Yunqi Tianyue

Gemdale Yunqi Tianyue in Xiangyang, Hubei, sits on the middle reaches of the Han River, beside the Xiaoqing River and in the city's high-tech zone. Landscaped by Waterstone Design's Landscape Division II, Studio 3 for Gemdale Central China, the 2,650-square-metre first-phase area was completed in August 2020. The Tang-dynasty poet Zhang Chao described Xiangyang as a pearl on a clear river, and the design takes a pearl falling on a jade plate as its concept, combining artistic, futuristic and playful feeling. The scheme integrates Gemdale's Wanbei 2.0 play system, a modular themed-play product library that infuses play into everyday residential life, and uses the mascot Big-eyed Gold to lead children through a physics-themed journey: Star River Walk, Cloud Adventure, Space Drift and Planet Park. The forecourt divides space with green islands, paving that suggests the Xiaoqing River, and star-like points; the entrance borrows the ripples of a falling pearl as a water feature linking interior and exterior. A white cloud-frame structure marks Cloud Adventure: a three-level net climb leads to a slide nearly five metres high, its curves echoing the building's spiral stair. The Space Drift corridor holds an animation turntable, a colour-magic device and planetary interactive balls that introduce colour and astronomy through play. The Planet Park is organized as a sunken, inward-spinning vortex with ramps on the outer edge for vertical play; three levels include rotating climbing nets, a straight-tube net, ramps and slides, while interactive lighting encourages movement and climbing ropes and a climbing wall test strength. Although modest in size, the project is also an open urban living room for residents strolling along Xiaoqing River; the design process spanned Hubei's first COVID-19 wave, and the completed garden is filled again with children's laughter.