Topography as structure: Using earth instead of walls

A park boundary that uses topography to manage elevation changes. What would normally require a two-meter-high retaining wall is now replaced by a gentle, eight-meter-wide earthen mound. The slope is so gradual that one can walk up it, sit down, or children can roll down it; the slope surface is covered with herbaceous plants and low shrubs. By using earth instead of a wall, the elevation change is no longer a visual and physical barrier but becomes a usable topographical feature. The mound also blocks views and noise from the adjacent road. Only in localized areas where space is insufficient does a short section of weathering steel retaining plate appear. One corner of the image shows a comparison with a vertical retaining wall: the same elevation difference becomes an impassable wall. Avoid: making the two similar, making the slope too steep to be usable, adding railings to the slope, or covering the slope with neat flowerbeds.

Translated from Chinese by AI.

一段以地形處理高差的公園邊界。原本需要一道兩米高的擋土牆,現在改為一道寬達八米的緩坡土丘,坡度平緩到可以走上去、坐下來、孩子可以滾下來;坡面覆蓋草本與低矮灌木。因為用土代替牆,高差不再是一道視覺與行為的障礙,而變成一個可以使用的地形。土丘同時遮擋了旁邊道路的視線與噪音。只有在空間不足的局部才出現一小段耐候鋼的擋土板。畫面的一角以垂直擋土牆的做法作對照:同樣的高差變成一道無法穿越的牆。避免:讓兩者相似、把坡度做得太陡無法使用、在坡面加裝欄杆、使用整齊的花圃覆蓋坡面。