Hassell wins major honours at China’s SRC Design Awards

West Bund riverfront upgrade in Shanghai and Riverside Green in Brisbane have received top honours at China’s annual Streetscape Research Centre (SRC) Design Awards.

Since opening the first of seven sections in 2021, our West Bund project, which won an Outstanding Award from the SRC, has become one of Shanghai’s most loved destinations. Working with The West Bund Group, the brief was to create a series of waterfront area upgrades spanning 11.4km from north to south along the Huangpu River. Our people-centred design concept elevated the original brief to create more enjoyable and easily-accessible spaces for the public.

“Landscape architecture is not just about creating beautiful places but about building connections between people and nature,” says Ye Keyang, deputy general manager of the West Bund Group.

“We appreciate the concept and ideas that Hassell brought to the Xuhui Waterfront. The outcome reflects our respect for the site, care for people’s requirements, and encourages interaction between people to create a waterfront lifestyle for everyone to enjoy.”

Ye Keyang, deputy general manager of the West Bund Group

Riverside Green, which received the Award of Excellence from the SRC, is a new green heart for Brisbane that supports the city’s leisure and recreation needs at a time when inner-city population growth is putting pressure on the city’s existing parks and public spaces.

Visitors can relax and gather on the riverfront’s expansive events lawn, in the rainforest area or subtropical pavilion, which replaces restaurants damaged in the city’s 2011 floods. The project has also won two awards from the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects since its completion in 2021.

The SRC Streetscape Design Awards is initiated by the SRC and curated by the World Architecture Festival China (WAFC). It aims to promote the progression of streetscape design in China and leverage the power of landscape design in an urban renewal context.