Hsinchu Paradise is a healthy smart city built with the goal of creating a healthier living environment. Located at the border of Hsinchu County and Hsinchu City, falling within the satellite area of the Hsinchu Science Park and leveraging geographical advantages. Hsinchu Paradise contains residential, commercial, and parkland areas with a total development area of around 59 hectares. More than 55% of the total area is dedicated to parks and green spaces, establishing a city with low-density development and abundant greenery.
Different from typical Taiwan projects that consist of standalone buildings, the city was planned with a smart city approach from the beginning, integrating innovative technologies and resembling a “micro-city.” Embracing numerous innovative technologies, it focuses on sustainable governance by developing related smart systems and establishing a city-specific application. Through this app, residents can connect to the city’s smart platform, incorporating features like fire warning systems, energy management, urban micro-weather stations, and more.
AECOM has provided comprehensive landscape design services for this project, closely intertwining the vision of a smart health city with its landscapes, creating a livable urban environment for the 8,000 households.
Eight Major Parklands Enable A Comprehensive Outdoor Living Experience
The central axis boulevard traverses the city, encircling its core area. The east-west route connects to key areas like the science park and highways. The primary parks and open green spaces are developed along this boulevard, with plans for eight theme-based parks, including a central park, a lakeside park, sports park, clubhouse park, treehouse park, sandbox playground and a pet park. Seasonal plantings enhance the city’s visual appeal while fostering diverse plant communities and ecologies.
The expansive parks and green spaces create a distinctive leisurely lifestyle. The human-centric design and pet-friendly features cater to a diverse range of leisure, sports, and gaming needs for different age groups. Surrounded by rolling green hills, the distant mountains, and clear skies, the city seems nestled in a treasure trove of greenery. This unique atmosphere inspired the designers to adopt the theme of ‘Forest Serenade’ praising this garden town surrounded by forested greenery, providing a lifestyle akin to a vacation amidst a city filled with amenities.
Themed Garden Towers with Distinctive American Villa Styles are A Highlight
The overall space planning and detailed design revolve around the inspiration of “Forest Serenade,” extending into three main design themes and three major area configurations that embody both the client’s development strategy and the concept of living space.
- Cloud Forest: Core residential areas are developed into a green residential landscape reminiscent of living amidst tranquil clouds
- Mountain Forest: Surrounding the eastern zones, the design aims to cultivate an ambiance of dwelling amidst gentle mountains
- Star Forest: Encircling the western zones, the design seeks to embody a residential space evocative of serene living under a starlit sky
The Residential buildings feature the open floor design, offering ample landscape spaces. Leveraging this advantage, indoor communal areas, semi-outdoor spaces, and outdoor landscapes are integrated to provide residents with extensive community activity spaces.
- Indoor communal areas: Equipped with a clubhouse, shared kitchen, gym, parent-child workshop, and yoga room
- Semi-Outdoor spaces: Complementing the indoor layout with a community classroom, cloud-themed children’s playground, a fitness area, etc.
- Outdoor landscapes: Integrated with semi-outdoor landscapes, featuring a living lawn, active running tracks, an art gallery, outdoor fitness area, aromatic healing gardens, and outdoor relaxation area.
- Overall Landscape Design Incorporates imagery of clouds, mountains, and starry skies. For instance, the outdoor relaxation area includes a cloud-themed feature pergola, the children’s play area integrates mountain-themed sculptures, seating, interactive starry sky play equipment, and wind-inspired swings.
American-style Villa gardens Balance Privacy and Openness
Two-story American-style standalone villas within the area emphasize the American lifestyle and introduce American garden design. A natural stone-
tiled entrance wall and neatly arranged shrubbery greet visitors, while the garden cleverly use the elevation differences between the courtyard and street, offering outward views for residents while maintaining privacy. The inner courtyards feature simple lawns adorned with unique trees, infusing the villas with warmth, comfort, and a natural ambiance.
Central Blue-Ribbon Park Driving the City’s New Lifestyle
In Hsinchu Paradise, the parklands and the green spaces in the neighborhood garden interlace to form a harmonious green network. The blue-ribbon spaces add a vacation-like atmosphere to city living. The Central Park, situated at the heart of the Hsinchu Paradise, serves as the outdoor hub, representing the city’s vitality. The Central Park completed at the end of 2022, which is the flagship area of the entire development, it opened alongside the sales center, serving as a showcase for the entire region.
The Central Park has the area’s widest lake view, featuring the dynamic visual focal point of the whirlpool-like ‘Water Dance Music Fountain Plaza’ exuding vibrant energy. The water dance and music change with time and significant festivals. Using natural stacked stone for a nearly 50-meter cascading waterfall enhances the visual impact and extends the lake’s grandeur. At the park’s highest point lies the ‘Starry Sky Pool, an perfect point overlooking the Central Park, commercial area, and surrounding green mountains. Moving into the ‘Riverside Terrace’ beneath the ‘Special Waterfront Gallery’, visitors can immerse themselves in greenery and the soothing sounds of water, momentarily escaping from the urban bustle.
In terms of plant design, the theme revolves around shades of pink and purple during the summer. Key trees include Taiwan’s native large trees like camphor, Formosan alder, Celtis formosana, Taiwan sweetgum, and maple trees. They’re complemented by flowering trees like jacaranda, coralbean, and Lagerstroemia indica, adding seasonal charm. Given Hsinchu’s reputation as a windy city, shrubbery includes wind-resistant plants like belamcanda, spider lily, and yucca, embodying a rhythmic wind-inspired design. Assorted variegated plants like Ficus microcarpa variegata, Bougainvillea spectabilis variegata and Ficus triangularis variegata introduce color variations and visual interest to the park.
The residential area, lakeside park, sandbox playground, and sports park are expected to be gradually completed and operational by 2024, with the entire area set for full completion by 2031. Hsinchu Paradise is dedicated to the development of a smart city, promoting the integration of technology with life, embracing an American-style leisurely lifestyle. Through the spatial connection of blue-ribbon cores and green networks, it aims to create a comprehensive and diversified living space experience. With numerous innovative features, this city is poised to become a new benchmark in Taiwan’s urban planning and residential landscape design.