Yitang Kao

Circular Water Stories lab

Vernacular landscape in the pond

Reviving Ponds in the Urban Network; towards a resilient water landscape for Taoyuan County in Taiwan

The land of a thousand ponds is disappearing in Taoyuan county, Taiwan. The human-made ponds were used to irrigate the farmland. Today, they are neglected and filled to create land for construction. Extreme climate change causes droughts and floods in the area; land and city need to deal with both too little and too much water. Keeping, restoring and reusing the ponds can be part of the solution. Principles of robustness, reflectiveness and flexibility are used to reactivate the ponds.

1. Robustness: Integrating the ponds into the urban infrastructure creates a robust green and blue network.
2. Reflectiveness: Transforming the previous pond culture into a new design reflects local characteristics.
3. Flexibility: In the ponds, more or less water can be stored.