By Li Han
Staff Writer of the Tsinghua News Center
Olympic Forest Park, Beijing’s largest city park and “back garden” to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games covers 680 hectares in northern Beijing. It is already being regarded as Beijing’s and China’s culture heritage of the Olympic Games. During the Games, Olympic Forest Park served as the venue for tennis, archery and field hockey events. Now it will become a public park after the Games.
Hu Jie is Associate Professor in Tsinghua’s School of Architecture and Director of the Landscape Planning and Design Institute. He and his team designed Olympic Forest Park as a natural extension of Beijing and a symbolic "return to nature."
The theme and design concept for Olympic Forest Park is "Axis to Nature". It embodies the main themes of the 2008 Olympics: “Green Olympics, Technology Olympics, and Culture Olympics”. It produces a coherent, elaborate and elegant solution to a complex landscape planning design brief. The design emphasizes the harmonious coexistence of man and nature and incorporates traditional Chinese garden culture concepts and design motifs. Two focal points of Olympic Forest Park are Main Mountain and Main Lake. The design features traditional Chinese hill-water garden motifs and embraces many modern elements such as subway stations, a large-scale open air theatre and a broad lake. It offers city residents a quiet and green refuge from the urban hustle and bustle and serves as an important source of oxygen for the area. The Park is also a comprehensive expression of the most advanced eco-technology.
"Cooperation and coordination are very important for a large design project. Olympic Forest Park was a very detailed project which involved many aspects and the participation of thousands of people,” Hu said when he discussed the extensive collaboration which was required among Chinese and foreign experts in designing and building the Park. “I am also grateful to the great support I received from Tsinghua University throughout the project.”
In recognition of Hu and his design team’s efforts, the landscape design for Olympic Forest Park won first prize in the Urban Green Spaces section of Italy’s 2007 Torsanlorenzo International Competition in design and landscaping. It was the first time China has won such international recognition.
