The Orchestra Park

SoBA has consistently focused on the ecological natural environment and urban infrastructure, exploring in its design practice how architecture and landscape can collaboratively shape a coherent urban structure, preserve the urban fabric and enhance spatial experience as a medium for urban space at different scales. The Huaxiao Silk Bamboo Skatepark, also known as the Huaqiao Silk Bamboo Skatepark, is a 12,130-square-meter pocket park in the Huaqiao Economic Development Zone of Kunshan, Jiangsu, sitting just north of Business Avenue, south of Metro Line 11 and east of Xugongqiao Road. The site lies between two high-density residential compounds, Xugongqiao Garden Phase III and Shanghai Yu Garden, at the confluence of two rivers whose banks are already lined with mature camphor and dawn redwood, while the natural wetlands along the shore remain in good condition. The project responds to three local demands: surrounding residents needed a non-professional skating space, the client wanted to preserve the existing natural woodland, and the site urgently needed park amenities such as toilets and sanitation rooms. The core design challenge is to fuse the natural environment with those programmatic needs into a fully functional, all-ages modern pocket park that relieves the surrounding community's shortage of leisure space. By maximizing preservation of the natural ecology and weaving in local cultural character, the team aims to deliver a livable green space that meets diverse civic needs, offers rich natural experience and becomes a green oxygen bar and social bond for nearby residents. The result combines a skate park, a climbing wall, supporting buildings and a small forest, turning a leftover river-edge plot into a lively neighborhood commons. The client is the People's Government of Huaqiao Town, Kunshan, the design team is Liao Zhexuan, Li Chuanzhang, Wu Yiqing, Wang Yuan, Xiao Yunxuan and Chen Zihao, and the contractor is Kunshan Tiankun Landscape Engineering.