The Art of Survival: Recovering Landscape Architecture

Acknowledgment This book is a collection of articles written by different authors in the past three years. I am thankful to Mary Padua from Hong Kong University for assistance in putting these articles together and carrying out further editing. Mary, who contributed two of the articles, also regularly helpes me with English. Dr. Malt Selugga from Peking University and Turenscape, has also been a great support in editing the book. I am thankful to Susan Jakes from Time Magazine, professor Antje Stockman from Hanover University, Dr. Birgit Linder from Hong Kong University, Gareth George from Beijing Today, Dihua Li and Dr. Xili Han from Peking University, and Wei Pang from Turenscape allowing me to use their articles. I am extremely grateful to the ASLA, Landscape Australia, Time and Topos - all have been so generous in granting permission to reprint the articles they had originally published. I also thank Jinlei Lu and his colleagues for their hard work in creating the book’s layout in a very short period of time. My own article, The Art of Survival - Recovering Landscape Architecture, was written based on my keynote speeches at the IFLA east region conference held in Sydney in May, 2006, and my speech presented at both the 2006 ASLA annual meeting, and the 43rd IFLA World Congress at Minneapolis. I am thankful to the ASLA, The Australia Institute of Landscape Architects, and The International Federation of Landscape Architects for their invitation and generous support. The selected projects in this book were all a result of team work. I thank my colleagues Dihua Li, Wei Pang, Shihong Lin, and my students Xili Han, Hailong Liu, Lei Zhang for their extensive involvement in one or more of theses projects. Many other staff members from Turenscape, and my students from the Graduate School of Landscape Architecture at Peking University, made contributions to these projects and their names are mentioned with the individual projects in the book. I am always proud of both the research team at Peking University and my design team at Turenscape, without their hard work and creativity, all the projects would be impossible to complete. The projects selected for inclusion in the book have generally received international awards, and it was these awards that have encouraged us to work hard to face the challenging situation in China. Kongjian Yu Dean and Professor, The Graduate School of Landscape Architecture, Peking University and President, Turenscape, Beijing, China August 1, 2006 Foreword The Art of Survival：Recovering Landscape Architecture is a remarkable compendium of important ideas which provides a rich coverage of the major paradigms and trends that influenced the thoughts and practice of landscape architecture in China at the end of the 20th century. This book is largely the result of the efforts and enthusiasm of landscape architects of Turenscape and the Graduate School of Landscape Architecture of Peking University, who selected a number of projects, texts and essays by pioneering Landscape Architect Kongjian Yu. Professor Yu described modern China as having an identity and an ecological crisis. He is determined to create an appropriately modern and suitably Chinese approach in his writings, in the new landscape architecture program at the Peking University, and in his projects. Many developing countries, especially China, are now facing two major crises: the crisis of cultural identity confronting globalization and modernization, and the crisis of people-land relationship due to rapid urbanization and industrialization, in which landscape architects as a profession must play a key role. The sheer enormity of the scale and speed of social transformation that China is facing has not been encountered in Western social development. China is now at a stage of reshaping the rural and urban landscape. Environmental and recreational consciousness is increasing along with rising levels of income, prosperity and education. Urbanization and globalization have positioned landscape architecture to address three major challenges and opportunities in the coming decades, such as finding solutions to both the energy and the environmental crisis, regaining cultural identity, and building a spiritual connection to the earth. The Art of Survival：Recovering Landscape Architecture is a unique contribution of theory and practice. It is both encyclopedic in its coverage of the antecedents of the ideal paradise or Shangri-La, so beautifully expressed in Chinese mythology as the land of peach blossoms, and focused on the origins of landscape architecture in China, establishing bridges between the art of survival and land stewardship, along with the Challenges and Opportunities for Landscape Architecture for the new era. The projects illustrated in the chapter 2, 3 and 4 demonstrate an environmental approach, while educating people about green solutions. They show beautiful and attractive places for the people, reflecting a careful recognition and consideration of the landscape and site surroundings, a respect for the natural environment and a consistent way of thinking of the primacy of The Poetics of Vernacular. In these projects by Turenscape, new issues for China are evident. These issues concern -besides the biological and dynamic processes of nature - developing approaches to design which track from a particular place, the context of its natural and cultural landscape, and the associated local traditions of the people. In formulating the designs the writer is creating a new consciousness for the beauty of the Chinese cultural landscape and native, wild, diverse vegetation – a completely new concept for China. This book makes it possible to follow unequivocally Professor Yu’s statement that the challenge for landscape architecture is to recover its role as an art of survival. The leading task is to re-create a new type of Land that sustains humanity, returns people’s identity, and makes them happy. This book will be an invaluable tool in translating theory into action, assisting in the global sharing of knowledge and raising the quality of the professional debate when policies are considered. On behalf of the International Federation of Landscape Architects I would like to thank and congratulate on the ambitious scope of this book. It is truly exciting that a leading planning intellectual has designed a publication that spans the conceptual thoughts and the real application on this digital age, and globalization in contemporary landscapes. Martha Cecilia Fajardo IFLA President International Federation of Landscape Architects Bogotá, November 9, 2006