.

Embedded outdoor breakout spaces extend the building program, supporting events, lectures, everyday work, and moments of quiet retreat within the landscape. Terraces integrated into each building ensure occupants are never more than two staircases away from open space, extending the landscape vertically, and reinforcing daily connection to fresh air, collaboration, and outdoor gathering.

The road-free campus prioritizes transit and active transportation with commuter lounges, shuttles, and new rail connections. Four distinct portals bring landscape and light to the lowest levels of the garage, guiding those who drive to ascend into the landscape, a deliberate choice to route people through the campus on their path into buildings. A network of barrier-free paths, promenades, gathering areas, and outdoor workspaces support a universally accessible campus design.

The campus landscape evolves from open and informal to dense, active and urban, as it moves from east to west in response to adjacent conditions. Water features, terraces, and crafted wood elements articulate progression from raw to refined, moving from peeled logs to heavy timbers to finely detailed seating and platforms.

The eastern edge of campus is defined by direct engagement with a mature woodland. The architecture appears surgically inserted among existing conifers more than 80 feet tall, many planted in the late 1970s. A pond from the early campus was reimagined to support higher ecological function and more meaningful interaction, reinforcing the Forest Thread as an extension of a mature forested watershed.

The western edge of the campus expresses the Forest Thread as it evolves from naturalistic to more urban conditions. This area is shaped by meadows, open greens, and water, and is organized as an all-pedestrian environment where landscape defines movement and experience. Much of this area is built over a below-grade structure that consolidates parking, district utilities and service access, freeing the campus above from car and truck movement and infrastructure.

The client deliberately invested in campus landscape and elevated design, recognizing it as creating business value through employee attraction, retention, and productivity. Simultaneously, it strengthens community as a campus that is equally welcoming to global business leaders and neighbors alike. The landscape models the company’s ambitious sustainability initiatives and fosters daily interaction with nature, enhancing employee and community wellbeing.

Deeply rooted in the Pacific Northwest, the landscape reflects the company’s heritage while setting a new global precedent—establishing a new model for campus design that supports growth, connection, and positive impact worldwide.

Global Technology Company

Location: Redmond, Washington, USA;

Landscape Architect: Berger Partnership

Images: BuiltWork Photography
Text: Berger Partnership

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A Breathing Bio-Tech Organism
Rooted in nature, the Haid Science Park reflects a mission to build a better future for rural China through agricultural innovation. Rich with agricultural heritage, the project’s location in Guangzhou’s Panyu District required a thoughtful approach to existing fishponds and greenhouses, preserving site character while generating a thoughtfully crafted environment befitting its role as a center for biotechnology and research. Instead of a typical “clear-and-build” approach, this design preserves and reconfigures the central fishpond as an anchor for the landscape. This ecological core integrates microclimate regulation with the daily rhythms of a modern research campus. By retaining mature trees and existing water assets, the project maintains site identity while creating a layered environment organized around water, shade, and movement – a “Bio-tech Organism” for innovation, research, and ecological connection.

Simulation-Driven Microclimate and Circulation
To address Guangzhou’s extreme humidity and heat, the project employs an innovative microclimate circulation strategy. Design choices were informed by user movement simulations, identifying high and low-energy zones to strategically distribute permeable and low-reflective paving, dense planting, and cooling water features. Sloped landforms and constructed wetlands filter stormwater runoff into the central lake, creating a sustainable, closed-loop water management system.

Circulation is organized through an integrated network of organic pathways, underground connections, and ground-level corridors, separating pedestrian, service, and vehicular flows while maintaining spatial continuity. High and low-energy zones guide the distribution of paving, planting, and landscape installations. Within this, circular paving patterns and biomimetic green forms respond to user patterns, balancing openness with spatial intimacy.

Activating the Social Ecosystem
As a realized commercial environment, this park successfully extends professional life into an immersive ecological realm. Lakeside work decks, meditation platforms, and a continuous boardwalk support diverse use patterns, while a blossoming promenade and stepped seating provide areas for dining and informal social exchange. Near the employee residences, layered planting creates an outdoor living room that supports collective activity and social connection, as well as individual retreat.

Haid Science Park functions as a resilient living system where people, nature, and innovation continuously evolve together. Using a combination of technology and nature-based solutions, the park provides a new model for corporate landscapes, in which interconnected gardens, promenades, and activity zones are integrated into a resilient living system.

Technical Information

Site area
The HAID Campus Landscape is an 11.76-hectare biotechnology headquarters campus in Guangzhou, China, designed by LOLA Landscape Architects between 2021 and 2022 and built from 2023 to 2024. The landscape is conceived as a living biotech organism, with a central lake acting as the ecological and spatial heart of the site. Buildings, circulation routes, water systems, and public spaces are integrated into a connected landscape framework inspired by natural flows and biological processes. The design incorporates organic pathways, parametric patterns, membrane-inspired forms, and three-dimensional landscape features that connect the entire campus.

Planting Strategy
Planting plays a key role in the campus design by enhancing biodiversity, improving thermal comfort, and strengthening ecological performance. Trees and planting beds are distributed according to detailed sun and wind analyses to maximize shading and create comfortable outdoor spaces. Dense vegetation is integrated with water features, pathways, and public areas to support the campus’s ecological network and reinforce the concept of a self-sustaining bio-cycle.

Sustainability
Sustainability is a core principle of the HAID Campus. The landscape incorporates integrated water and ecological systems that respond to Guangzhou’s subtropical climate. Temperature, sunlight, and wind studies informed the design, helping create a comfortable microclimate while reducing heat stress and enhancing environmental performance.
The central lake functions as part of a closed-loop water management system. Stormwater is collected, filtered through wetlands and landscape elements, and reused within the campus. Existing water bodies and mature trees were preserved wherever possible, reducing environmental impact and maintaining the site’s ecological character. Water, vegetation, landforms, and shading structures work together to create a resilient landscape that supports biodiversity, resource efficiency, and user wellbeing. The resulting campus demonstrates how biotechnology, ecology, and landscape architecture can be combined into a sustainable and productive working environment.

HAID Science Park

Location: Guangzhou, China

Landscape Architect: LOLA Landscape Architects

Client: Guangzhou Haid Group, Guangzhou Haoyue Biotechnology Development Co., Ltd.
Construction Drawings: Shenzhen Longchase Regional Planning and Design Co., Ltd
Architectural Design: NBBJ, Guangzhou Design Institute Group Co., Ltd.

Text Credit: LOLA Landscape Architects
Images Credit: LOLA Landscape Architects

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The Midtown area spans approximately 600 km² between Shanghai’s inner and outer ring roads and plays a key role in the city’s metropolitan structure. Shaped by infrastructure corridors and former industrial land, the area has developed in a fragmented manner. This has resulted in disconnected green spaces, weak spatial continuity, and limited ecological performance. Although the outer ring corridor was originally planned as a green buffer, it has remained largely detached from surrounding neighborhoods and mobility networks, functioning more as a boundary than an integrated urban landscape.

As Shanghai faces climate pressure, industrial transition, and demographic change, these challenges have become increasingly visible. At the same time, Midtown holds the potential to support a more balanced urban condition one in which ecological systems, productive landscapes, and everyday life are more closely integrated. The project begins with a key question: How can conventional grey infrastructure be reimagined as landscape infrastructure that supports both ecological resilience and urban transformation?

The proposal uses landscape as the primary driver to reorganize the Midtown Belt into a continuous urban system. It introduces the concept of the Jade-Gold Belt, inspired by the outer ring greenbelt a jade-like ring that once encircled the city as a protective buffer, now reimagined as the Central Park Belt, a continuous landscape framework connecting ecology, mobility, and urban life.

A network of blue–green corridors forms the backbone of the strategy, reconnecting fragmented green and water systems into a cohesive whole. Building on this ecological foundation, existing natural systems are reorganized into a central green core that brings together industry, community, culture, and public space, creating a more open and shared urban landscape.

The project proposes the Midtown Integration Zone (MIZ) as a framework for regeneration, coordinating ecological systems, productive landscapes, mobility infrastructure, and urban life within a unified landscape structure.

In the northern section, the Three Hills and Four Bays framework shapes a metropolitan gateway, a major destination, and a continuous cultural waterfront. Along the primary waterfront spine, three catalyst projects demonstrate the landscape-led approach. Wisdom Peak develops into a centre for innovation and public life. Pilot Peak transforms a former airport by preserving the runway as a metropolitan park while creating new opportunities for surrounding communities. First Bay regenerates former port and logistics land into a vibrant waterfront district and an international gateway.

The project outlines a metropolitan design approach in which landscape becomes the framework for urban transformation. By reconnecting fragmented landscapes into a continuous system, it strengthens ecological resilience, improves accessibility, and enhances spatial continuity across districts. More importantly, it demonstrates how landscape can move beyond environmental mitigation to become a catalyst for metropolitan growth, offering a transferable model for high-density cities facing climate adaptation and post-industrial transition.

The project won the international urban design competition for Shanghai Midtown. Its final proposal and models were presented at the 2025 Shanghai Urban Space Art Season (SUSAS), contributing to the public and professional discourse on landscape-led metropolitan regeneration.

Shanghai Midtown is a strategic area for the city’s future development. The project addresses three interconnected challenges: strengthening blue–green resilience, supporting innovation-led economic transformation, and improving the quality of everyday urban life. At its core is a fundamental question: How can conventional grey infrastructure evolve into multifunctional landscape infrastructure that supports ecology, mobility, public life, and urban development?

The Midtown Integration Zone (MIZ) transforms a historically fragmented “in-between zone” into a new urban growth area. Guided by the concept of the Jade-Gold Belt, the project redefines the former Outer Ring greenbelt from an ecological buffer into a continuous Central Park Belt. Three complementary strategies structure the proposal: Jade-Gold Belt, establishing the metropolitan blue–green infrastructure framework; Ring of Momentum, integrating innovation, industry, mobility, and ecology; and See Midtown, creating an accessible network of public landscapes.

The northern section serves as the pilot demonstration area. A reinforced blue–green network strengthens east–west ecological and spatial connectivity, forming a “Two Peaks and One Field” spatial structure that integrates transport, industry, ecology, and public space. Building on the restructuring of the elevated arterial corridor, airport regeneration, and Ecological Transit-Oriented Development (ETOD), the proposal coordinates multiple urban systems to support long-term regeneration. The Three Hills and Four Bays framework organizes major destinations, innovation districts, and waterfront public spaces while guiding phased implementation.

The planting strategy builds on existing ecological assets across multiple scales. Existing woodland and mature canopy trees are retained wherever possible to preserve habitat value and support carbon sequestration. Distinctive plant communities strengthen biodiversity and seasonal character, while the adaptive reuse of former industrial land and ETOD areas creates opportunities for habitat gardens, rain gardens, bioswales, and layered native planting. Root-zone filtration, soil improvement, and sponge-city strategies enhance stormwater management, improve water quality, and integrate green infrastructure into everyday urban life.

Shanghai Midtown Belt

Client:
Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Planning and Natural Resources
People’s Government of Pudong New Area
People’s Government of Xuhui District
People’s Government of Changning District
People’s Government of Putuo District
People’s Government of Baoshan District
People’s Government of Minhang District
People’s Government of Jiading District

Collaborators/Design Team:

MLA+ B.V.;
Markus Appenzeller; Jingyue Yan; Li Tan; Yusheng Huang; Andrei Zhbanov

Shanghai Landscape Architecture Design & Research Institute Co., Ltd.:
Liya Wei ; Yiping Wei; Wei Chen; Xueqian Weng; Jian Lu; Ming Xiang; Zhengduo Tong; Weihua Deng; Yang Zhang

CCCC INVESTMENT CONSULTING (BEIJING) CO., LTD:
Huihui Liu; Qingran Zhou; Yuan Kong; Yuheng Zhang; Lin Wang; Kedi Yao; Pengyang Luo

BDP
Tianyi Gu; Justin Chen; Yining She; Wayne Wu

Images Credit: MLA+ B.V.; Shanghai Icon Digital Technology Co; Shanghai Crystal Boat Architectural Design Co.;
Text Credit: MLA+ B.V.;

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From Wadi Ghudwana, Wadi Hanifah, and Wadi Sulai in Riyadh to Wadi Al Aqeeq in Madinah, wadis across Saudi Arabia differ in scale, landform, and character, but share the same natural processes. Periodic flood events erode rock and soil, transport sediment downstream, and create new landforms through deposition. These ongoing processes shape the landscape over time and define how each wadi functions. Recognising this geological logic is fundamental to designing interventions that work with the landscape rather than against it.

The Forces That Shape Wadis

A wadi’s form is not created by a single flood event but by a continuous sequence of interconnected processes. Rainfall generates runoff, runoff transports sediment, channels deepen, and slopes gradually retreat. Over time, repeated flood events reinforce these processes, carving escarpments, reshaping channels, and creating the distinctive landforms that characterise wadis across Saudi Arabia. These evolving landscapes are not only geological features but also an important part of the region’s natural heritage.

One of the clearest expressions of these processes occurs where a channel bends. As water accelerates along the outer bank, it erodes the slope, creating a cut bank—an exposed and often unstable edge that continues to retreat over time. Along the inner bank, where water slows, sediment is deposited to form a slip-off slope, producing gentler and more stable ground. This continual interaction between erosion and deposition, driven by the mechanics of helical flow, is fundamental to the development of wadi landforms.

These dynamics remain clearly visible in locations such as Wadi Sulai, where the landscape records the cumulative effects of successive flood events. Rather than representing a static landform, the wadi continues to evolve with each rainfall episode. Understanding these processes enables landscape architects to respond to the landscape as an active system rather than a fixed setting, leading to interventions that are more resilient and better aligned with natural processes.

Erosion, Deposition and Soil Formation

Erosion tells only part of the story. Equally important is deposition, the process that enables wadis to support life.

As water slows, it deposits the sediment it carries. Over time, these deposits form layers of alluvial soil that retain moisture, support vegetation, and create some of the most fertile environments in arid regions. Historically, many of Saudi Arabia’s agricultural areas developed along wadis, where repeated cycles of flooding, sediment transport, and deposition gradually built productive soils.

Erosion and deposition are inseparable processes. One removes and reshapes material, while the other builds the landscape through sediment accumulation. Together, they determine not only a wadi’s physical form but also its capacity to support vegetation, wildlife, and human activity.

For landscape architects, recognising this relationship is essential. When erosion is left unmanaged, soil can be lost faster than it is replaced, reducing the land’s ability to support ecological processes. When designers understand and incorporate these natural dynamics, they can help stabilise landforms, promote soil formation, and create the conditions needed for long-term ecological resilience.

When Natural Systems Meet the City

The relationship between wadis and urban development introduces both challenges and opportunities. The same natural processes that shape these landscapes also make them dynamic environments for landscape architecture. At Wadi Ghudwana, for example, erosion threatened nearby homes before the site’s restoration, particularly during heavy rainfall.

Erosion itself is not the problem. Rather, problems arise when urban development conflicts with the natural behaviour of water. When design works with these processes instead of resisting them, the forces that once created risk can become the basis for a more resilient landscape. Wadis cannot simply be engineered out of existence. They must be understood, accommodated, and carefully integrated into the urban fabric.

Designing with Water in Mind

Designing within wadis is not about preventing natural processes but about guiding them. Landscape architecture mediates between water and the built environment, influencing how water moves, slows, spreads, and infiltrates across the landscape.

This approach is demonstrated at Wadi Ghudwana. Rather than diverting floodwater away from the site, the design allows water to move through the landscape in a controlled manner, reducing its energy while encouraging infiltration. The result is a landscape that retains the character of a natural wadi while functioning safely within an urban setting.

These principles extend well beyond a single project. In Wadi Hanifah, they operate across a much larger floodplain. In Wadi Sulai, cut banks and slip-off slopes illustrate how flowing water continuously reshapes the landscape. In Wadi Al Aqeeq in Madinah, the interaction of erosion, deposition, and seasonal flow demonstrates that these are not isolated conditions but fundamental characteristics of wadi systems throughout the region.

Wild Systems in the City

The significance of wadi restoration extends beyond ecological repair. It reflects a broader shift in how cities can engage with natural systems.

Wadis are active, evolving landscapes that can be integrated into the urban fabric, contributing to water management, biodiversity, and public life. Their value lies not simply in their appearance but in how they function. They manage water, support vegetation, and provide spaces where ecological processes and urban life can coexist.

The transformation of Wadi Ghudwana from degraded land into an eight-kilometre green corridor demonstrates this potential. The restored landscape now supports vegetation, attracts wildlife, and provides accessible public space, showing how a functioning wadi can deliver ecological, social, and recreational benefits within the city.

As cities across the region continue to expand, the importance of these systems becomes increasingly evident. Wadis offer a natural approach to managing water, reducing environmental risk, and strengthening ecological performance within urban environments. At the same time, they create opportunities for recreation, environmental education, and everyday interaction with the natural processes that shape the landscape.

The challenge is not whether natural processes should continue, but how to accommodate them while creating places that are safe, accessible, and resilient. Successful wadi design depends on achieving this balance, allowing these landscapes to function as living systems while serving the needs of the surrounding communities.

Design Based on Understanding

Wadis remind us that the most powerful forces shaping a landscape cannot be designed away. We can only understand them and work with them. Water, sediment, and gravity have shaped these systems for thousands of years, and they will continue to do so regardless of what is built around them.

For landscape architects, the challenge is not how to stop these forces, but how to understand them well enough to design in response. Where does erosion pose a risk, and where does it create opportunity? Where should water be slowed, and where should it move freely? Where is soil being lost, and where can it be rebuilt? These are not engineering questions alone. They are also design questions, and they begin with understanding the landscape on its own terms.

Saudi Arabia’s wadis are not obstacles to urban development. They are among the country’s most valuable landscape assets. As active systems, they manage water, reduce flood risk by slowing flows and creating retention areas, build fertile soils, support biodiversity, and provide spaces for public life. Realising this potential depends on designing in harmony with the processes that shape them. Natural forces do not adapt to our designs. Instead, successful design adapts to the landscape’s logic. In wadi landscapes, understanding is not simply the starting point. It is the foundation for every successful intervention.

Carved by Water

Landscape Architect: Bödeker Landscape Architects
Reem Bakir, Landscape Architect & Content Strategist; Ulrich Riederer, Partner & Landscape Architect

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Spanning approximately 50,000 sqm, the site accommodates a distinctive low-rise architectural complex. Resembling the undulating contours of the earth, the architecture nestles quietly within the natural landscape, blending into its surroundings while standing out as a striking artistic presence.

Between the organically shaped buildings, a linear landscape corridor runs north to south, evoking a fissure in the earth. Named the Oasis Promenade, this central axis connects an open lawn at its northern end with an outdoor pool area overlooking the river to the south. A series of diverse outdoor spaces branches off from the promenade, unfolding within and between the architectural forms.

Inspired by the distinctive character of the architecture, the landscape concept is titled “A Hidden Rainforest Valley.” The design creates a secluded rainforest sanctuary within the valleys between the buildings, inviting guests to explore lush greenery and experience the vitality of nature. Nine signature trees, echoing the hotel’s name, are scattered throughout the landscape, encouraging discovery along the journey.

The landscape is organized into five main areas: the Entrance Area, Oasis Promenade, Bar Area, Spa Area, and Pet Garden Area.

Entrance Area

A gently undulating lawn guides guests toward an open and welcoming drop-off. A magnificent osmanthus tree at the center of the arrival court serves as a distinctive focal point, welcoming guests and marking the beginning of an extraordinary stay.

Beyond the entrance and lobby, a lush garden retreat unfolds. A simple black granite water feature serves as a subtle focal point, while the gentle sound of flowing water creates a soothing atmosphere for guests to relax and unwind.

Oasis Promenade

Extending approximately 300 meters from north to south, the Oasis Promenade forms the heart of the outdoor landscape. At its northern end, a lawn beside the ballroom and restaurants accommodates weddings and a variety of events. A magnificent Persian silk tree, one of the nine signature trees, provides generous shade for gatherings.

Resting spots are distributed along the lush promenade, inviting guests to pause among the trees and enjoy the resort at their own pace. Nearby, the Nature Discovery Garden centers on a mature golden rain tree, where children can explore plants and learn about nature beneath its canopy.

Continuing south, guests encounter a tranquil lagoon pool embraced by trees. Hidden within the landscape, it evokes the experience of discovering a mountain stream deep in a valley. Following the valley, guests continue their journey until the space opens up to reveal the expansive main pool area.

Centered around the Plunge pool and children’s pool, this area also features a pool bar and distinctive cabanas, offering an immersive poolside resort experience in Shanghai and serves as one of the hotel’s signature attractions.

Along the promenade, other signature trees, including Chinese tallow trees and zelkova, enrich the planting and create varied shaded spaces along the promenade.

Bar Area

Located in the southwestern part of the site, the Bar Area operates independently from the main hotel. With its own drop-off. It welcomes both hotel guests and visitors from the surrounding community.

The cave-inspired interior design extends into the outdoor landscape, where the atmosphere of caves and arid environments is reflected in the design. A dry garden centered around a Japanese Hackberry tree, one of the nine signature trees, creates a contrasting atmosphere to the lush greenery found elsewhere on the site. The area offers a variety of nighttime experiences, including outdoor camping and open-air cinema.

Spa Area

One of the key themes of the hotel is inner healing. In addition to its extensive spa facilities, outdoor spa baths and a yoga garden provide opportunities for guests to unwind and restore their sense of well-being through a close connection with nature. A Olive tree and a soapberry tree, both among the nine signature trees, are strategically placed throughout the area, enhancing its tranquil and restorative atmosphere.

A private spa pool, available by reservation, is located within the atrium on an upper floor of the lobby building. Surrounded by the interplay of architecture and landscape, it offers guests an exclusive and deeply relaxing experience.

Pet Garden Area

Pet-friendly hospitality is one of the hotel’s defining features, allowing guests to stay with their pets. The guestroom wing in the southeastern part of the site includes dedicated pet-friendly rooms, with private gardens attached to the ground-floor rooms where guests and their pets can spend time together outdoors.

The Pet Garden is organized around a cherry tree, one of the nine signature trees. It is designed as a welcoming and relaxing environment where pets and their families can enjoy time together.

A Nature Retreat on the Outskirts of Shanghai

Located in Shanghai, the hotel offers urban residents a nature-oriented retreat from everyday life. Inspired by the concept of “A Hidden Rainforest Valley,” the landscape offers secluded spaces for relaxation and nature experiences, creating a distinctive retreat close to the city yet removed from its bustle.

Kimpton Nine Trees Shanghai

Location: Shanghai, China

Landscape architect: TOA Landscape Architecture
Design team: Okawa Yoshinari, Chen Rong, Qu Songda, Yu Xiaotong, Liu Junyi

Design year: 2024-2025
Year Built: 2026

Image and Text credit: TOA Landscape Architecture
Photography: Makoto Adachi

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Exploring Culturally Engaged Conservation in Southeast Asia
Positioning itself as a proposal for action beyond analysis, the “Politics of Conservation” studio explores culturally engaged conservation approaches within a region-specific context. Northern Thailand is considered a critical region for wilderness and biodiversity conservation and has been the focus of various integrated conservation and development projects. The studio is situated within the broader socio-ecological and political complexities of Northern Thailand, with a specific focus on Chiang Mai, the cultural capital of the region.

Longstanding efforts to conserve nature and culture have been complicated by Chiang Mai’s endeavors to attain UNESCO World Heritage Site status since the early 2010s. Students’ learning experience unfolds along four major landscape corridors situated at the forefront of ongoing cultural and natural conservation debates: the Doi Pui Peak Nature Trail, an environmental education infrastructure in the uplands shaped by over half a century of Thai upland policy; the Wat Pha Lat Monk’s Trail, a pilgrimage route that also functions as critical water infrastructure linking lowland and upland areas; the Mae Kha Canal, an ancient flood management spillway that runs partially along the outer city wall in the lowlands and is now a target of an informal settlement relocation programme; and Phaya Kham, an ancient irrigation infrastructure in the Ping River valley, which also plays a significant role in ensuring the city’s socio-ecological resilience. Students’ landscape planning strategies explore alternative conservation practices that mediate frictions between upland and lowland, nature and culture, and conservation and development.

Maintaining a Stakeholder Network for Sustained Impact
This studio mobilized an extensive network of key stakeholders involved in the region’s cultural and natural conservation, a network built through the course instructor’s years of design research there. Stakeholders included the Thailand Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation; the Chiang Mai World Heritage Initiative; the Faculty of Architecture at Chiang Mai University; and North Forest Studio, among others. This robust network sustains the multi-year teaching and research initiative within the MLA program, strengthening its leadership in innovative landscape conservation in the region.

Students’ final projects create impact beyond the classroom through reciprocal relationships with these key stakeholders and broader audiences. For example, projects were presented to the stakeholders the class actively engaged with during fieldwork in Northern Thailand. They have also been exhibited in major regional events, including a recent month-long show at the Lanna Architecture Center as part of the 2025 Chiang Mai Design Week, raising public awareness and stimulating dialogue about natural and cultural landscape conservation.

Politics of Conservation – The National University of Singapore

Supervisor: Xiaoxuan Lu
Students: Chen Jiaying, Ryan Chen Zhuoran, Emily Du Xinyang, Shruthakeerthi Karthikeyan, Li Kejie, Lydia Li Mu, Vivian Qi Kexin, Shu Yao, Whaley Wang Yi, Jadel Zhang Xinyao, Yulia Zhou Yao;

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Inclusive outdoor play spaces succeed when equipment actively engages children of all abilities through multiple sensory pathways. Sensory playground panels have emerged as essential design elements, delivering tactile, visual and auditory experiences that support development while inviting exploration. The top-rated panels combine thoughtful engineering with versatile features that transform static surfaces into dynamic learning environments.

How Sensory Playground Panels Support Inclusivity

Sensory panels offer activities for those who prefer tactile exploration, enjoy music or benefit from nonclimbing play. Shared features also create opportunities to practice communication, cooperation and turn-taking.

However, sensory variety alone does not ensure inclusion. Play areas should allow children with disabilities to play without barriers, providing equitable access. Sensory preferences vary, as well. A sound panel might engage one child but overwhelm another. Separating louder activities from quieter areas allows users greater control over their experience. The goal is a balanced environment that encourages exploration.

1. Little Tikes Commercial Sensory Playground Panels

When it comes to top-rated sensory panels for inclusive outdoor spaces, Little Tikes Commercial is a leading company offering reliable sensory modalities in a single collection. The panel lineup spans textured and nature-themed surfaces with bumpy, smooth and twisting shapes, gear-and-wheel movement panels and speech and language panels with word tiles and braille elements. This breadth provides mixed-ability play where children at different developmental stages interact with equipment in ways that suit their needs.

Key Features

• Textured and nature-themed panels: Varied surfaces encourage sensory exploration and fine motor development.
• Gear-and-wheel movement panels: Interactive components build coordination through manipulation of spinning elements.
• Speech and language panels: Word tiles and braille integration support literacy while ensuring children with visual impairments can engage fully.

2. KOMPAN Sensory Playground Panels

KOMPAN Sensory Multi Play Panel is worth considering where several activities must fit within a limited equipment footprint. Its mix of movable components, textured details and viewing elements gives designers an alternative to specifying separate panels for every interaction. The construction uses 100% recyclable HDPE, aligning with the environmental goals many projects prioritize.

Key Features

• Stimulates the senses in one compact unit: Multiple activities concentrate engagement in a small footprint.
• Activities include tumble ball and spiral spinners, roller ball seed pods and tactile leaves: Diverse elements provide varied sensory input across age groups.
• Designed for ages 2 to 12: This age range keeps children with varying abilities engaged as their needs evolve.

3. Landscape Structures Sensory Playground Panels

Landscape Structures designs inclusive playground panels that go far beyond a basic accessibility checklist. The company’s playground panels facilitate social engagement through interactive activities that encourage playtime. Wheelchair accessibility features are directly incorporated into the design, supporting the Inclusive Play philosophy.

Key Features

• Wheelchair accessible design: Panels accommodate children using mobility devices, ensuring equitable access to experiences.
• Backed by Inclusive Play design philosophy: Decades of experience in accessible design inform every product decision.
• Targets proprioception, tactile and visual sensory development: Varied activities address multiple developmental domains simultaneously.

4. GameTime Sensory Wave^® Panel w/ Chimes

GameTime specializes in motion-and-social-play equipment designed so that children using mobility devices can join their peers in the same activity. The Sensory Wave^® Panel w/ Chimes is designed for PowerScape play systems, making compatibility an important consideration for new installations and retrofits. It is crafted from high-quality materials to ensure long-lasting performance.

Key Features

• Adaptive-switch capability: Auditory sensors add a fun way to interact with the panel.
• PowerScape compatibility: The panel is designed for integration into GameTime PowerScape play systems.
• Supports developmental benefits across multiple domains: Design promotes socialization and collaboration.

5. Miracle Recreation Sensory Maze Panels

Miracle Recreation offers a configurable option featuring built-in quiet zones to reduce overstimulation. The Sensory Maze Panels consist of reconfigurable panels that form a maze, walkway or traditional play structure, depending on site requirements. Tactile textures, translucent colors and auditory elements provide multisensory engagement while quiet spaces within the maze give children prone to overstimulation a place to self-regulate.

Key Features

• Reconfigurable panels forming a maze, walkway or traditional play structure: Flexibility allows designers to adapt equipment to site conditions and goals.
• Tactile textures, translucent colors and auditory elements: Multiple sensory modalities ensure varied engagement across the structure.
• Includes cozy, quiet spaces within the maze: Low-stimulation zones support children needing sensory breaks without social isolation.

The Methodology for Choosing the Leading Sensory Playground Panels

The rankings reflect a comprehensive evaluation of each manufacturer’s sensory playground panel offerings against criteria that matter most in professional playground design.

• Breadth of sensory modalities: Product lines engaging multiple senses through varied mechanisms scored higher than single-modality options.
• Accessibility and inclusive design features: Wheelchair accommodation, mobility device integration and universal design principles received significant weight in scoring.
• Safety certifications and material durability: Commercial-grade construction and compliance with safety standards factored into long-term value assessments.
• Expert involvement and proven track records: Companies with documented developmental research and established industry experience earned higher credibility scores.

Frequently Asked Questions

Designers evaluating sensory playground panels often ask similar questions about performance and selection.

Why are sensory playground panels top-rated for inclusive spaces?

Sensory panels excel in inclusive environments because they allow children of varying abilities to engage together through touch, sound and sight. Panels offer multiple interaction points at varying heights and levels of complexity, creating opportunities for parallel play and shared experiences across ability levels.

What panel features should designers look for?

Effective panels share common characteristics, such as sensory variety engaging multiple senses, accessibility features and durable materials rated for commercial use and expert-backed design with proven developmental benefits. Certifications for safety and ADA compliance provide additional assurance.

What Are the Top-Rated Sensory Playground Panels?

Leading sensory playground panels share core qualities that set them apart in the marketplace. Multisensory engagement, accessibility features, durable materials and expert-backed design form the foundation of effective products. Designers should prioritize panels that address the developmental and accessibility needs of their target users while fitting within site constraints and budget.

This is a sponsored post by Little Tikes Commercial, which enables WLA to continue publishing great projects and information for our readers.

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Northwest Community Park in Frisco, Texas, is a 120-acre park that recently opened to the public. The City of Frisco created it as part of a larger 147-acre plan. The park blends ecology and adventure and is located in one of North Texas’s fastest-growing areas. It aims to be a unique cycling-focused community space, featuring miles of hike-and-bike trails, facilities for bikers of all skill levels, native gardens, playgrounds, a splash pad, public art, shaded areas, plazas, restrooms, and an elevated prairie overlook deck.

“Northwest Community Park reflects the power of design to connect people with place. The park celebrates Frisco’s growing community while protecting and celebrating the Blackland Prairie landscape that makes this site so distinctive.”

Conners Ladner, principal with Design Workshop.

The project reimagines undeveloped land, including riparian corridors, stands of hardwood forest and rare patches of ancient Texas Blackland Prairie, as a regional recreation destination centered on cycling, outdoor play and ecological restoration. Acres of revitalised and enhanced prairie provide habitat for wildlife and create an immersive retreat for visitors, while interpretive and educational features help tell the story of one of North America’s most endangered ecosystems.

Design Workshop was challenged with integrating the site’s unique ecological setting with existing volunteer-built mountain biking trails and a range of new programming to bring the park to life. The trail system is designed to welcome riders, runners and walkers with a range of experiences, with cycling routes rated from easy to advanced. The park also has the capacity to host 5K races, creating opportunities for community events without requiring road closures.

Located north of Panther Creek Parkway near the PGA of America headquarters and golf courses, Northwest Community Park is positioned as both a neighborhood amenity and a regional destination. The park’s 9+ miles of trails connect recreation areas, native gardens, prairie landscapes, and gathering spaces, creating a flexible outdoor environment for families, cyclists, runners, hikers and visitors of all ages.

Design Workshop provided landscape architecture, park programming and cost estimating services for Northwest Community Park and Frisco on the Green, helping the City of Frisco transform undeveloped land into a public destination that links ecology, adventure and community life. Prairie restoration enhances biodiversity, while community programming draws visitors, creating a valuable natural space that serves the needs of the growing community.

Northwest Community Park

Location: Frisco, Texas, USA

Landscape Architect: Design Workshop

Client: City of Frisco

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The Trinity River corridor in Dallas, Texas represents the intersection of North Texas’s cultural history and its ecological future. In 1841, John Neely Bryan identified a narrowing of the Trinity’s floodplain to establish a ferry crossing and trade post, marking the birth of modern Dallas. At that time, the surrounding landscape—the Blackland Prairie—was described by early settlers as an “endless sea of grasses” that spanned millions of acres across the state. Today, less than 1% of the original Blackland Prairie remains, making it one of the most critically threatened ecologies in North America.

Catastrophic flooding in 1908 prompted engineers to spend decades diverting the river from its natural meandering course and containing it within a massive system of levees. This intervention permanently altered the community’s relationship with the Trinity, transforming a dynamic river into a highly managed floodway designed strictly for storm conveyance. To maintain this function, the city currently mows with tractors to prevent forest growth, which also suppresses the establishment of diverse prairie species. Previous attempts to renovate this corridor have stalled; a “signature park” was rejected by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for obstructing flood flow, while a “rewilding” concept lacked the land management required to prevent the landscape from becoming overwhelmed by woody species, thereby increasing flow resistance.

The Great Trinity Prairie offers a third path: a management-based landscape framework that recreates historic ecological disturbance regimes to reconnect the city with its river. This proposal moves beyond the idea of a static “park” with a fixed end state, proposing an adaptive framework grounded in contemporary land management practices that simulate the historic forces that shaped the Blackland Prairie: fire, grazing, and periodic flooding. The project draws on North Texas’s ranching heritage, using cattle and goats as “biological engineers” to replace mowing. Through High-Intensity, Low-Frequency (HILF) rotational grazing, herds are moved through the 1,020-acre project area to mimic the ancient, dense movement of bison. This trampling and nutrient cycling stimulate the soil microbiome, increase carbon sequestration, and promote a diverse assembly of native grasses and forbs.

Controlled burns complement grazing to provide a necessary reset of the prairie. These burns stimulate more diverse plant communities and habitats for birds and other fauna. The framework creates buffers to protect forest edges and wetland habitats, like gilgai—micro-depressions in the shrink-swell clays that provide essential ephemeral wetland habitat.

By focusing on management rather than topographic changes, the prairie prioritizes the flood conveyance capacity required by the USACE. A forest corridor proposed along the main channel reinforces bank stability and provides a migration path for fauna, while an augmented trail network increases public permeability and access. In the long term, the Great Trinity Prairie acts as the missing link in a regional network of urban ecosystems, providing underserved neighborhoods in the city’s center with unprecedented access to nature while reminding the public that the culture of North Texas is inextricably linked to the resilience of the prairie.

Technical Information

Full System:
Restored Blackland Prairie = 1,024 Acres
Anticipated Starting Carrying Capacity = 153 Animal Units
Restored Riparian Forest = 452 Acres

The Great Trinity Prairie

Location: Dallas, Texas, USA

Design: Site Agency

Images and Text Credit: Site Agency

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