Like poetry and painting... Have these pocket parks in Shanghai "cured" you?, Birds chirping and flowers fragrant garden | Intersection | Pocket

Recently, residents passing by the intersection of Zhongshan North Road and Guangfu West Road have gained a small "beauty" in their hearts: a carefully designed pocket park has been added here.

The northwest corner of this intersection used to be a pumping station building, and the vacant land after demolition often became organic

The phenomenon of high-speed trains parking randomly. With the support of Changfeng Street, the Putuo District Greening and Urban Appearance Bureau has carefully designed this corner material, cleverly setting up two cable wells that are higher than the ground in combination with stone cage retaining walls and benches. At the same time, the strict wall is vertically greened, and plants such as red maple, purple magnolia, rhododendron, jade hairpin, and red banana are reasonably arranged to cover the hard facilities with poor landscape, creating a delicate small street corner space.

Comparison before and after renovation

There are many small plots and small spaces in the central urban area of Shanghai center. If the management is not in place, the environment will become messy and poor. How to effectively utilize these small "scraps" and turn them into "high-quality materials", through high-quality pocket parks, allowing citizens to inadvertently look up at the green, look down at the flowers, and feel the historical context, Shanghai's relevant districts and streets have put their brains into it.

Embrace every opportunity to beautify and create a "golden edge and silver corner"

On Henan Middle Road in Huangpu District, at the entrance of the old community "Shanbei Community", a pocket park called "Cloud Hill" was unveiled earlier this year. Less than 500 square meters, in a triangular shape, the garden is planted with plants such as crabapple, hydrangea, rhododendron, and sage, all of which are colorful and very beautiful. This is a small garden made out of nothing.

Originally, this was an open space, facing a small road on one side and a residential building on the other. Due to its small size, it has never been of much use. Last year, during the micro renovation of Shanbei Street, the Bund Street and the neighborhood committee excavated this space. "Due to natural limitations, there is a lack of public space in old residential areas, so no amount of public space can be given up. Although the space area is small, it can still improve the quality of residents' living environment through careful construction," said the street leader.

Cloud Hill

When the "Cloud Hill" garden was unveiled, the neighboring residential buildings benefited the most. Originally, residents living inside the building were unwilling to open windows because they could only face the road, but now they can see greenery by opening windows, and their mood is also relaxed. What's even more surprising is that a family originally planned to move to a street facing caf é by the Suzhou River, but stayed behind after the completion of this small garden. "In front of our caf é is the garden, the environment is so beautiful," said the caf é owner.

By opening up enclosed spaces and decorating green landscapes, Pocket Parks have also created accessible living and leisure spaces for citizens. The administrative office complex of Jiangwan Town Street, located at 280 Kuizhao Road, has been standing by Shajing Port for over a decade since it was put into use in 2007. There was originally an abandoned area in the yard where motor vehicles were parked, but the utilization rate was not high. After conducting on-site surveying and listening to the opinions of residents, Jiangwan Town Street opened the wall and transformed the abandoned river area into a pocket park from the entrance, facilities, river channel, landscape, etc., creating a 24-hour waterfront living and leisure circle. Along with surrounding community service facilities, it became the Jiangwan Community Reception Hall.

River View Garden in Jiangwan Community Reception Hall

Uncle Wang, who lives nearby, told me to hide the infrastructure and bring unique scenery

Some urban infrastructure that is exposed on the streets often affects aesthetics. Nowadays, through refined design, they are well hidden in pocket parks, and some even become a special scenery.

Due to the implementation of relocation in conjunction with the construction of Metro Line 14, the "Daduhe Road Pocket Park", which has been washed away for several years, has recently made its debut. As the first open public green space starting from the north along Daduhe Road, the No.1 entrance and exit of Tongchuan Road Station on Line 14 is located in this pocket park. The green space not only needs to absorb the flow of people entering and exiting, but also needs to bear more than 10 supporting structures such as ventilation shafts and cooling wells of various sizes.

Bird's-eye view of "Pocket Park on Daduhe Road"

The relevant person in charge of the Putuo District Greening and Urban Appearance Bureau introduced that this pocket park not only needs to leave a square space for pedestrian flow distribution and a non motorized vehicle parking area, but also needs to block various subway ancillary facilities such as ventilation shafts in the landscape. To this end, a curved main garden road is arranged along the north-south direction of the site, avoiding various individual structures while also leading to three branch roads, which are organically integrated with the subway station square, forming the overall garden road network of the entire garden.

The ultra-high voltage overhead lines have indeed limited the plant configuration of Pocket Park, but from a different perspective, it feels like a staff chart in the air, adding a sense of rhythm to the entire park. Whenever autumn comes, the red maple puts on a golden dress, and the entire garden is like a red maple concerto against the backdrop of camphor and other background plants.

Pocket Park at the exit of Yu Garden Station of Line 10

Coincidentally. The exit of Yu Garden Station of Rail Transit Line 10 is located on Renmin Road, next to the sidewalk leading to Yu Garden Mall. A beautiful pocket park has recently appeared. Between the green grass and red flowers, the most eye-catching are the two "big bowl" like constructions. I saw that the "big bowl" was like a container filled with flowers, with various colors of flowers and flowers arranged appropriately, beautiful and elegant. The two "big bowls" are actually urban infrastructure on the road. After decoration and creation, it has become a scenery.

Pocket Park at the intersection of Nanjing West Road and Shimen 1st Road

The intersection of Nanjing West Road and Shimen Road is the "facade" of Nanjing West Road, and there is also a huge urban infrastructure in its southwest corner. Jing'an District has created a pocket park here, with a 5.5-meter-high urban infrastructure surrounded by vertical greenery, forming a vertical green wall and cleverly covering the entrance and exit of the underground substation. The originally unsightly landscape lit up after decoration.

Respect historical context and create poetic and picturesque atmosphere

The historical context is the soul of a city. The relevant departments in Shanghai not only meet the basic construction standards of Pocket Parks, but also fully respect the historical context, explore cultural connotations, and create various characteristic gardens full of poetic and picturesque charm.

White Horse Cafe Green Space

Across from the Jewish Refugee Memorial Hall, there is a pocket park that is pleasing to the eye all year round, located at the intersection of Changyang Road and Zhoushan Road in Hongkou District. Whether strolling under the iron corridor covered with three colored wisteria, or admiring the pure white magnolia and pink roses, sniffing their fragrance, they all have a unique charm. In the garden, there is a rebuilt White Horse Cafe and a sculpture called "Sailing in the Wind and Rain", which silently tells the story of the selfless assistance of the Shanghai people to Jewish refugees and their beautiful wishes for peace. It is reported that after the overall upgrade and renovation in 2021, the garden showcases the courtyard style of Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s, continuing and witnessing the historical existence of alley residences and their associated spaces.

Music Garden

At the intersection of Jiaozhou Road and Anyuan Road in Jing'an District, there is a pocket park with music as its theme - "Music Garden". The staff notation has evolved into a design language here, with organ symbols climbing up the porch, walkways transforming into the shape of music notation, and seats resembling flutes, which is very interesting. Especially, the "Sound Garden" has set up a set of phonograph sculptures in the shape of speakers: based on the speakers, with the artistic creation of the designer, combined with infrared sensing devices and sound playback, this set of sculptures can interact with citizens, playing various natural sounds such as bird singing and frog sound, and even emitting the sound of wind blowing through different plants. Surrounded by high-rise buildings, citizens can feel the sound of flowing water, the rustling of leaves in the wind, and the chirping of birds under the shade of this square inch garden, relaxing their mind and body.

Read the sculpture of Tagore in the garden. Haishaer photography

At the intersection of Maoming South Road and Nanchang Road in Huangpu District, in front of several red brick and brown tiled houses, there is a street corner pocket park called "Reading Garden". In the park, under three towering old trees, there is a row of long seats, and behind the seats stands a half body bronze statue of Tagore. "Mr. Tagore is our old friend on Nanchang Road!" Zhu Fuhai, a resident in his 70s, is the volunteer station manager of Maoming residential area in Ruijin Second Road Street. He lives on Nanchang Road. Mr. Tagore visited Shanghai three times, and the poet Xu Zhimo was a translator accompanying him. Tagore lived with Xu Zhimo, who used to live in Lane 136 on our Nanchang Road. Many neighbors around him are aware of this history and take pride in it. When building this garden, at the request of the residents, Huangpu District respected this history and continued the story. The neighborhood committee often collaborates with bookstores around Nanchang Road to organize small poetry reading events here.

The reading pavilion in the reading garden. Haishaer photography

"Standing by my window, you can hear everyone reading poetry, it's really a beautiful scenery," said a second floor resident living behind the garden.