Dean's Lecture: Internationality and Identity:Towards Modern Chinese Landscape Architecture and Urban Design

Internationality and Identity: Towards Modern Chinese Landscape Architecture and Urban Design [URL=http://harangue.lecture.unimelb.edu.au/ilectures/ilectures.lasso?ut=584&id=26409]Listen to the iLecture recording[/URL] (also available as a podcast) [URL=http://www.abp.unimelb.edu.au/features/events/documents/KongjianYu.pdf]Powerpoint presentation[/URL] (4.3MB PDF) [B]Public Lecture[/B] Tuesday 30 May 2006 @ 06:30 pm - 08:00 pm Prince Philip Theatre, Ground Floor, Architecture and Planning Building, The University of Melbourne Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning's Dean's Lecture Series 2006. A free public lecture by Dr Kongjian Yu, Dean of the Graduate School of Landscape Architecture, Peking University, PR China. Time Magazine recently celebrated Kongjian Yu’s ecologically and culturally sensitive design as “A Force of Nature”, positioning him as “China’s pre-eminent landscape architect” (Time Magazine, 17 April 2006, pp58-60). This lecture will present four award winning designs to illustrate Kongjian Yu’s thinking about internationality and identity in Chinese contemporary landscape architecture and urban design: the Zhongshan Shipyard Park, the Rice Campus of Shenyang Architecture University, the Floating Gardens of Yongning River Park, and the Negative Approach to Urban Development in Taizhou City. With the rise of urbanization, globalization and materialism, Dr Yu believes landscape architecture must address three major challenges in the coming decades. The first challenge is the survival of humanity on Earth. More than ever, large populations are exposed to disastrous natural forces, pollution and a shortage of resources, as demonstrated by catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the numerous floods experienced each year around the world. Two thirds of China’s 662 cities have water shortages and all rivers in urban and suburban areas are polluted. Taking land as a medium, landscape architecture has the great opportunity to find ways of rebuilding a harmonious relationship between the land and people. The second is about cultural identity. Landscape architecture is well positioned to deal with this issue due to its intrinsic association with natural systems and its roots in agricultural tradition. Urbanization and globalization processes are so fast and overwhelming, and suggest a ‘negative approach’ should be taken against conventional development planning. That is, landscape architects and planners should lead the way to identify and design an ecological infrastructure that safeguards ecological processes and cultural heritage, before the land development planning stage. The third is the protection and rebuilding of our spiritual homeland. Materialism is taking over China, as it is the rest of the world. The land which used to be inhabited by various spirits that made the landscape meaningful and poetic is becoming commercialized. Gradually, we are losing our spiritual connections to our land to superficial, exchangeable international images of the world beyond the earthly one, which landscape architecture is positioned to protect and rebuild. Kongjian Yu received his Doctor of Design at The Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1995. He is the founder and Dean of the Graduate School of Landscape Architecture at Peking University. He is also the founder and president of Turenscape, an internationally awarded firm with more than 200 professionals and one of the first and largest private landscape architecture firms in China. Dr Yu has practiced widely and been awarded four American Society of Landscape Architecture Honor Awards(2002, 2005 and 2006). He is also the winner of the National Gold Medal of Fine Arts (2004, the Cultural Ministry, China), twice winner of the Human Habitat Model Award for designed projects (2002 and 2005, the Construction Ministry, China). In 2004, he was awarded the Overseas Chinese Pioneer Achievement Medal by the Chinese central government for his overall contribution to the nation. Dr Yu has published widely, including more than 150 papers and 15 books. His major research interests include: the theory and method of landscape architecture and urban planning; the cultural aspects of landscape; landscape security patterns and ecological infrastructure. Speaker: Dr Kongjian Yu Enquiries: +61 3 8344 3740 dmundey@unimelb.edu.au http://www.abp.unimelb.edu.au http://www.abp.unimelb.edu.au/features/events/dls.html