Created by architecture firm Penda for China’s International Garden Expo 2015, Where the River Runs has been designed to highlight the global water crisis.
The temporary installation is due to open next month and features winding pathways and concealed meeting areas. Visitors are encouraged to plant seeds in planters along the ‘banks’ of the imaginary river.
“As people are hiking through the landscape and seeding their plants, they take over the function of a river as they bring life to the pavilion,” say architects Chris Precht and Dayong Sun. “Like the river does in an natural environment, the visitors become the starting point in the lifecycle of plants.”
This year’s China International Garden Expo will take place in Wuhan, Hubei Province — a city that has historically thrived thanks to trade from the Yangtze and Han rivers. The relationship between the city and its waterways was an inspiration for the project.
“The river brought goods from around the world and Wuhan rose to become an important hub for trade,” they explained. “But the rivers didn’t just bring wealth to the city, it also brought a rich flora and fauna to the people.”
“We are not important to water. It is the other way around… Our task is to find a reasonable way to survive inside its boundaries.”
Penda website.