Design process
The process that resulted in the construction of Suna-wase Park had been initiated with a proposal by the local authority to create a park on a former supermarket site in the centre of the town, close to Shibayama-gata Lagoon. However, when these plans were made public, there was considerable local opposition including concerns about the park being unmanaged, unsafe and spoiled by dog fouling.
Aware of the need to both address the loss of beautiful scenery in the town and respond to public concern, the mayor of the city, Jin Osaka visited Professors Osamu Shinohara and Yu Nakai at the University of Tokyo to seek their advice. The professors were then invited to join the discussion group that had already been formed with the local community. Their input helped stimulate fresh and more profound discussions around the central theme of water, a subject that seemed to touch the collective consciousness of the community group. From this theme came the idea of creating ponds, purifying the water from the lagoon and adding a public footbath to function as a place where visitors and local residents could meet.
Two ponds were designed to function as a water purifier, one at a higher level than the other. Water is first pumped from Shibayama-gata Lagoon to the uppermost pond, from where it runs into the lower pond, which, covered with special material made from recycled glass, works as a filter. This process treats only a fraction of the lagoon’s water, thus making its role more symbolic than truly instrumental. However, the symbolism of the process, combined with the public location of the ponds, creates a level of awareness that is seen as a helpful and necessary catalyst for further change.
In the ponds, various kinds of aquatic plants are grown; some have established themselves while others have not. The ponds are a public laboratory, where local experts, community members and visitors get together and talk about what happens. The overall maintenance of the park has been carried out by local residents, with 22 groups of volunteers taking it in turn to clean and service the park. Many of these volunteers are people who have been involved in the development of the park since the initial discussions and early designs.
There has been a particular chain of discussion about the shape of the footbath shed. The design team prepared models showing several options and the design changed in response to public comments until the last minute. Although not all participants supported the final design, they were all aware of the design process that led to it, an issue that appears to have been important.
