The Tangshan Quarry Park in China, by LARP alumni Dong Zhang and Ziying Tang with Z+T Studio, recently won the Rosa Barba Casanovas International Landscape Prize 2023 — International Federation of Landscape Architects.
The Park, located 30 km from Nanjing and on the southern slope of the Tangshan Mountain in China, features four large limestone quarry pits and a surrounding ecosystem which had experienced severe damage through industrial activity and neglect.
“Our design vision was to transform the space into an enhanced, sustainable ecosystem while also providing opportunities to raise public awareness about the environment through community outreach projects and educational opportunities” says Dong Zhang, Ziying Tang, and the team.
“We intended to transform this industrial relic into a territory where the community could witness not only the damage experienced by this ecosystem but also the possibilities for healing damaged spaces.”
Dong Zhang and Ziying Tang founded Z+T Studio in Shanghai, China, in 2009 after completing their Masters in Landscape Architecture (MLA) degrees at UMass LARP in 2005. During their MLA studies, they won several national design competitions. After graduation they worked with Martha Schwartz and Stimson Studio. In 2016, Ziying and Dong established an endowment to provide a research assistantship for a new MLA student.
Today, Z + T Studio's Tangshan Quarry Park in China has made it possible to restore the ecology of the local area and become an example for future sustainable development in the region.
As the Rosa Barba Casanovas International Landscape Prize jury expressed, “With the Tangshan Quarry Park outside Nanjing, China, Z&T Studio have created a thoughtful, poetic, and well-considered landscape architectural project that considers the integration of the site and its users: human and non-human. At all stages of the design process, we can see the integration of environmental, and the social ecologies, manifest in an exquisitely executed project. The outstanding narrative on the relationship between nature and people uncovering dynamic processes captivated the jurors.”
Congratulations to Z +T Studio for your impactful work and this significant accomplishment.
Learn more about the Tangshan Quarry Park at http://ztsla.com/project.html.
Tangshan Quarry Park
Dong Zhang and Ziying Tang
Z + T Studio Office.
Photos by Z + T Studio.