On Top of the World

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Vita Sackville-West was depressed by Hillary and Norgay’s ascent to the peak of Everest, believing that there should be places on earth untrod by human feet. How would she have liked the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai? I am afraid that she would be horrified, although this Burj is by far Dubai’s most beautiful building, hopefully now distracting attention from the horrible Burj Arab Hotel. Many people would like to ask God if he regrets Dubai, but now that we can ride the 800 metres plus to the top of Burj Khalifa and look at it from His vantage point perhaps we can see that he might like it the way it is, by night at least.

Scaling up and down

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There is something endlessly fascinating about models of cities…Perhaps they enable us to relate to cities in ways that are normally not possible? Perhaps they give us a God’s eye view of the landscape and everyday life.

 So if we could play God for a day what would we say to those people down there that we created and who are now running around living their own lives in the various metropolis’ of the world? Or perhaps we would just make our own historical narrative films!

Would we be tempted to move the pieces on the board? Re-arrange them slightly? Why would we want to do this? ….There is certainly something very appealing about the detailed scale models of street furniture produced for the city of Toronto! And of the very different in quality abstract garden model.

In 2006 Prof  Michael J. Oswald and Professor Steffen Lehmann chatted about the use of models in architectural practice. Professor Lehmann said of his experience in the office of Arata Isozaki:

“When working in Tokyo, in Arata Isozaki’s studio in 1990, I learned to appreciate the luxury of getting ideas built in-house overnight. Isozaki always valued the resource of an in-house model workshop where exquisite pieces could be made quickly. Before leaving the studio in the evening, I would hand over the latest drawings to the model shop, and when I returned to the office in the morning, there would be an accurate polystyrol model on my desk, built overnight by hard-working, younger Japanese staff. Much effort and accuracy was put into these models, even if we only used them ephemerally, to instantly check a certain idea.”

Context-insensitive planning and design in Egypt

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The Nile and the Pyramids - before and after the floods

The Nile and the Pyramids - before and after the floods

Here is (1) a nineteenth century painting of the Pyramids in time of flood [June and September – akhet – the inundation] (2) in an early twentieth century photograph (3) a recent after-the-dam photograph by trexcali. Were the climate change of the past 10,000 years to be repeated the River Nile would reclaim its flood plain. Egypt’s cities should have been built on the Red Land (desret), not on the Black Land (kemet) – and Egypt’s urban growth should still be on desert land, conserving what is left of one of best places on earth for agriculture, horticulture and garden design.

二十一世纪中国园林景观设计思想枯竭了吗？（二十一世纪中国园林及景观发展的方向是什么）

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二十一世纪中国园林景观设计思想枯竭了吗？

二十一世纪中国园林景观设计思想枯竭了吗？


据天安门景观设计竞赛截止时间还有3个多月，值得欣慰的是有很多来自中国竞赛作品提交，值得提出的问题是：二十一世纪中国园林和景观设计将走向何方？上图是一位衣着古装的美女，面含羞怯的微笑，她从深圳的一处高层建筑往外看，感到了迷惑。她知道她的国家具有灿烂的园林历史传统，也明白她的国家也必将现代化。但是，她想知道：“难道我们的未来真的是一场恶梦，开始于1920年后阴郁的好莱坞？赫斯特城堡是真正的现代中国灵感的最佳来源？过去5000年遗留下来的中国艺术、建筑和园林真的毫无价值？或者是问题源于太多中国景观设计受到美国模式的影响，并且是在中国以外的地方，由一些毫无思想的机器人在工厂的模式下完成的？”然而，她又沉思，“至少，这个公园还没有被叫成一个西班牙式的名字，至少，是我父亲拥有这个屋顶天台花园”。那么，我希望，她将决心学习园林和景观设计，成为一位结合自然和历史文脉设计方面的专家。作为一个仅有的鼓励，我很高兴能够送给她一本我的著作《亚洲园林：信念、历史和设计》。当读到最后一句时，她一定会很满意，“越往后看，你能够向前看得越远”，这是引自温斯顿丘吉尔的话，他是在喝了半箱红酒时说的。然而，她会更欣赏孔子所说过的话：“当明显知道目标不能达到时，不要调整目标，调整行动的步伐”。
See English translation below

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.