‘Fierljep’ polder and an information centreJinzhou, China (2011–present)

The city of Jinzhou is located 430 kilometres north of Beijing in the province of Liaoning and lies 20 kilometres inland. The Jinzhou Longqiwan New Area is an urban develop-ment on the coast of the Bonzai Sea.Part of this development is a park, for which Bureau B+B is building a ‘fierljep’ polder and an information centre. This polder-garden will open during the Jinzhou World Landscape Art Exposition in 2013. A three-meter high dike surrounds the garden and protects the meadows and the system of ditches. The polder is vacant, devoid of views and stands in sharp contrast to the other gardens. But before you know it, the polder becomes a playground. Visitors, fathers, and children use canes to vault over the ditches from one field to another. Theyexperience the euphoria of taking posses-sion of inaccessible land and, by using thecanes to transport themselves throughout the garden, follow the more than thousandyear old tradition of ‘fierljeppen’.

Visitors enter the polder through the in-formation centre. In the centre, they swap their own shoes for rubber boots and an informative film explains how to ‘leap a ditch’. The concrete space, with its alcoves and peepholes, is located in the dike and refers to a fortification. The green-impreg-nated concrete and caverns,which bring the sunlight into the space, offer visitors an adventure even before they enter the gar-den. Flower-filled fields of grass lie between the ditches. They differ in colour due to the varied maintenance plan, visitor dynamics, and subtle differences in soil conditions and dampness. The result is a realm of mead-ow-islands with plants that can be treadon, plants for water and banks, clover and flowers in the grass, all of which changesduring the exposition season. Pickings flow-ers and lying in the grass is permitted. With a hand-made crown of flowers in your hand and splashes of water on your cheek, you say good-bye to the polder.

Type:Garden

Designteam:Bureau B+B stedebouw en landschapsarchitectuur

Program:Garden, dike, watersystem and an information centre

Surface:3.200 m2 (including building 350 m2 gfa)

Budget:¤ 915.000,-

Client:Jinzhou World Landscape Art Exposition

a system of ditches

jumping through the polder

route through the polder over wooden boards

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several sections trough the dike with the information centre