Contemporary Waterfront Redevelopment for Conceptual Design : Hao River Waterfront, Nantong

Abstract

Hao River Waterfront revitalisation is an important part of Nantonga's vision of becoming an international tourism hub. The new Hao River waterfront development is a blend of new and traditional culture, a giant playground catered to the locals and international visitors. More importantly, the objectives of the revitalisation are, firstly, to provide a strong identity for Hao River waterfront area and secondly, to attract more investment capital to Nantong. The intent of this research is to develop a conceptual design plan for Hao River Waterfront area, specifically Phase One. The conceptual design plan for Phase Two and Phase Three will be dependent on the success of Phase One after being reviewed over a period of six months to a year. The overall conceptual design plan for Hao River Waterfront will be based on four underpinning principles of access, variety of function use, consistent high quality design and vitality. Sydney Darling Harbour (Australia), Melbourne Docklands (Australia) and Wellington Waterfront (New Zealand) are successful waterfront case studies that have been selected because they are different in scale, location, age, they are in different stages of development and they are intended for recreational, commercial, ecological and residential uses. Most importantly, these waterfronts are centrally located in cities that are major tourism hubs which is crucial in Hao River Waterfront development as Nantong city is moving towards becoming a tourism hub. The learnings from the selected case studies would be advantageous to the Hao River Waterfront redevelopment. The research methodology employed for this project is qualitative. It is a combination of literature review, secondary research and observation of case studies' sites. Data are collected, reviewed, analysed and then recommendations are made according to the requirements of each site in Phase One with careful consideration of how the principles are well integrated between the sites. Last but not least, Hao River Waterfront development process of plan, do, check and act has been discussed to ensure that the project will run effectively