Author Archives: Tom Turner

Wither Chinese landscape and garden design in the twenty-first century?

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Where are garden design and landscape architecture in China heading?

Where are garden design and landscape architecture in China heading?

With over 3 months till the closing date for the Tiananmen Square landscape architecture competition, and many Chinese competition entries to admire, it is worth asking some questions about the direction of garden design and landscape architecture in 21st century China. The classically dressed beauty with the coy smile, above, seems puzzled as she looks out from a towering block in Shenzen. She knows that her country has a brilliant garden tradition and she knows that her country has to modernize. But, she wonders, ‘does our future really lie with the evocation of dreary Holywood sets from the 1920s? – is Hearst Castle really the best source of inspiration for modern China? – is there nothing of value in the past 5000 years of Chinese art, architecture and gardens? – or is the problem that too much Chinese landscape design is inspired by American models and implemented by thoughtless automatons working in sweatshop conditions outside China?’. Still, she reflects, ‘at least the garden doesn’t have a Spanish Theme – and at least it is my Dad who owns the penthouse with the roof garden’. Then, I hope, she will decide to study garden design and landscape architecture so that she become an expert in context-sensitive design. As a small encouragement, I will be happy to give her a copy of my book on Asian gardens: beliefs, history and design – and will be content if she reads its last sentence ‘The farther back you look, the farther forward you are likely to see.’ It is said to be a quotation from Winston Churchill – but it may only be the sort of thing he might have said when half-way through a case of claret – so she may prefer Confucius’ observation that ‘When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.’

Masdar City Two & Abu Dhabi landscape planning

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Hasan Fathy design for New Gourna (photo 1975)

Hasan Fathy design for New Gourna (photo 1975)


Without knowing too much about Masdar City, I am sceptical about Norman Foster’s proposals. So my suggestion is to develop a Masdar City Two with its focus on using a happy blend of traditional technology with as-little-as-necessary high technology. I would have David MacKay as the energy supremo and Hasan Fathy (had he not died in 1989) as the chief architect – and a landscape planner responsibile for the strategic direction of the new city. I guess there would be lots of mud walls, planting, and shade with excellent provision for cycling and electric floats for transport (as in Nanjing Street, Shanghai). All the roof space would be roof gardens with retractable awnings and limited vegetation supported by grey water. The gardens would be legendary – and related to the lost gardens of Ancient Mesopotamia. I think the result would be cheaper, better, more sustainable and more popular than Masdar City One. It might get less coverage in the architectural press but we could live with this.
Sorry about the quality of the above photograph, taken in 1975. I went to re-take the photo 30 years later and could not find the place – I guess it has been destroyed. The residents of Old Gourna (or Kurna or Qurna) did not want to leave their homes amongst the tombs of the nobles, which had rich pickings and many tourists. Fathy was unpopular in Egypt but designed some beautiful and environmentally appropriate homes for Saudi princes.
Odd that Iran should want nuclear power and Abu Dhabi should want solar power. What next? Will Iceland start making artificial snow? Or is Masdar City One really, as I will assume, an enlightened example of a rich country using its resources to develop technology which will benefit the world? The competition between Masdar City One and Masdar City Two would be very healthy and there should be a prize for the winning design team. Success would be judged from three criteria (1) construction costs (2) measures of sustainability (3) popularity with residents.

The sacred lotus, Nelumbo nucifera, is the Flower Sermon and the holy flower of West, South and East Asia

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Nelumbo nucifera, the Sacred Lotus, is an important symbol in Asian gardens

Nelumbo nucifera, the Sacred Lotus, is an important symbol in Asian gardens

Zen Buddhism grew from the Flower Sermon and thus from the growing habit of the Sacred Lotus, Nelumbo nucifera. Towards the end of his life, the Buddha took his disciples to a pond, possibly in the Jetavana. They were expecting a sermon but the Blessed One only pulled a lotus flower from the waters and held it before them, its roots dripping mud. Holding it before Mahakashyapa, he told the group:

‘What can be said I have said to you. What cannot be said, I have given to Mahakashyapa.’

Mahakashyapa became Buddha’s successor. The Sacred Lotus has importance in Buddhism because it grows from murky waters and struggles to raise its pure and beautiful flower into the sunlight, with the lesson that humans should do likewise.  Asians thought this was a truth worthy of contemplation – leading to Zen Buddhism. The lotus was also a sacred flower in Ancient Egypt and, probably through the influence of Buddhism, became sacred in China, Japan and South East Asia.

Perhaps we will be able to grow the lotus outdoors in London when global warming has gone a little further – but the winter of 2009-10 is not pointing in this direction. Meanwhile, I am wondering if I could rig up a solar panel to keep a tub warm enough for the lotus. But we would need more sunlight for this to work.

Chinese garden history, garden types and garden historians

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Altar of Land and Grain in Zhongshan Park

The Altar of Land and Grain (now Zhongshan Park or the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Park in Bejing) had what western historians call a 'formal' layout. It is neither the garden type nor the design style which features in histories of 'the' Chinese Garden.

There is a regrettable tendency for garden historians to write about the Chinese Garden as though it were one thing which was invented about 5000 years ago, which was made for a single purpose and which has never changed. It puts one in mind of Edward Said’s comment on Orientalism (regarding the Middle East). He wrote of “a misrepresentation of some Oriental essence — in which I do not for a moment believe”. We are therefore pleased to publish a classification of Chinese garden types by Xiaomin Wu. The next stage in developing a systematic history of garden design in China should be to trace the evolution of each of these types through the millennia. This should be done in parallel with studies of the influence of Chinese gardens on neighbouring countries and the influence of neighbouring countries on China. One of the many neglected aspects of Chinese garden history concerns the influence of Buddhism. Maggie Keswick, who wrote by far the most influential western book on Chinese garden history, scarcely mentions the subject.
Another puzzling aspect of Chinese garden history is that it is normally studied without reference to Japan or Korea. To me, this is like writing compartmentalised histories of French and Italian gardens or of Italian and English gardens. It should not be done. With regard to China, Japan, India and Korea, part of the explanation is that the countries were not friendly during the twentieth century – American garden historians have considered the influence of Chinese on Japanese gardens, but they have given far more attention to Japan than to China or India or Korea.
The Altar of Land and Grain (now Zhongshan Park and the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial in Bejing) (drawing above) had what western garden historians call a ‘formal’ layout’. It is neither ‘the’ garden type nor ‘the’ design style which features in histories of ‘the‘ Chinese Garden.

What is landscape urbanism?

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Charles Waldheim Landscape urbanism reader

Charles Waldheim's Landscape urbanism reader

[See notes on Urban design and landscape urbanism]

London’s Architectural Association has picked up the term landscape urbanism and come near to draining it of meaning. The programme’s ‘rationale’ states that landscape urbanism is understood as ‘a model of connective, scalar and temporal operations through with the urban is conceived and engaged with: the urban is conceived and engaged with: the urban is diagrammed as a landscape; a complex and processual ecology’. In social science, ‘processual’ means ‘of or relating to a process, especially to the methodological study of processes’. In physics ‘A scalar is a quantity with a magnitude but no direction’. So I would describe the above ‘rationale’ as profoundly vague.
Wikipedia defines landscape urbanism as ‘a theory of urbanism arguing that landscape, rather than architecture, is more capable of organizing the city and enhancing the urban experience’. This definition comes from The landscape urbanism reader edited by Charles Waldheim (Princeton Architectural Press, 2006). Waldheim associates the term landscape urbanism with James Corner’s essay Terra Fluxus. Corner, in turn, associates the term with a conference organized by Waldheim in 1997. But Corner’s essay, unlike the AA statement, is cogent and useful and has a simple underlying message: buildings and landscapes must be considered together, planned together and designed together (my phrasing). They comprise a ‘field’ on which we operate. Corner works with an architect (Stan Alan) and their firm has the name Field Operations. Corner’s essay allows one to understand what the AA means by processual. City planning should rest on an understanding of the ecological and social processes which underpin Ian McHarg’s Design with nature approach. The term Terra Fluxus is therefore a contrast with Terra Firma: the world is not firm – it is a flux (as Heraclitus observed). I commend James Corner for his clarity and abhor the AA’s obfuscation of the term.

For more discussion see Jason King’s landscape + urbanism blog. It is an important debate and I have provisionally added Charles Waldheim’s reader to the list of 100 Best Books on landscape architecture.

See also: the definition of landscape urbanism

Turf roof gardens for back to nature sustainable ecohouse living in the twenty-first century

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Turf roof gardens for the twentyfirst century?

Turf roof gardens for the twentyfirst century?

Iceland is the most recently made country and has a great-and-abandonned tradition of turf building. Dwellings were built with stone foundations, birch frames and turf cladding for the roofs and walls. Interiors were probably damp but now that waterproof membranes are available they should go back to to cladding their buildings in turf. It would be good for insulation, sound-proofing, wildlife etc and could create jobs for an icy land now down on its uppers.
I expect the greatest difference between the cities of the 20th and 21st centuries to be the prevelance of a vegetative cladding on cities of the 21st century. Icelanders could export consultancy skills instead of cod – and we should all remember that this was the classic building technique in Neolithic Europe.