Interview about City Fields Complex Functional Urban Area, winner of the A' City Planning and Urban Design Award 2023
The project site is known as the Waterfront Rural Gallery, Leisure Vacation Paradise, and National Unity and Progress Demonstration Zone, and the city's unique characteristics are the inspiration for the design. The designer integrates natural spaces such as farmland, mountains, and water into the urban design of the high-speed rail station area, combining the needs of industrial development and the requirements of the comprehensive transportation hub construction. This concept of natural and urban integration has formed a distinct and easily recognizable image feature for the city.
View detailed images, specifications, and award details on A' Design Award & Competition website.
View Design DetailsTraditional high-speed rail station developments often prioritize efficiency and density, resulting in urban forms that feel detached from their local context. In contrast, City Fields Complex Functional Urban Area redefines this model by weaving the natural landscape into the fabric of the urban plan. Instead of isolating the station from its surroundings, the design embraces farmland, mountain contours, and waterways as structuring elements of the urban environment. This approach transforms the high-speed rail station into an ecological and cultural gateway—one that represents the spirit of Puzhehei’s landscape while supporting future urban growth. It challenges the notion that infrastructure must dominate nature; instead, it proves they can coexist in harmony to form a new kind of regional identity.
Achieving a seamless five-minute transfer required precise spatial planning and multi-layered circulation design. The transportation hub integrates underground, ground-level, and elevated systems in a compact vertical framework, optimizing pedestrian movement and minimizing transfer distances. At the same time, landscape corridors and open-air pathways soften the infrastructure, ensuring that functionality does not compromise the rural atmosphere. Materials and spatial rhythm were carefully selected to mirror the visual language of Puzhehei’s fields and waterways. This synthesis of technical precision and pastoral design creates a transportation experience that feels both efficient and emotionally grounded in nature.
The Puzhehei landscape is characterized by its poetic mountain silhouettes and the rhythm of its farmlands. These natural contours became the foundation for our design strategy. The building masses rise and fall in dialogue with the surrounding topography, echoing the mountain skyline rather than opposing it. Rooflines are gently sloped, facades feature earthy tones, and reflective materials subtly merge the built environment with the natural one. This harmony allows the complex to dissolve into its surroundings—appearing as an extension of the land rather than an imposition upon it.
From the first moment a visitor steps off the train, the site is orchestrated as a panoramic encounter with Puzhehei’s landscape — a staged convergence of building, mountain backdrop, cultural plaza, pastoral fields and reflective waters. Arrival sequences are composed to frame the mountain skyline as a living backdrop; building masses and rooflines step and recede in sympathy with the natural skyline so the station reads as an extension of the land. The cultural plaza functions as the primary foyer: a broad, terraced gathering ground that opens onto orchards, field terraces and a waterscape of canals and reflective ponds, immediately conveying a rural, pastoral sensibility.Cultural identity is embedded materially and typologically: facades and public furniture reference traditional dwellings and agricultural patterns; terracotta tones, local stone, and exposed timber create an unmistakable local palette; agricultural motifs appear in paving rhythms and landscape geometry; and curated sculptural elements and interpretive displays recount local folklore and craft. In short, the station is intentionally both gateway and gallery — an infrastructural threshold that presents Puzhehei’s nature and culture as the very reason to arrive.
The balance was achieved through a dual-layered design approach: technical precision paired with ecological sensitivity. The masterplan was guided by transit-oriented development principles, yet every intervention was filtered through the lens of environmental preservation. Construction was concentrated on already-disturbed land, while open green zones were designed to restore native vegetation and water systems. This allowed the transportation hub to function as a high-efficiency node while maintaining the serenity and biodiversity of the region. The result is a space that supports movement and growth without sacrificing the landscape’s natural poetry.
We designed the transport system around a clear, rational separation of horizontal and vertical flows. Horizontally, primary transfer axes — pedestrian promenades, bus trunks, drop-off loops and service roads — are organized as continuous landscape corridors that connect the station to the city and adjacent industry. Vertically, we engineered a compact, legible stack: an underground rail/concourse layer linked by generous atria, lightwells and high-capacity vertical cores (escalators, elevators and stairbanks) to the surface plazas; an intermediate surface level for local transit and civic life; and elevated tracks/skybridges that serve regional rail and create panoramic vantage points.Business venues and commercial strips are deliberately sited along these transfer nodes and circulatory spines so economic activity naturally follows passenger flows — short transfer times produce sustained dwell and patronage. Digital wayfinding, sight-lines through atria, and direct vertical sight-and-step connections reduce perceived distance and speed transfers. Landscape and water elements weave through the circulation system to soften edges and create legible thresholds: green corridors double as pedestrian malls, and waterscapes function as orientation markers. This three-dimensional choreography increases accessibility, concentrates commercial opportunity at strategic nodes, and thereby amplifies local economic development while keeping the pastoral landscape visually and functionally integral.
It’s important to clarify: the three-month period refers to an intensive planning and design phase that produced the masterplan and implementation strategy — not construction. Achieving that condensed, high-quality delivery required focused governance and parallelized workflows from day one. We established a single, shared brief with municipal authorities, rail operators and key stakeholders, then ran iterative design charrettes and stakeholder workshops in compressed cycles so community priorities and technical constraints were resolved in real time.Technically, we used rapid scenario testing with GIS and BIM to evaluate alignment, hydrology, phasing and economic nodes simultaneously, which allowed design decisions to be validated quickly. Design responsibilities were split into parallel streams (transport engineering, landscape, urban programming, commercial strategy) with daily coordination checkpoints via a centralized digital platform so that outputs were immediately interoperable. We also prepared phasing guidelines and prefabrication-friendly typologies so the plan was implementable from day one. These methods ensured speed without sacrificing clarity or integrity: the outcome was a robust, buildable masterplan that balanced technical rigor with landscape and cultural intent.
City Fields serves as the catalytic core of a new urban ecosystem that interlinks transportation, industry, and cultural tourism. By positioning the station as a multifunctional hub, it encourages the growth of adjacent industries such as hospitality, logistics, and creative agriculture. The integration of green infrastructure and recreational landscapes makes the area not just a point of transit, but a destination in itself. This model has stimulated local investment, increased employment opportunities, and strengthened the identity of Puzhehei as a modern ecological city rooted in its rural traditions.
Sustainability was embedded from concept to completion. The masterplan integrates renewable energy systems, including solar shading devices and passive ventilation strategies. Rainwater collection and ecological filtration are used to restore the site’s natural hydrology. Green roofs and vertical vegetation reduce heat island effects, while materials were sourced locally to minimize carbon emissions. Despite its large scale, the project performs like an ecosystem—absorbing, filtering, and breathing in harmony with its environment.
The greatest lesson is that infrastructure can act as a cultural and ecological bridge rather than a dividing line. By respecting the logic of the land—its contours, hydrology, and history—urban growth can enhance rather than erase natural identity. Future developments should begin with the landscape, not the blueprint, allowing nature to inform the rhythm of urban design. City Fields demonstrates that a high-speed rail hub can be more than a machine for movement—it can become a living organism that reconnects people, place, and purpose.
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