Atlas Lantz Studio
Twin Lakes
Central
Park
Changzhou, China
2024
The competition called for a central park that would move beyond the traditional model of open space as void. The project needed to function as a connective urban framework, linking economic, cultural, and ecological systems through a pedestrian-first landscape strategy.
The park was required to support a diverse mix of programming, including outdoor coworking areas, technology labs, cultural facilities, botanical gardens, flexible recreational lawns, and food and retail destinations. It needed to accommodate both everyday activity and large-scale public events, reinforcing the district as a place of gathering and exchange.
Environmental performance was central to the brief. The site required an integrated water management system capable of improving regional water quality, mitigating flooding, and supporting long-term ecological health. Building forms and landscape strategies needed to reduce energy demand, enhance microclimates, and create comfortable year-round public space.
The design reframes the central park as productive civic terrain—an interconnected campus where innovation, ecology, and daily life converge. Rather than operating as a passive green expanse, the park becomes an active urban catalyst, stitching together corporate headquarters, research environments, and surrounding communities through walkable networks and layered programming. Outdoor coworking spaces and technology labs extend the workplace into nature, encouraging informal collaboration and knowledge exchange. Cultural venues and recreational lawns are interwoven with retail and dining, ensuring that the landscape remains animated throughout the day and across seasons. Sustainability is embedded into the park’s spatial and infrastructural systems. A porous landscape supported by infiltration, retention, and purification strategies enhances regional water performance while mitigating flood risk. Stormwater harvested from green roofs is reused for irrigation, and bio-retention zones regulate gradual discharge into the municipal system. Through this integration of ecology and urbanism, Changzhou Twin Lakes Central Park transforms open space into an engine of innovation—performing socially, environmentally, and economically for a new generation of development.
“Here, landscape is not a void—but a shared ground where ideas, ecosystems, and public life intersect. The park transforms open space into infrastructure—where innovation, ecology, and civic life operate as one.”
The Changzhou Innovation Park District represents a strategic initiative within the Yangtze River Delta to establish a future economic central business district anchored in research, technology, and advanced industry. As part of this larger urban vision, the municipality sought to create a defining central park that would serve as the civic heart of the district—an open space capable of supporting innovation, community life, and ecological resilience simultaneously.
Rather than conceiving the park as a decorative amenity, the client envisioned it as essential infrastructure—an active landscape that could connect corporate headquarters, research institutions, and surrounding neighborhoods while reinforcing the district’s identity as a forward-thinking center of growth.
The work presented here was completed during Andy Lantz’s tenure at RIOS where he led the practice as Global Creative Director & CEO. This project is a demonstration of that leadership either through the active participation in a paid commission with a client or the efforts associated with an invited or open competition.
Project Team:
Andy Lantz, Jason Shinoda, Haoran Liu, Zhiqing Yu, Qin Fang, Aditya Jagdale, Chenliang Ma, Minzhi Lin, and Jing Zhang
Project visuals provided by KUN
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