Golden Axis is a 7 km long street in Shenyang along which the most important business and governmental institutions are gathered. It symbolizes wealth and prosperity of the city. It starts in the north of the city at the Beiling Park, where the tomb of the second Qing emperor is situated. It runs through the whole city and disappears in the network of streets on the south bank of the Hun River. The objectives of the Shenyang city mayors is to redevelop key areas along the axis as well as to refurbish the public space on both sides of the street. Golden Axis becomes the highlight of the city.
The first kilometre of the street from the Beiling Park is included in the scope of the first phase of this project. Design decisions made for this piece of the Golden Axis are starting point for the rest of the street. The character of the Golden Axis at its whole length should be recognisable and distinguish in perception. The project includes redesign of the pavement floor, planting concept and design of the street furniture.
For the pavement floor two colours of the nature stone are selected. Chosen light grey nature stone will blend with changing architecture and atmosphere of the surrounding along the whole length of the street. Dark grey nature stone will indicate the course of the bicycle path. Together they form an outdoor carpet as a calm background for the changing surrounding. Planting scheme of trees complements to the colour and the pattern of the nature stone pavement. Densely planted combination of yellow-leaf trees like Ginko biloba and evergreen conifers like Pinus tabulaefromis will help to distinguish the Golden Axis from the rest of the city.
An important part of the project is constituted by the design of the street furniture. Their uniform language helps to create a comprehensive image of the Golden Axis. Their design is inspired by the Chinese tradition of paper cut-outs especially vivid in Shenyang. Benches, tree grills, planters, dustbins, fences or lighting have an unique perforated pattern referring to the stories visible in the surrounding. Most of the furniture will be made out from steel. On the steel surface a brass coating will be applied to give a gold-like appearance. The furniture can be connected in bigger groups forming a line. In special places they can be arranged in lines folding in a bigger groups to facilitate needs of a larger amount of people.
location: Shenyang, China
year of design: 2011
client: Niek Roozen bv; City of Shenyang
in collaboration with: Niek Roozen bv
execution: start 2012