Kunming Wanda Small Town: Integrating Ethnic Cultural Heritages into Creative Planning

Exploring Traditional Arts and Crafts to Create a Unique Tourist Art Highland

Kunming Wanda Small Town, designed by Yun Du, is a remarkable example of small town landscape architecture. It stands out for its integration of different ethnic cultural heritages into the town's creative planning, making use of the powerful radiation power of business to bring new vitality to the town. The overall design has created a diverse tourist art highland, where every visitor becomes a connoisseur, an appreciator, and a participant in inheriting national cultural treasures and completing ethnic characteristic works together with others.

One of the unique features of Kunming Wanda Small Town is its focus on exploring traditional arts and crafts. Through the planning of creative performances and activities, the town presents various ethnic traditional crafts such as tie-dye technique, Miao silver, Dongba wood carving, Jianshui purple pottery, Hulusi, and Yi embroidery. This integration of ornamental, interaction, experience, and participation creates a travel experience of "walking in the park of traditional crafts."

The design of Kunming Wanda Small Town also pays attention to the spatial sequence and zoning. The landscape planning takes Jishan Square, Jue Hai Temple, and the landscape at the back of the temple to form the axis, creating a clear spatial sequence. The ethnic zoning from left to right includes Bai, Miao, Naxi, Jishan Square, Hani, Dai, and Yi, creating a poetic sentiment of a "town in the garden; painting from heaven."

Based on the distribution of the functions of the small town, the design includes different types of hydrophilic platforms, interesting withdrawing space, inflow steps, and more to enrich the hard-texture revetments, maximizing the commercial value of the venue. Additionally, the north side is designed as a natural revetment for ecological infiltration, taking into consideration the relatively wide spacing between the rivers.

The project was designed in 2017 in Kunming, Yunnan, China, and it is currently under construction. Kunming, known for its distinctive ethnic characteristics, provided the inspiration for this design. The city's diverse nationalities, including Bai, Miao, Naxi, Hani, Dai, and Yi, contribute to the unique cultural heritage that is integrated into the town's landscape.

Kunming Wanda Small Town has been recognized for its excellence in design. It was awarded the Iron A' Design Award in the City Planning and Urban Design category in 2018. This award is given to well-designed, practical, and innovative creations that meet professional and industrial requirements. The design is respected for integrating industry best practices and competent technical characteristics, providing fulfillment and positive feelings, and contributing to a better world.