Beyond the Edge: Water + Urbanism in Wuhan, China

Wuhan is the regional capital of Hubei Province and the largest city in Central China with a population of 10.94 million and growing.  A conglomeration of three cities on the middle banks of Yangtze River, Wuhan is a city of water.  Once known as a city of 1000 lakes, it is situated at the critical confluence of the Han and Yangtze rivers.  Water in Wuhan gives life and defines culture but also destroys. 

Due to rapid urbanization and subsequent significant flooding disasters, the Wuhan has slowly pulled back from the edge and armored itself against the rivers and lakes with dykes, flood walls and other infrastructural barriers of singular use. This urban design project seeks to re-link the city to the water- lakes and river edges- as the most significant driver of cultural connection and urban morphology.  The project develops two edge types, the riveredge and the lakeedge, as prototypes to explore edge conditions as a model of cultural thickness and adaptive density; locations where an adaptive and performative future emerges.  

Through the center of Wuhan runs the mighty Yangtze River and within the urban fabric, sits the East Lake, one of the largest ecological amenities of the region. The Yangtze River project is a waterfront site cut-off from the river by flooding and transportation infrastructure. To reconnect the city with the river, the urban fabric weaves and reaches to the edge by performative spaces to support everyday lives of residents. The East Lake project is set within the east campus of Huazhong University. A wall divides the east campus and east lake, diverting a small channel called the Huxi River to the lake with polluted waters. 

The people of Wuhan have adapted to these conditions over thousands  of years and the projects presented here aim to leverage and preserve this cultural relevance and resilience to and of water.  Both projects aim to activate a resilient, performative edge condition with integrated green infrastructure and urban design strategies as catalyst for an adaptive environmental future.