A groundbreaking community park project called 'The DECK' has successfully transformed a neglected green space in Shanghai's Youyou Community into a vibrant public gathering place. Designed by VIASCAPE design and completed in 2025, the 3,006-square-meter park features an innovative 90-meter-long elevated deck structure that provides residents with enhanced access to waterfront views and community activities.

The Youyou Community, located in Huamu Sub-district of Pudong New Area, represents one of Shanghai's earliest 'self-built new towns' dating back to the early 1990s. These settlements were originally constructed using farming land expropriation compensation funds and developed independently by local village collectives. Over four decades later, the community had developed into a spatially confined environment with limited social gathering spaces, characterized by narrow mixed-use streets typically not exceeding 9 meters in width and severely constrained by roadside parking.

Before the renovation, the site existed as a closed-off greenbelt with disordered vegetation and zigzag internal paths that offered virtually no activity areas for residents. The space lacked public character and featured a relatively complex spatial structure that contributed to negative perceptions of the overall community environment. VIASCAPE design, led by Sun Yijia, deliberately abandoned conventional multi-level spatial structuring typically found in traditional garden and park design approaches.

The design team implemented a direct and simple expression by removing the existing fences and incorporating a singular 'Deck' structure measuring 90 meters in east-west length and 15 meters in north-south width. This deck serves as both a tangible prompt and metaphor for maximizing the sharing of community public space, providing residents with an open, continuous, and spatially amplified green public space experience while preserving the site's existing mature trees.

One of the project's most significant achievements involves addressing the relationship with Langshuibang Creek, located to the east of the site. Previously, public accessibility and visibility of the waterfront were severely compromised due to the relatively high river bank level of 5.4 meters above mean sea level compared to the site's 4-meter elevation. The waterfront landscape had become an exclusive amenity enjoyed primarily by residents of newly developed high-end housing communities on the opposite bank.

To address this inequality, the design team elevated the deck adjacent to Langshuibang by 1.5 meters, allowing Youyou Community residents to enjoy views and relaxation opportunities at nearly the same level as residents of luxury residential complexes across the river. From this elevated position, residents can gaze eastward along Langshuibang toward new landmarks such as the Pudong Library or look north to the skyline of Lujiazui's three iconic towers located 6 kilometers away.

The spatial construction of the DECK incorporates three specific design features that enhance functionality and user experience. First, given the site's narrow, linear form with north-south widths ranging between 22 and 35 meters, a substantial rectangular green space was integrated into the central portion of the deck. This green courtyard serves to mitigate potential noise disturbance from activities while creating a peaceful buffer zone for adjacent residents.

Second, the design includes a group of integrated benches installed at the west entrance along Yanzhong Road to encourage recreational activities and provide casual resting points. This seating area utilizes both preserved cedar trees and newly planted vegetation, effectively extending the garden's relaxed atmosphere into the street front and creating a welcoming entry sequence for visitors.

The third design feature focuses on the elevated deck itself, which incorporates three key functional aspects. The design combines a seamless accessible ramp that gradually elevates from ground level to 1.5 meters with stepped playful activity zones. The highest platform utilizes both preserved and newly planted trees to define distinct subspaces for various small-scale social interactions, associating specific activities with different spatial characteristics. Additionally, the transition from the highest deck level to the riverside landscape features stepped seating oriented toward views of Langshuibang, promoting spontaneous leisure activities and contemplation.

These design approaches, while addressing specific spatial challenges and creating engaging play spaces, are fundamentally governed by the formal logic of the DECK's elongated, linear form and expressed through a unified design language. In practice, diverse activities now occur spontaneously within the DECK's compact yet flexible space, including adult exercise routines, children's creative play, and recreational activities for people of all age groups.

Particularly noteworthy are the children's self-initiated activities, which often involve games and interactions that the children themselves have invented. This creative play represents more significant value for their developmental growth than the temporary entertainment typically provided by conventional, prefabricated playground equipment.

While the DECK functions as a community-oriented pocket park in terms of basic function and landscape character, the design scheme expresses broader themes of green public lifestyle in high-density urban communities and the pursuit of 'landscape equality' when facing external urban public landscapes. The project serves as a catalyst for significantly enhancing environmental quality across the broader Youyou Community and demonstrates viable pathways for bottom-up community planning within contemporary China's urban renewal context.

Following the design's approval in September 2021, the VIASCAPE design team collaborated with Huamu Sub-district Office to initiate a comprehensive '15-Minute Walk Circle' in the southern sector of Youyou Community. This initiative aims to improve accessibility to adjacent transportation and cultural facilities, utilizing an 1.8-kilometer accessible trail that originates at the DECK as its foundation.

The 15-Minute Walk Circle framework implements a comprehensive public landscape system through systematic interventions including connecting fragmented waterfront walkways, organizing bicycle parking areas, integrating recreational and commuter paths, optimizing kindergarten entrance waiting areas, improving understory spaces in protective greenbelts, and creating small-scale recreational spaces throughout the neighborhood.

This dynamic renewal process, which began with the pocket park upgrade and evolved into a comprehensive community public space system through a 'point to line, line to loop' strategy, represents an effective practice for bottom-up community planning within contemporary urban renewal contexts. The project demonstrates how a single well-designed intervention can catalyze broader neighborhood improvements and community engagement, creating lasting positive impacts that extend far beyond the original project boundaries.