Boulder Park by Xisui Design – Jinan, China

Boulder Park, designed by Xisui Design, is a 13,000-square-meter community park in the heart of Jinan’s Vanke Snow Mountain City. The park integrates innovative landscape architecture with interactive, multi-sensory experiences for children and families. Using large natural boulders as a core design element, the park seamlessly blends nature-inspired play areas with cutting-edge 3D-printed concrete installations, creating an immersive environment for exploration, learning, and leisure.

Design Concept

The design concept of Boulder Park revolves around the natural symbolism of boulders, representing strength, permanence, and harmony with the environment. These massive stones are strategically integrated into the park’s layout to form play structures, climbing features, and resting areas. Sand pits, shallow streams, and open lawns allow children and adults to engage with nature while encouraging physical activity, balance, and cognitive development.

The park is divided into several distinct zones to accommodate diverse community needs:

• All-Age Boulder Playground – Interactive climbing, swings, slides, seesaws, trampolines, rocking horses, merry-go-rounds, climbing tunnels, speaking tubes, and ropes embedded in the landscape.
• Water Garden – Features shallow stream water play, fountains, water turntables, pumps, and press-to-release devices for multi-sensory engagement.
• Forest Garden – A naturalistic setting that encourages exploration and provides shade, tranquility, and educational interaction with flora.
• Stone Garden & Flower Garden – Designed for aesthetic enjoyment, relaxation, and passive recreation for all ages.

Innovative 3D Concrete Printing

A standout feature of Boulder Park is the use of digitally-controlled 3D concrete printing. This advanced construction technology allows for monolithic molding of complex organic shapes, creating cave-like structures and layered rock formations with unprecedented precision. The technique produces unique tactile surfaces, smooth edges, and curved forms that seamlessly integrate functional elements such as slides, steps, and seating.

3D printing ensures:

• Accuracy and Safety – Eliminates errors common in conventional craftsmanship while providing rounded, child-safe edges.
• Spatial Freedom – Enables free-form shapes that mimic natural boulders and canyon-like formations.
• Aesthetic Integration – Harmonizes the man-made structures with the surrounding natural stone landscape.

Children navigating the park feel as if they are traversing real canyons, enhancing both physical and imaginative play while strengthening their connection to nature.

Safety and Experience

Safety is paramount in all design elements. The park’s installations feature smooth, rounded edges and non-slip surfaces, ensuring a secure environment for children. The combination of slides, tunnels, caves, and speaking tubes creates a multi-dimensional, adventure-rich playground where form and function coexist harmoniously. Boulder Park is not only a community leisure space but also a landscape architecture innovation, blending sustainability, play, and digital fabrication techniques.