2026 New Taipei Riverside Butterfly Festival

Dancing Among Blossoms
Reimagining Riverside Parks Through Butterfly-inspired Landscape Design

Cities do not stop after sunset, and neither should their parks. Yet many riverside parks gradually lose their public value at night, functioning as transit corridors rather than places where people gather, interact, and reconnect with nature.
Dancing Among Blossoms introduced Nighttime Landscape Regeneration as a landscape-led strategy that redefines the role of riverside parks. By integrating landscape architecture, ecological planning, and human-centered lighting, the project transformed underused public open space into a resilient landscape where ecology, community, and urban life could coexist.
Inspired by Taiwan's native Broad-tailed Swallowtail (Agehana maraho), the butterfly underwent transformation from decorative element into a comprehensive landscape language. Wing geometry, flight patterns, and natural rhythms shaped the spatial organization, circulation, planting design, lighting hierarchy, and landscape identity, creating a distinctive Sense of Place throughout one of Taiwan's few butterfly-inspired riverside parks.
Ecology was the foundation of the design. Extensive planting of nectar-rich species, including cosmos, zinnias, and marigolds, provided habitats and foraging resources for butterflies, bees, and other pollinators, embedding biodiversity into everyday public space. Harmonizing ecological infrastructure and sustainable planting strategies, the landscape balanced habitat restoration, visual quality, and public use.
Lighting was treated as a landscape material rather than a visual spectacle. Layered low-glare illumination, intelligent controls, and energy-efficient LED systems revealed terrain, vegetation, and waterfront landscapes while minimizing ecological disturbance and extending the park's nighttime vitality.
Once a riverside shortcut, the park became a welcoming public destination that encouraged walking, gathering, and reconnecting with nature. More than 80,000 visitors attended the two-week exhibition, with 99% public satisfaction, demonstrating the long-term value of landscape regeneration.
More than a seasonal flower exhibition, Dancing Among Blossoms established a replicable model for regenerating riverside public landscapes, proving that landscape architecture can strengthen ecological resilience, enrich public life, and redefine the relationship between cities, nature, and people.