Landscape Australia: Kongjian Yu address Contemporary Landscape Architecture

The International Federation of Landscape Architects's Eastern Region (IFLAer) Conference is being held in sydney in May this year. National and international speakers will address the pivotal role of time and change in the practice of the built enviornment professions and its effects on contemporary society and the landscape. As a taster of what delegates can expect we asked Kongjian Yu, dean and professor, the graduate school of landscape architecture, Pecking University, some questions about the practice of landscape architecture and the state of the profession. 1.What places, projects or people have had the greatest influence on your professional career? My childhood experiences of growing up in a small, traditional chinese village greatly influenced my understanding about landscape and landscape architecture. It was a common agricultural community, nothing special and just normal everyday rural life, but for me it is the landscape where nature, man and spirit come together. I spent a lot of time along a stream with willow trees and diverse shrubs growing alongside of it that protect the fields from being eroded. While my water buffalo enjoyed the lush grasses at the water edge I was enjoying catching fish. This became the model stream for my design. The experience of field work and irrigation, of walking across the rice paddies and through the patterned fields resulting from the rotation of crops, influenced my understanding about grading, scale, color and pattern (Figure-1,2,3,4,5). The settlement itself is a model for my thinking about "people place": the central square where the villagers got together, the corner space where a mill was located, the place under the aged camphor tree where my grandfather told stories, and the stone bridge with the shrines for the Earth Spirits – all these places are about useful and meaningful landscapes. 2. Identify your favorite public space/project. Two sets of public projects dramatically changed my understanding about "landscape projects" and the criteria for a good landscape works. The first set is the ancient water works: Li Qu (Magic Trench) and Dujiangyan Weir in China, both built more than two thousands years ago and still in function today for multiple purposes. They demonstrate how humankind, by using minimum technology, can harness even the most fearful natural forces for human needs without sacrificing nature's interests. The skill of negotiation and mutual understanding between natural and cultural forces make these project sustainably useful, beautiful and inspiring. The other set is Richard Haag's Gasworks Park in Seattle, Washington and Peter Latz's Duisburg North Landscape Park in Germany. They show how a functional but "ugly" landscape which was considered useless can become "beautiful" again. These two pioneer works in protecting and reusing industrial sites dramatically changed the values and ethics about our cultural heritage. We value landscapes that must be useful now, or used to be useful, and it is these landscapes that give me a lot of inspirations (Figure-6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13) 3. Nominate a space/project that has demonstrated positive environmental outcomes. I was involved in designing the Shengyang Architectural University Campus, Shengyang City, China, which is an example demonstrating how landscape architects can address big issues that result in positive environmental outcomes. The overwhelming urbanization process in China is inevitably encroaching upon a great amount of arable land. With a population of 1.3 billion people and limited arable land resources, food production and sustainable land use are the biggest issues in China, which the profession of landscape architecture should address. This campus design uses rice paddies and other native crops to keep the land as productive as it was while fulfilling the need for new functions at the same time. It is designed to raise the awareness of the land and farming among the young generation leaving the countryside and becoming city dwellers. This project also demonstrates that the inexpensive and productive agricultural landscape can become, through careful design and management, beautiful and usable space as well. (Figure 1,3,4). 4. How successful the profession has been in dealing with the most pressing environmental concerns? Half a century ago, Hideo Sasaki commented that "the profession of landscape architecture stands at a critical fork in the road. One fork leads to a significant field of endeavour contributing to the betterment of human environment, while the other points to a subordinate field of superficial embellishment". Unfortunately, except for some rare cases, landscape architecture in the past decades has become more "a subordinate field of superficial embellishment". We could have taken a more important role in the most pressing environmental issues such as flood control and water management, the protection of biodiversity, cultural heritage protection, urbanization and land resources management. One of the major reasons is that LA as a profession is still associated, in the public perception and in university textbooks, with the ancient tradition of gardening. The rich heritage and literature about landscape gardening and garden art did not help LA to emerge as a modern discipline. It is about time to declare that modern LA is actually not stemmed from the art of landscape gardening, but that landscape architecture (planning and design) are rooted more in our ancestor’s struggle with such big issues as flood management, making places for settlements, and cultivating the land, than in pleasure making and gardening. 5. What do you think are the main challenges and opportunities for landscape architects in the next few decades? Urbanization, globalization and the spread of materialism have positioned landscape architecture to critically address three major challenges in the coming decades. The first is the survival of humanity on the earth. More than ever, large parts of population are exposed to disastrous natural forces, pollution and shortage of resources, as were demonstrated by the catastrophes of the Tsunami in South East Asia, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and numerous floods each year all over the world. Two thirds of the 662 Chinese cities are in shortage of water, all rivers in the urban and suburban areas are polluted. Taking land as a medium, landscape architecture is given the great opportunities within this crucial period of time to find ways of rebuilding a harmonious relationship between the land and people. The second is about cultural identity. The strength of LA in dealing with this issue lies in its intrinsic association with the natural systems and in its roots of agricultural tradition. Urbanization and globalization processes are so fast and overwhelming, therefore a "negative approach" should be taken against the conventional development planning, i.e. landscape architects and planners should lead the way to identify and design an ecological infrastructure that is critical in safeguarding the ecological processes and cultural heritages, before the stage of land use planning. The third is the protection and rebuild of our spiritual homeland. The trend of materialism has been taking over the world and also China. The land which used to be inhabited by various spirits that made the landscape meaningful and poetic is becoming commercialized. Gradually, we lose our spiritual connections to our land towards superficial, exchangeable international images of the world beyond the earthly one, which landscape architecture is positioned to protect and rebuild. "Landscape architecture is the profession of the future" to quote IFLA president Martha Fajardo's comment (2005), and the future' brightness of the profession lies in its unique position to deal with the land as a medium, where the natural, cultural and the spiritual processes interact, and where all these processes can be integrated harmoniously. But this future will be ours only if we are prepared. [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/2006622173621968.jpg[/img] Fig.1 The rice paddies and grave yard of the author’s home village [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/2006622173630631.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/2006622173641771.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/200662217370236.jpg[/img] Fig.2,3,4 Inspired by the experience of rice paddies, the Shengyang Architectural School Campus designed by the author to creat a productive and affordable landscape while fulfilling the needs for new functions at the same time [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/2006622173735900.jpg[/img] Fig.5 The wetland park in the Life Science Park , Beijing, China, designed by the author and was inspired by the experience of rice paddies [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/200662217375013.jpg[/img] Fig.6 The inspiring Lin Qu water works built more than 2000 years ago and still functions today. [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/200662217375953.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/200662217387466.jpg[/img] Fig.7,8 An urban water feature designed by the author, and was inspired by the ancitent Chinese water works [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/2006622173824358.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/2006622173922294.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/2006622173930639.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/200662217405859.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.turenscape.com/upload/news/2006622174036223.jpg[/img] Fig.9,10,11,12,13 The Zhongshan Shipyard Park, Guangdong, China, featuring industrial heritage, designed by the author and was partly inspired by the pioneer works of industral site protection in Germany and the USA.