Category Archives: Urban Design

Social and Sustainable Streets

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Model Streetscape


Perhaps the designers of this streetscape had already absorbed Robert’s message. Not only the shade trees (Cinnamomum camphora), but lots of heat-island reducing planters too. Not so many parked cars as in Bermondsey, but of course loads of bicycles and mopeds. The great majority of the mopeds in the picture are electric. So far, so sustainable. But, this is also a social streetscape. Behind the arcade on the left are the lunchtime restaurants, the vegetables are prepared on the pavement under the arcade and the customers enjoy a cigarette after their meal on the benches and raised walls in the balmy, late autumn sun. The large, evergreen shrubs – Osmanthus fragrens – fill the air with their light scent. Residents dry their washing on the clothes racks outside their apartment windows without the use of machines. One of many such streets in the Pudong New District of Shanghai, all not much older than 15-20 years.

Cheonggyecheon river reclamation and landscape architecture in Seoul, Korea

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Brilliant landscape planning, and dreary landscape architecture, for the Cheonggyecheon River in Seoul, Korea

Korea has implemented a brilliantly ambitious and life-enhancing river restoration project which, unfortunately, is no masterpiece for Korean landscape architecture or garden design. Seoul, formerly Hanyang became Korea’s capital city in 1394 and a new city was built beside the lovely Cheonggyecheon River. Floods arrived from time to time but King Taejong (1400-1418) believed that nature should be allowed to run its course. A great stone bridge was built and the valley became a resort, a laundry, a children’s playground, a place for lantern festivals – and a sewer. During the Japanese occupation (1910-1945) the river was ‘improved’ in the sense of being dredged to protect the occupier’s property. Korean engineers decided the river should be buried and by 1967 it had disappeared from view. Construction of the Cheonggye Elevated Highway began in 1967 and was completed in 1976. It was built above the buried river. An elevated highway was then built above the valley It took 20 years to complete the project. The highway, 50-80m wide and 6km long, was opened in 1984. So far – so awful. But for the great good fortune of the Seoul’s citizens, the engineers were lousey and the steel beams began to rot. A report from the Korean Society of Civil Engineering, in 1992, recommended repairs. The programme of repairs went on for a decade but was innefective.
It was for this reason that the Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project was formulated. Engineers promised to transform Seoul’s grey concrete image. Their professed goal was “a lush, green city where clear waters flow. Through this and other such projects, Seoul will be re-born as a human-oriented environmental city, greatly increasing Seoul’s ‘brand’ value.” Tragically, the project was run by engineers and architects, with some planting, fountains, exterior lighting and ‘works of art’ stuffed in at the last minute. The result can be classed as brilliant landscape planning with crap landscape architecture. It is a terrible wind corridor and looks like the defensive ditch outside a walled Chinese city. Next time, they should make landscape architects the project co-ordinators.
I wish the UK had a river restoration project which was half as good as the Cheonggyecheon project – restoration of the River Fleet would be a good start. But the Koreans do seem to have learned something from the UK. Just as the Dunkirk disaster of June 1940 was proclaimed a victory, so the Cheonggyecheon disaster (photo below) is being presented as a triumph. Both boasts did some good and Seol has been nominated as the World Design Capital for 2010, partly on account of the Cheonggyecheon river reclamation. Still, I don’t think they read my chapter on River engineering, channelization and floods

The badly engineered Cheonggye Elevated Highway - before the river restoration

How many qualified Chinese landscape architects are there? – and how many does China need? 中国有多少具有从业资格的风景园林设计师？中国需要多少这样的风景园林师？

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Beijing urban landscape: well-built but bad landscape architecture 北京成功建设,但差强人意的中国风景园林.

Beijing urban landscape: well-built but bad landscape architecture 北京成功建设,但差强人意的中国风景园林.

China is urbanizing at a faster rate than any other country has ever done and therefore has a greater need for qualified landscape architects than any country has ever had. At present, a Chinese friend informs me, there is a single qualification for Architecture and Urban planning and graduates are divided into two classes. In 2009 the First Class had 18,639 qualified architects and the Second Class had 16,000 urban planners. There are no officially qualified landscape architects in China but there are qualified companies and institutes in which the members can hold qualifications in architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture, environmental design, horticulture, forestry and other subjects.
My view, based on the experience of other countries, is that China will need a professionally recognized landscape architecture profession. This differs from the professions of architecture, urban planning, horticulture, environmental design etc. The fundamental skill is in the composition of five elements (landform, planting, water, buildings and paving) to create good places. These places, as Ian Thompson argued (in Ecology, Community and Delight: sources of value in landscape architecture) should be ecologically good, visually good and socially good – in combination or in isolation. This is exactly the skill which was used to make the Imperial Parks and Classical Gardens of Ancient China but if students have a limited education they will not be equal to the task. For example (1) architects and urban designers do not know enough about landfom, water and planting (2) horticulturalists and environmental designers do not know enough about aesthetics, or about structures, or about the social use of outdoor space (3) ecologists and geographers do not know enough about landscape art or basic landscape design.
As to the number of landscape architects China needs, or rather needed 25 years ago, one can make a simple estimate based on the number of landscape architects/head of population in Europe: my estimate is 120,000. But one could argue that if China’s middle class has 80m people then it ‘only’ needs the same number of landscape architects as Germany. Comments welcome – I am not Chinese and do not know the country well.

(Image courtesy P.)

Many thanks to Poppy for this translation into Chinese:
中国具备多少具有从业资格的风景园林师？ 中国需要多少这样的风景园林师？

中国的城市化进程超越了任何其他国家，因此对风景园林师的需求也是超越任何其他国家的。一位中国朋友告诉我，目前中国有独立对建筑师，城市规划师的两类资格评估。在2009年，具有资格的建筑师18，639名，具有资格的城市规划师16，000名。在中国还没有对风景园林师的官方认证，而只有在公司和机构中的成员能够取得建筑师，城市规划师，风景园林师，环境设计师，园艺师，其他专业的资质评审。

基于对其他国家的了解，我认为中国需要一个对风景园林从业人员的专业认证。这个认证将有别于建筑设计，城市规划，园艺，环境设计等等。风景园林设计的技能是基于对主要五种要素的组织（地形，种植，水，建筑，道路铺装）以创造出优美的场所。这样的场所，按照伊恩•汤普森所言（风景园林的价值来源于：生态学，社会学和给人带来愉悦），应该是有良好的生态性，良好的美学性和良好的社会性–共同具备或单一具备这样的特点。这是创造中国皇家园林和古典园林的精湛技艺，但是如果学生对此所受教育不够就不能胜任其职。 比如说：（1）建筑师和城市规划师对地形，水体和种植知之甚少。（2）园艺师，环境设计师的美学知识不够，也没有构造学，和户外空间的知识。（3）生态学家和地理学家基本不了解园林艺术和基本的设计常识。

关于中国需要风景园林师的数量，或者说25年前中国需要风景园林师的数量，我们可以估计一下，遵循一个简单的在欧洲的原则: 风景园林师的数量/人口数量。那么我的估计是中国需要120，000名风景园林师。然而，有人也会说如果中国的中产阶级有80，000，000人，那么所需风景园林师的数量就和德国一样。欢迎大家踊跃讨论，因为我不是中国人，对中国了解不没有中国人深刻。

Report on Tiananmen Square Landscape Architecture Competition

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An international Web 2.0 design competition for Tiananmen Square was announced in March 2009. The winners are listed below. A full .pdf report on the Tiananmen competition is available for free download from the Gardenvisit.com Website. All the Tiananmen entries can be seen on Flickr. The 3 judges, listed below, thank everyone who took part.

• Christine Storry (Australia): architect and urban designer
• Tom Turner (UK): landscape architect and town planner
• Xiru Zhao (China): architect

First prize: Thunsdorff

Thunsdorff, Ueli Mueller Landscape Design, Kleinertstrasse 3, 8037 Zurich, Switzerland, mail @ uelimueller.ch, www.uelimueller.ch
The Thunsdorff design is visually strong, deceptively simple and a complex response to the site. A Moon Gate has historic, symbolic and garden interest. The people’s encyclopedia (Wikipedia) states that:

A Moon Gate (Chinese: 月亮门; pinyin: yuèliàng mén) is a circular opening in a garden wall that acts as a pedestrian passageway, and a traditional architectural element in Chinese gardens. Moon Gates have many different spiritual meanings for every piece of tile on the gate and on the shape of it. The sloping roofs of the gate represent the half moon of the Chinese Summers and the tips of the tiles of the roof have talisman on the ends of them…. The purpose of these gates is to serve as a very inviting entrance into gardens of the rich upper class in China. The gates were originally only found in the gardens of wealthy Chinese nobles.
The Chinese word for round (圆，yuan) has the same pronunciation as the Chinese word for ‘garden’ (园，yuan). Another meaning of ‘yuan’ in Chinese is ‘perfect’ （圆满）- which is a symbol representing the owner of a garden who wishes to conduct himself perfectly and work smoothly. The placement of the Moon Gate in Tiananmen Square creates two spaces with a pedestrian link and, alluding to them as two different gardens. There could be problems for traffic on Changan Street and obstruction of the visual axis from the Tiananmen Gate. A vehicular underpass would also be possible. The great Moon Gate can symbolise the ancient desire for Harmony and Unity – and the fact that modern China belongs to all of its people and no longer  to a rich upper class. Thunsdorff explains the design in thirty words:
China – Country of grand spirit -The world’s largest square shall remain an open space – We suggest a new perspective link between past and present pointing to the future – Heavenly Peace
There may be something of Confucius in this (‘Study the past if you would define the future’) and also something of Chairman Mao (‘Such is history, such is the history of civilization for thousands of years’). The idea of a sublime symbol soaring above the commercialism of modern Beijing is attractive, with something of a parallel in the Parisian Grande Arche. The comparison between the Ming dynasty axis in Beijing and the Louvre-Defense axis in Paris is interesting – and both can be carried into the future as examples of how city form can be conserved and extended. They support the view that 600 years is a good timescale for city planning: one should look back at least 300 years and look forward at least for another 300 years.

Second Prize  Aga H

Aga H Agnieszka Hubeny-Zukowska, Pracownia Sztuki Ogrodowej, 80-360 Gdańsk Ul.Krzywoustego 5A/5, Poland, Tel./fax: +48 (58) 511-04-69 www.pracowniasztukiogrodowej.pl biuro [@] pracowniasztukiogrodowej.pl

Aga H

A garden underneath Tiananmen Square

The Aga H design proposes a context-sensitive underground design which retains the integrity of Tiananmen Square as a huge and yet balanced space. The underground ‘garden world’ also responds to the context of a climate which is too hot in summer and too cold in winter. Aga H sees great value in traditional Chinese design but, as a world city, argues that Beijing can also symbolise a modern approach to design. To leave space for great events and to avoid competition with older buildings, the surface level therefore remains ’empty’. At ground level the main change would be two great blocks of pleached trees with seating beneath. They would flank the Monument to the People’s Heroes and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. A glass-roofed space beneath Tiananmen Square would contain a garden world and a Center for History, Art and Science. There would be underground links to the National Museum of China and the Great Hall of the People.



Third Prize: Whitney Hedges

Whitney Hedges, garden designer and landscape architect, England,  www.whitneyhedges.co.uk polkadotplants @ googlemail.com
Only eighteen words of explanation were given (‘One Light: Strong lights projecting upwards, set flush into paving. Commemorating those who fell in the 1989 demonstrations’) but more points arose in an online discussion: ‘I like Whitney Hedges design very much… it is sensitive to all the considerations for this site and yet is quite a dramatic statement of the individuals heroic messages’. ‘One could also say that it links Earth to Heaven, which was the traditional role of Chinese Emperors (they were Sons of Heaven)’. ‘ I’m not sure that mixing these images of the Speer’s “Cathedral of Light” at the Nuremberg Rally with the image of the Tiananmen Square is a very good idea’. The reference to Speer is both interesting and troubling.

Fitting into tight spaces

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The question of urban density seems to keep being asked anew every five years or so. It is said that in 1800 only three percent of the world’s population lived in cities.
That means many of us have become used to tighter spaces very quickly in evolutionary terms. Do we need to tie ourselves in knots to fit into designed spaces? What does this mean for the design of our cities? What is the relationship between green spaces and built spaces?

Should London's Tower Bridge be painted red?

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Probably not, but (1) London can be a grey old place (2) red is London’s emblematic colour (3) Tower Bridge is one of the best-known London icons (4) the colour would appeal to Chinese tourists (5) from time to time, one should ‘paint the city red’ (6) I had a red toy model of Tower Bridge when I was 5 years old have always been disappointed by its present colours.