International Projects
Plincke has a proven track record of international work in locations including mainland Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Central and South Asia. The projects include large-scale master planning for new, sustainable cities, green-blue infrastructure, and cultural asset management for heritage sites. Our teams bring considerable experience in well-researched and inspiring solutions, which are sensitive to people, place, culture, and environment.
Fuyang Cultural District, China
Fuyang is a city in north-western Anhui province, famous for its mountainous landscapes and ancient calligraphy. Plincke were appointed as lead landscape architects and urban planners for the £800 million city expansion with the creation of a new cultural district. The masterplan included a mixed-use development combining residential, business, artists’ studios, primary school, hotel, and a major new cultural centre. Plincke developed the scheme based on three-character zones: urban edge, a transition zone, and a forest area that steps up the steep terrain. Each zone has a bespoke range of materials based on the ancient art of paper folding and cutting to create a strong sense of place and identity.
Hongqiao Business District, Shanghai, China
Plincke worked alongside the Swiss based master-planning team at Nature Lab to develop the competition winning entry for a key regeneration site on the Shanghai Canal. The project is part of an overall masterplan involving architects including Zaha Hadid and Foster +
Partners to create Asian’s most sustainable business district. Plincke developed the concept
of a series of overlapping ‘lily pads’ that provide a protective, biophilic membrane over the
building forms to ameliorate the site and encourage year-round outdoor activities. New
riverside paths promote walking and cycling routes as part of a green infrastructure network.
Moscow Private Airport, Russia
The project redresses the diminished and stressed filled experience of air travel by reconnecting the pre-flight journey and vehicular arrival with the emotion attached to flight. A sequence of landscaped spaces, including an increasingly dense forest acts as a decompression of the urban stress. Emerging from the forest, the landscape signifiers collectively reference the experience of flight. A continuum of surface and line, in a landscape of expansive distance. The artificial horizon created by the ground plane
is constantly changing with the seasons, snow to meadow, to lawn, to ice, the constant is the line of travel. The strong tree forms anchor the site to its surroundings, and to the seasons.
Gardens of the World, Berlin
Plincke were invited to prepare a design for ‘The English Garden’. We took its form from the
walled enclosures of English kitchen gardens where fruit, vegetables and cut flowers would
be grown. The partial enclosure also references the hortus conclusus, the enclosed garden,
an archetypal form applicable to ancient garden culture from the Far East to the medieval
European tradition. The garden is divided using the golden ratio of proportion and central
axis which results in four character zones or compartments reflecting the tradition of
compartments seen in many English gardens such as Sissinghurst and Hidcote Manor.
National Museum of Ras Al Khaimah, UAE
Plincke worked alongside Nicholas Hare Architects and Buro Happold to develop the masterplan surrounding the proposed National Museum. Proposals centred around the creation of a new public plaza to host events and activities with new water and tree planting aiding the space’s micro-climate. The plaza combines with a series of inter connecting public spaces with an historic fort as the focus. Our brief was to create a new landscape setting for the fort and surrounds which binds together the fort, the new Museum’s Welcome Building and ancillary new research, administration and education facilities. The publicly accessible spaces of the site form a key role in establishing the emerging identity of this old city quarter as a visitor destination.
‘Packages’, Lahore, Pakistan
Plincke collaborated with international architectural practice, Aedas to prepare the public realm strategy for a key development in Lahore. The site is well known, being home to a packaging production plant since 1956. A new life is proposed as a destination retail development. Plincke proposed a symbolic layering of natural and man-made references, which looked to the beauty, of local crafts and artefacts combined with Lahore’s famous water gardens. The landscape works as a destination in itself, a setting for the architecture and arrival sequence, and to enhance the brand and exhibit/event identity. Recreational activities can take place within the landscape such as play, outdoor eating, and relaxation.
Oxygen Dubai UAE
‘Oxygen’ is the latest luxury resort in Dubai to attract international attention and investment. The project, by developer Damac focuses on a new way of living, connecting sustainably managed natural systems and processes with absolute luxury. Centred around a championship golf course the development comprises a mixed-use masterplan of retail, residential, leisure, and hotel facilities. Plincke won the commission as concept landscape architects and urban designers via an invited competition. We were selected to develop the concept on the basis of our experience of holistic largescale, green-blue infrastructure solutions to maximise the sustainability of complex, urban development.
Hosvan Green City Concept, Baku, Azerbaijan
As part of an international competition, Plincke worked with the Berlin studio of EWA Architects to create a new sustainable city masterplan in Baku, the Capital and largest city of Azerbaijan. As lead landscape architects and urban designers, we developed the commercial and residential new town, which is connected to the existing infrastructure of the region and in the future will form part of a much larger expansion of the development. We sought to define a green-livable city concept, that could be applied to this site but also set a development exemplar for the wider region, based upon environmental repair and enhancement to provide a sustainable and commercially viable strategy to tackle the regions environmental degradation.
Angkor Wat Temple Complex, Cambodia
Following extensive research, including site visits to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Angkor Wat, Plincke acted as lead consultant for a two new visitor reception buildings. The first forms a welcome and information centre that significantly expands the current interpretation of the temple complex’s history whilst the second provides a catering, retail, and toilet facilities. The new buildings are considered as semi-inside / outside spaces and uses local materials to create a strong sense of place and identity.
One Montin Place, Baku, Azerbaijan
Plincke formed part of the winning design team with the UK’s ADP Architects for an urban regeneration masterplan comprising 4-statement apartment towers and extensive new public realm and residents pocket parks and gardens. Located immediately opposite the spectacular new Congress Centre and the iconic Heydar Aliyev Centre, which are the focal points of the new cultural quarter for the city. Plincke’s proposal addressed the environmental harness of the region’s strong sand laden winds with a series of colonnades that integrated screens that filter out the wind and sand. The solution creates a distinct micro-climate that facilitates outdoor living and encourages a sense of place and community.
‘Emporium’, Lahore, Pakistan
The Emporium is a retail and leisure complex with shops, casual and fine dining, an ice skating rink, a cinema and a hotel. It occupies the site of the former international Lahore Expo and is part of an overall regeneration masterplan. Plincke were appointed as landscape architects and urban designers for the Emporium from initial concept ideas through to detailed design and advice during construction. The development sits on a raised plinth, surrounded by a series of water canals. These both help to ameliorate local environmental conditions but also address security concerns by preventing ram-raiding and channelling all visitors through security-controlled access points.
