Zibo New Dongsheng Fu Garden

Fuyuan, developed by Xindongsheng in Zibo, is the city's largest shantytown redevelopment of 2016 and a key node linking the central urban district with the new Zibo zone. Designed by GVL Yijing Design Group's Guangzhou office, it is the third-generation residential product in the practice's long collaboration with the developer, and deliberately injects cultural content into a relocation housing project so that shared identity binds together its multiple functions. The 110,000-square-meter site is organized as commerce below and residence above: ground floor holds street-level retail and parking, forming a lively neighborhood commercial strip that delivers a three-minute convenience-life circle, while the second-floor platform becomes an elevated garden raised above the city. Three sky bridges link the eastern and western parcels divided by municipal roads, with planted berms lifting the walkways above street level and preserving residents' privacy while opening views onto the traffic and lights below. Drawing on the Confucian rites and Qilu literati culture of Shandong, the landscape stages a five-entry homecoming ritual: a gate paired with water features, a 150-meter central axial reception hall where Shandong liuli glass is evoked through mirror pools and curvilinear planting islands, intimate cluster gardens, a 1.4-kilometer colored running loop, and a large multi-functional complex at the south end exploiting a 1.4-kilometer building separation to combine children's play, interactive rills, adult fitness, waterside seating and open lawn. The rills, activated by the garage-level elevation difference, double as children's water play and landscape feature. Three themed children's zones of at least 550 square meters each, named Whale Bay, Dream Train Island and Pirate Starship, serve age-segregated play. The project is presented not as simple demolition and reconstruction but as organic urban renewal that rebuilds social value: former neighbors become new ones, and the community becomes a warm compensation within the city. Construction on the residential portion ran from November 2019 to May 2020.