Construction+ HK Issue 7 and 8

Façade of the visitor centre
All images courtesy of Changi Airport Group
Front plaza of the visitor centre
The Dong-E E-Jiao Biotech Park in Shangdong
Province, China, integrates various functions—
such as research and development, quality control
and industrial tourism—with the production of
e-jiao, or donkey hide gelatin, a traditional health
supplement.
The grounds have been renovated to improve the
factory’s aesthetic and tourism values for visitors
and to showcase the enterprise’s international
image. It also creates a pleasant daily work-andrest
environment for the company’s employees.
SED Landscape Architects completed the
landscape design for four areas within the
factory grounds—office building front plaza;
main entrance roundabout area; museum area;
and visitor centre front plaza.
As the office building functions as the factory’s
administration centre, its front plaza is designed
for a sense of both solemnity and approachability,
with clearly segmented pavements, water features
and greenery. The landscape designers introduced
a pixel concept with the weathering steel planters
by the office building, where different herbs will
be planted in different cubes to emphasise the
healthcare concept of e-jiao.
At the roundabout down from the main entrance
stands a statue of Tao Hongjing, a medical scientist
in the Northern and Southern Dynasties who
documented and classified the e-jiao. Close to that
runs the Life Canal, a water-recycling system within
a hexagon-patterned hollow steel structure built
across linear-textured pavements.
Around the museum, the greenery merges with
naturally winding water to create a graceful and
dynamic shared space, while the geometrical
elements of the visitor centre’s architectural
façade are tactfully interpreted into its front plaza.
The simple tri-toned triangular pavement blocks
combine with herbs and trees to highlight the
ecological healthcare concept.
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