Xiamen Xiang’an District Coastline Masterplan | Xu und Partner

Xiamen Xiang’an District Coastline Masterplan

Location: Xiamen, China

Area: 1.73 km²

Year: 2018

Client: Xiamen Xiangan Government

Architect: xup  Architekten

Team: Shan Xu, Zhihu Pan, Jing Xue, Xinxin Ji, Wanlin Qu

Type: urban plan

In the planned area, there is a wetland and two villages along the coastline. The village still retains some of the characteristics of the traditional fishing village: a Mazu Temple (a temple of a sea goddess, who is worshiped throughout the coastal region), an old dock, a fish market and a harbor, as well as some remaining traditional “Cuo” (a typical house typology in southern Min, China) amongst the new residential buildings. On the north side of the area, the high-rise buildings of the CBD are gradually approaching the coastline, while on the coastline, the government is planning to reclaim the land and develop a sailing yacht base through outside of the coastline. Although the local government wishes to preserve the two villages and further advance the tourism industry, in the view of the master planner, it is a scenario of an "Urban Village” – an isolated island surrounded by high-rise buildings, devoid of its context. A preserved fish village with some historical remains, but without its coastline, would have lost its raison d’être.

The Master-plan attempts to challenge the primitive and ruthless peri-urbanization mode, opposing the mechanic land reclamation, which destroys the existing coastline. The proposal aims to firstly restore and extend the traditional coastline from the wetland in the West to the fishing port in the East, while renovating the historical heritage such as the Mazu Temple, the old dock, the fishing port and other facilities along the coastline. Concurrently, while the sailing yacht base will be developed as an island beyond the existing coastline. In between the two, local pine trees will be planted to create a transition zone, on which a new cultural and art center of the village will be established, that defines the different areas with their own identities.

In the village, by reorganization and reconnection of the waterways and farming landscape, a new pedestrian network will be established, and the original village context will be restored. While restoring the declining old houses, especially for the ancestral shrines, temples, and other culture facilities, new buildings with similar color, material and massing will be developed harmoniously amongst them. At the north border of the CBD, a mild transition between the city and the village will be created by controlling the height of the new buildings and the skyline.

Eventually, an integrated and diversified, traditional and dynamic new coastal area will emerge, which allows ecology, life, and productivity to coexist in symbiosis.