Back on Rail: Brownfield Restoration Masterplan

The project is located in Jinnan District, situated between downtown Tianjin and the Binhai New Area. Since the rise of Tianjin’s port-driven economy in the last century, Rockcheck has functioned as a critical hub for steel production and logistics, resulting in long-term industrial pollution and severe soil contamination. This design proposes an ecological remediation framework that restores polluted land through an interactive system linking soil, vegetation, and human activity.

The remediation strategy is structured along the existing railway infrastructure and unfolds in three sequential phases. Phase One focuses on ex-situ treatment, engineering logistics, and soil pretreatment. Phase Two introduces in-situ remediation processes and initiates phytoremediation to gradually rebuild ecological functions. Phase Three envisions the abandonment of the railway and its transformation into a continuous ecological corridor. Together, these phases operate as an integrated system that drives long-term environmental recovery.

In the long term, Back on Rail aims not only to regenerate soil health, vegetation systems, and overall living conditions, but also to serve as a pilot model for public participation and ecological awareness. As suburban expansion and industrial transformation continue, the project suggests that underutilized railway corridors hold significant potential to become scalable infrastructures for landscape-based ecological remediation.