Internationality and Identity

Garden design has along tradition in China. Modern landscape architecture is still searching to develop its own style between traditional examples and international monotony. Projects by the office Turenscape demonstrate elements of a contemporary yet autonomous language of design. China is known for the age-old art of planning painterly gardens which look like there-dimensional paintings, symbols of harmny between nature and man. China, the fourth-largest country on earth, is also known for a large variety of spectuacular cultural landscape which have evolved over centuries of adapting the way land is used to its many different natural conditions and climatic zones. Extnesive knowledge of nature's cycles and intergrating man into these cycles has flowed into the design of the landscape. Historians also agree that by continually clearing, terracing, turning the soil, planting and irrigating, the Chinese have influenced their environment in a more long-lasting way than any other nation. Because of the current tendencies in city development-the construction industry is booming and everywhere skyscrapers, fashionable residential districts, software parks and shopping centers are springing up-the landscape is being developed at a rate never experienced before, causing an increasingly damaging impact on the environment. Everything seems possible, and at a dizzying rate. Environmental and recreational consciousness is increasing along with rising levels of income, prosperity and education. The need for an enduring form of organization and design of urban spaces is growing steadily. What options exist for the profession of landscape architecture in China, in light of its historic roots and current trends in city development? And how are these options reflected in the current position and trends in developing contemporary Chinese landscape architecture? To many foreigners visiting China, the diversity of cultural landscapes appears like a large garden with a mosaic of dams, terraces and fields. Differing greatly from the Egyptians, who lived in inhospitable deserts and planned their gardens on the desert borders in the same rational way as their fruit orchards or wheat fields, the Chinese never copied their cultural landscapes in their gardens. In traditional Chinese garden design, rather than being artificially stylized or formal geometric compositions, the gardens were a miniature concentration of natural landscape images created by a compression of familiar landscape scenarios. The garden, "Heaven and Earth in one vessel", (quotation from a scholar from the Tang Dynasty 618-907) represents the universe, with its many landscape elements such as brooks, hills, springs, ponds, islands, pavilions, plants and cliffs. Today many Chinese designs are still characterized by the placement of too many elements in a limited space, and of not only imitating nature, but also creating miniature copies of Chinese and international models. Whereas the European tradition of lawns is associated with nature's freshness and brightness from the tradition of the shepherd, the Chinese associate their grass steppes oft the north with the wilderness which threatens their civilisation. As recently as 1920, a Chinese traveller described the expansive lawns in European parks as good for cows, but not suitable for man's intellect. Today, however, lawns are symbols of internationalism and luxury. Native plants and natural ecosystem development are still considered uncivilized. Until now, designs which use ornamental, strongly decorative and axial language, are dominating. The designs lack a relationship to the context. Set pieces identifiable as being traditionally Chinese, such as pagoda forms, symbolic stone formations and plant varieties, paired with European Baroque hedges and sculptural elements, and expensive, modern materials, create a colourful mixture of styles. The style mixture is a symbol of a commerce- and progress-oriented culture. This condition is caused by client preconceptions and their strong need to have theses represented; the taste of the fast-growing Chinese middle and upper classes, and their desire to display their newly-acquired wealth in a respective living environment; and also the different educational backgrounds of the architects involved. Whereas garden architecture on a small scale has been a tradition in China for centuries, landscape architecture has only existed as an independent planning discipline for the last 20 years. The field of landscape architecture takes on particular significance in light of current urban expansion and environmental problems; significant not only in enhancing the landscape in cities, but also in developing ideas to solve problems related to ecology, infrastructure and use. Solutions can hardly be gathered from limited traditional understanding of the field, using the restricted garden design model, or be borrowed from foreign examples. How can a landscape architect in China fulfil the needs and aspirations of modern man to become international, and also satisfy local and regional requirements? Most frequently it is young offices, established by architects who have often studied abroad, that have new answers in developing a modern understanding in the fild. They are trying to provide now stimulus to the field and to question current trends in the practice. One representative of the young Chinese landscape architects is Yu Kongjian. He grew up in a small viallage in the Zhejiang province, characterized by its traditional rural use of open spaces. He studied garden planning at the Peking Forestry University, the largest and oldest landscape architecture school in China (founded in 1952). Later he earned his doctorate at Harvard. After returning to China in 1998, he established Turenscape in Peking. The office, with a staff of approximately 200, is the largest private landscape architecture firm in China today. Yu Kongjian has described today's China as having an identity crisis as well as an ecological crisis. He is striving to create an appropriately modern and suitably Chinese style in his publications, in the new landscape architecture program at the Peking University he established, and in his projects. While doing so he is seeking a strong relationship to the Genius Loci: he is developing approaches to design which stem from a particular place, the context of its natural and cultural landscape, and the associated local traditions of the people. In formulating his designs he is creating a new consciousness for the beauty of the Chinese cultural landscape and indigenous vegetation - a completely new concept for China. In designing the architecture school campus in Shenyang, Turenscape captures the original structure of the agricultural landscape by using the path divisions between the rice field parcels. The configuration of the design is rectilinear; its motif is unusual for a university campus - that of a productive cultural landscape whose products are harvested and sold as souvenirs. The site is broken into spaces varying in size, divided by a strong framework of diagonally arranged rows of single trees and tree groves, as well as a rectilinear axis of walkways. The geometry of the park is taken from the rational order of the surrounding agricultural fields, and the diagonal orientation of the parcels. The design combines the artificiality of a French Baroque garden with cultural and wild vegetation plantings in an exemplary, ornamented grid - an unusual learning environment for the architecture students. Another project is the Zhongguancun Life Science Park in Peking, which uses a central park area as a wetland watering system. A network of walkways leads one through a mosaic of different native aquatic plants and reeds. Paths on different levels linked by steps make various connections possible across areas with varying water levels. In the Yongning River Park in Taizhou, an area transformed into a native reed and grass landscape was once the diked banks of a river, previously secured by strong concrete walls. Through this change additional flood plains were returned to the river, which also helps water purification of the natural wetlands. Within the park is an organically shaped wetland system on the same level as the river. The figure of the wetlands is contrasted by a matrix of square bastions planted with a grid of Chinese redwoods (Metasequoia glyptostroboides). This tree is very common to the watercourse landscape of southern China. Circulation within the park is provided by an axial grid of paths, partly compreised of elevated bridges and walkways. An unsusual feature of the park is the scattered colourful square boxes which serve as special areas for the visitors. In the Turenscape projects described, new issues for China are apparent. These concern ecological and dynamic processes of nature, such as changing water levels, seasons, ecosystem development, vegetation and harvests. These considerations, plus the design philosophy of using native wild and cultural vegetation, retaining and utilizing historical structures and minimizing the design language, enable Turenscape to create new formulas for combining Chinese cultural identity with international examples. [B]Affiliation:[/B] Antje Stokman, born in 1973, studied landscape architecture at the University of Hanover and Edinburgh College of Art. After graduation she worked as a research and teaching assistant in the University of Hanover from 2000-2001 and in the office "Rainer Schmidt Landschaftsarchitekten" from 2001-2004. Since 2004 freelance work as well as research and teaching in the University of Hanover, guest lecturer at TU Hamburg Harburg in Germany and Peking University, Tongji University Shanghai, China. antje.stokman@web.de Stefanie Ruff, born in 1976, was trained as a gardener and studied landscape architecture at TFH Berlin. During her studies she got some working experiences in different landscape offices in Berlin and Australia and since 2004 freelance work for different landscape architects and architects in Beijing, China. stefanieruff@gmx.de [url=http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/topos51stokman.pdf]Download the article: Internationality and Identity(PDF)[/url] [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/200583143033181.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/200583143117651.jpg[/img] Fig-1,2 The diverse cultural landscapes in China such as the numerous rice terraces are the result of centuries-long cultivation. [B]Projects:[/B] [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/200583143249325.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/200583143343834.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/200583143427291.jpg[/img] Fig-3,4,5 The landscape architecture office Turenscape integrates features of cultural landscape into its projects. Paths and rows of trees divide the grounds of the university campus in Shenyang into parcels where rice is cultivated. SHENYANG ARCHITECTURAL UNIVERSITY CAMPUS,SHENYANG CITY Client: Shenyang Architectural University Landscape architects: Turenscape Realisation: 2002 – 2003 [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/200583143627947.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/20058314375957.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/200583143824718.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/200583144111135.jpg[/img] Fig-6,7,8,9 Access is provided by paths on different levels in the Zhongguancun Life Science Park in Peking, a system of water and wetlands. ZHONGGUANCUN LIFE SCIENCE PARK, PEKING Client: Peking Zhongguancun Life Science Park Development Co., Ltd. Landscape architects: Turenscape Realisation: 2001 – 2002 Size：10 hectares [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/20058315134794.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/200583144247195.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/200583144334760.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/200583144426462.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/200583144517436.jpg[/img] Fig-10,11,12,13,14,15 The banks of the Yongning River in Taizhou were renaturalized in connection with the design of the River Park, creating additional flood plains (page 75). Colourful boxes scattered throughout the park serve as shelters from the rain and observation platforms (bottom). YONGNING RIVER PARK, TAIZHOU CITY Client: The Government of Huangyan District, Taizhou City Landscape architects: Turenscape Realisation: 2002 – 2004 Size: 21.3 hectares