Hangzhou Xiaohe Park by KENGO KUMA & ASSOCIATES occupies a former industrial oil site along the Grand Canal, reinventing the locale as a multifunctional public park with cultural and historical resonance.

Anchored by a lightweight, web-like ETFE canopy fitted with a custom dot-print pattern, the design unifies existing structures and softly frames pedestrian access from all directions. The canopy filters sunlight in a manner that mimics tree foliage, offering diffuse shade and an ethereal spatial sequence across the site.

Beneath the canopy, open terraces, circular seating bowls, and rust-toned corten steel towers create layered gathering and circulation zones. The architectonics were carefully tailored to introduce minimal visual intervention, preserving the site's historical texture while supporting new public activity. Completed in 2023 over a 51,000-square-meter area, Hangzhou Xiaohe Park exemplifies how adaptive reuse and parametric design can coalesce to reconnect city, nature, and memory into a living urban landscape.