Bring people to the nature conservancy area with the least impact on the existing environment is the challenge of the project. The design considered two central conflicts of this relationship: the intersection between human activities and nature routes; as well as the permanent occupation of human spaces inside the nature space.
The main characteristic of the site is the diversity of vegetation bed, prairie species, and landforms within a middle-size conservancy area. Plant system will vary themselves in each landform environment, also in each season of the year, which leads to the variation of human activities on site. The diagrams depict those changes of both natural conditions and visitors’ activities throughout the year, which helps to define zones for human and nature without interfering each other.
The visitor center and eco-lodges are scattered in the middle of area, along the east edge of the lake, which gives visitors open views to the whole prairie. Use the boundaries of landforms to design the trail system, and create the diverse human-made landscape in the “human-zone” are strategies for visitors and researchers experience the diversity of prairie.
“Human-zone” was designed in the oasis form, and covered under green platforms helps to define human boundaries , embedding each person into nature, also “returning” the natural patterns which have been occupied by artificial structure.
