Big Tree Academy: Pingshan Children's Park 大树学园：坪山儿童公园

Shenzhen carries a disproportional burden of urbanization as a rapidly developing ‘megacity’ with 13 million residents today. Nature is perpetually vulnerable to profit-driven development and urban children are deprived of opportunities to connect with the natural world. Pingshan Children's Park, which covers an area of 5.6 hectares, is located north of the Jiazhenling Neolithic Site and is Shenzhen's first park focused on getting children close to nature. The design adeptly blends the ground-level terrain with the forest canopy to create an exploratory space inspired by "Forest Classroom". The tree-top walkways are connected by elevated paths to avoid damaging the existing mountain slopes, while the area under the trees provides more intimate contact between people and nature. Facilities are thoughtfully arranged in spaces between the trees to minimize habitat disruption. Rather than reshaping existing terrain, the original topography was utilized as an opportunity to facilitate outdoor engagement through activities such as skateboarding, climbing, zip lines, and treetop walkways which encourage children to explore and discover nature through different elevational and terrain spaces. One challenge the design team faced was to preserve and integrate the original natural mountainous terrain and diverse plant communities. The design team used this as an opportunity to remove invasive species from the site while completely protecting an original lychee forest which has been preserved as a keystone in the site’s ecology. Visitors' spaces were designed around the site’s sensitive ecology using lower-level vegetation to create active and passive moments within the design. Natural mountain slopes were utilized to establish rain gardens, wetlands, and dry streams. These water-centric elements enhance the ecological system, provide rainwater management, and incorporate ecological learning opportunities for children's education and residents' daily life. Neolithic stones from the site were repurposed as building materials. This stonework continues the vocabulary from the Stone Age and creates an important connection to ancestors who were much more attuned to the natural environment. Pingshan Children’s Park in Shenzhen breaks the traditional mold of playground design in China and sets a precedent for what interactive experiences with nature and ecology can become. Upon opening, Pingshan Children’s Park became a completely new model in urban natural playground design and construction. The park has over 180 million views via online platforms and has become a case study for preserving natural open spaces in China’s rapidly growing urban areas.

在中国城市快速建设的背景下，城市儿童与自然的联系严重缺失，这种趋势在当今数字时代的加持下愈发明显，导致新一代儿童学习自然的机会日益稀缺。坪山儿童公园位于夹圳岭新石器时代山岗遗址北侧，占地面积5.6公顷，是深圳第一个以亲近自然为主题的儿童专类公园。设计团队充分结合原有地形，在最大限度地减少对山体的破坏的同时，通过滑板、登山、滑索和空中步道等活动促进户外活动鼓励儿童在不同的空间高度和多样的地形中探索和发现自然。在生态方面，设计团队在完全保护作为场地原始荔枝林的同时，清除了场地中的入侵物种，并通过底层植被梳理，整理出可供来访者活动休憩的自然空间。自然山坡被充分利用，顺势在其上建立雨水花园、湿地和旱溪，为公园提供了雨水管理的城市功能，增强了公园内生态系统的多样性，并为儿童教育和居民的日常生活提供了生态教育的良好基底。坪山儿童公园在成为周边区域市民休闲目的地的同时，与自然生态形成了一种前所未有的互动体验，颠覆了传统游乐场设计的模式，打造出深圳第一个以自然游乐为核心的公共空间。自建园9个月以来，坪山儿童公园已在抖音平台吸引了超过1.8亿的关注量，成为了不断扩张的城市环境中自然游乐空间的成功案例。