The vision for Tianjin Eco-City is of a socially harmonious, environmentally friendly, and resource-efficient model for sustainable development. The new city encompasses two flagship civic projects: the National Maritime Museum and the surrounding South Bay Park. South Bay Park is the project’s central green infrastructure, but also provides a significant outdoor amenity for the National Maritime Museum. It provides green, healthy, vibrant environments for the local community’s daily use as well as establishing a regional tourism destination.

The National Maritime Museum is the centerpiece of the park. The concept for the museum takes its cue from the surrounding ocean, and represents a school of fish coursing through current. Its dynamic form and scale dominate the setting, and will be the focal point for visitors to the park. To connect the park with the museum as one cohesive, connected environment, a concept was adopted that borrows from the relationship between an organism and its environment, in which over time, an organism adapts in response to its surroundings. The park carries this relationship with the museum forward by expanding upon its reference to the sea and, through a common design language, creates a dialogue between architecture and the landscape.