The connection between the upgrading of human settlements and urban development is becoming increasingly close. For the citizens of Xidong New Town, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, "beauty" is a perceptible change. From wide-angle photos taken by drones to microscopic views shown in front of them. From flowers and green plants, as well as every flower path and tree-lined road, the vast green space system is laying out a trendy, pleasing, touchable and intimate scenery. The urban design respects nature. The design is sophisticated and its management keeps improving, showing a new city of "technological fashion".

There is a park to go out, and the city is full of beautiful scenery

There’s a set of standards to identify beauty, and the city beauty is no difference. As the "planner" of the city beauty in this area, Xidong New Town Business District allows citizens to live in the natural beauty consisted of mountains and rivers while have access to the leisure facilities and convenience of the city. The city aesthetics led by this permeates the urban park green space system in the business district.

The "park welfare" for New Town residents is improving. The construction of serial urban parks accelerates the extension of urban aesthetics with a "green" keynote: Xidong New Town, with a total area of 125 square kilometers, has the unique "three waters and six green mountains". In recent years, Xidong New Town Business District has adhered to the sequence of "environment first, development later", and built "two parks and two belts". Two parks are the Jiulihe River Wetland Park of 390,000 square meters and Yinyuehu Lake Central Park of 240,000 square meters. The two belts are the Jiuli River Scenic Belt with a total length of 7.5 kilometers and the Jiaoyang Road Scenic Belt with a total length of 5.8 kilometers. The provincial-level Cuipingshan Tourist Resort of 16 square kilometers is under construction, and the green space rate will exceed 40%. A batch of ecological green space projects featuring international urban design concepts such as sponge cities, pocket parks, and slow traffic systems are advancing at full speed in the business district.

Pocket Park: An Art Space that "Utilizes Every Bit"

The "leftovers" on the volume, however, are now becoming the highlight of the main scene of the city. In the resort, you are able to open the door to see the green, and open the window to see scenery. For the white-collar workers who work in the Chuangrong Building every day, the geometric park between the buildings is particularly exquisite and exotic. Among those black-white-gray colored buildings are dotted green trees. Such simple but modern style is particularly stylish. It is especially comfortable to sit on the steps with coffee in spring and autumn.

Eight years ago, a team from Tongji University brought up a concept of “greenway” that single greening decoration should be changed into the connection of various greening nodes. Lots of bright colors in nature are artistically integrated with all areas of the city's activity radius. "Professional Aesthetics" replaces "Power Aesthetics" so that the aesthetic power and penetration of urban aesthetics can be improved. It is understood that there is public green space within 500 meters of the residential area, business office area and other areas for people activities in the Xidong New Town business district. This is the local identification of "pocket park", which differentiates from the traditional sense of “small” and “micro" park.

Sponge City: “Double Practice” of Image and Function

The urban environment can be seen as a whole, but more an organic organism. Here exists the modern design of colorful shrubs and flower borders. The installation art of large-scale three-dimensional greenery combines with large-scale curved streamer-style planting to build a dynamic and happy image of life in the new town. What is more intelligent is that the urban municipal greenery design idea also creatively uses the concept of “sponge city”.

Along the landscape belt of Jiaoyang Road in the Jiaoshan area, the scenery reveals at each step of tourists. The forest is deep and the flowers are flourish. The streamlined design along the water brings more open social space. The green belt skirting the mountain, which used to be refuse landfill, now adopts the functional design of “sponge city”: the large area of green space itself has good permeability. The area also has the slope caused by vertical drop between the high and low terrain. When the rain is heavy, the sudden increase in water flow can quickly seeps down, and therefore the lawn on the surface is “quick-dried”. The principle of multi-level drainage of leaf veins, multi-particle sand matrix mixing and other technologies helps explain such phenomenon.

Detailed Interpretation of the Beauty

This year's government report pointed out that “ we should improve urban amenities, and make our cities places that people enjoy living and working in". Since the beginning of this year, the urban green space system of Xidong New Town has changed from pursuing greenery and forest rate to the “attractiveness” led by urban aesthetics. From the running posture of the sculptor on the green space of the square, and the guiding system like signs and street signs at the regional entrances and exits, people can understand that at the level of cultural symbols and aesthetic imprints between people and the city, the new town has a more “scientific and technological” interpretation

The entire green space system has both grandness and subtlety in every corner. Every park and street garden is a container of urban life, carrying the bits and pieces of citizens' life. Their design, construction, maintenance and operation contain the implementation of many new technologies and new concepts, which poses considerable challenges to the subsequent corresponding urban management.

To maintain the beauty of these public spaces, there is a developed city smart management and control platform behind it, making full use of various information technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing, etc.. The video surveillance analysis system of New Town Urban Management Bureau uses the “smart brain” to provide efficient auxiliary dimensions for managing the city in a refined manner.