PARTICIPATION,INTERPRETATION, AND REPRESENTATION OF LANDSCAPE DESIGN

At the beginning of this interview, Zhang Dong, partner of Z+T Studio, believes that landscapes of each nation should be closely rooted in its own culture and designing landscapes which praise China’s cultural identity should be a part of Chinese designers’ values and beliefs. Beside of integrating with strategies of sustainability and resilience, landscape design should also combine with environmental education. Zhang summarizes a landscape design process into “two objective aspects and one subjective aspect,” and points out that a designer’s professional knowledge, social values, and aesthetic preferences together influence his / her acquisition of information from sites and the design what and how he / she will make. While recognizing the importance of ecology and public participation to landscape design, he stresses that design essentially is to solve problems in a creative way and landscape designers should not neglect the fundamentality of spatial creation and aesthetics to the profession and the discipline. Finally, he explains the Whole- Process Participation design mode adopted by Z+T Studio, and how it helps improve designers’ capacity in observation and representation.     

LA PKU’S RESEARCH ON CHINA’S TRADITIONAL ECO-WISDOM AND RELATED APPLICATION IN CONTEMPORARY LANDSCAPE PLANNING AND DESIGN

Since 1997, LA PKU has conducted a series of studies on China’s traditional ecological wisdom and related application in contemporary landscape planning and design. This paper first reviews the background and the course of LA PKU’s research: In early years, they studied on Feng-shui and vernacular landscapes that stemmed from their understanding and response to local natural and human processes in planning and design practice; In 2006, Kongjian Yu proposed the concept that Landscape Architecture is a discipline concentrating on the art of survival, which has greatly promoted the study and revival of traditional eco-wisdom, not only providing a historical base for the modern development of Landscape Architecture, but also applying the research results in responding to contemporary environmental and ecological problems; In 2014, developed upon the achievement on the art of survival, LA PKU further explored the deep form of China’s traditional landscapes by studying local spatial forms and design strategies on micro- and site-scales and translating such ecological solutions into China’s contemporary landscape design. The paper also reviews on LA PKU’s important research results over the past two decades, including traditional agricultural landscapes, vernacular settlements, and traditional water-adaptive landscapes.     

A DISCUSSION ON INSTITUTIONAL IMPROVEMENT FOR ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION AND LANDSCAPE GOVERNANCE IN CHINA

With the development of landscape discipline and governance theories, “landscape governance” has become a new frontier of inter-disciplinary research, and is considered a sub-topic and extension of “environmental governance.” Institution is an important factor to the development of landscape governance theory and practice. Since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, the construction of Ecological Civilization has marked itself a new milestone for its systematic top-down design and institution-oriented efforts. At the same time, the Third Plenary Session of the Eighteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 2013 proposed to improve the contemporary national governance system and capacity, and took governance as a new means to evaluate state capacities and state-society relations. Both of them will significantly impact landscape planning, design, protection, and management in China. This article reviews the evolution of western landscape governance theories driven by 1) the emphasis on the spatial scale effect of landscape; 2) the exploration of the regional variety of cultural and collective identities of local landscapes; and 3) the emphasis on the practice of landscape governance. It also examines the opportunities in China’s landscape governance brought by the institutional improvement of Ecological Civilization, which might help: resolve the inherent conflicts that cause the existing environmental and ecological problems; enhance China’s capacity on landscape governance; establish a new land-use management system with a greater ecological security and broader ecosystem services; endow landscapes with more public benefits; cultivate a civil society and democracy in landscape governance; and, influence the education and research of Landscape Architecture in multiple dimensions. Finally, the article proposes roadmaps for China’s landscape governance at both global and national scales.     

From Slime Mold to Meta

Stirred by the latest research findings on spatial sense and decision-making machinery of slime molds and the rename of Facebook to Meta, the author discusses human’s ability of spatial cognition. Compared with human’s indifferent trial-and-error approaches, slime molds are not inferior to humans in ability of spatial perception and design. Similarly, both slime molds and human beings pursue a balanced beauty under their desire and instinct for survival, in forms of colony shapes and spatial design, respectively. Inspired by the slime mold experiment, the author concerns that in the virtual reality of Metaverse promoted by Facebook, human culture depending on the place, space, and time may disappear, and city image will be erased as well; If geographical constraints no longer exist, do human activities still have meaning? This now is a new challenge to urban and landscape design.     

Ethics-Based Stewardship Practices and the Stewards—Case Studies on Public Landscape Stewardship From North Carolina,USA

The persistence of public landscapes is a critical approach to community resilience and sustainability. But in China’s landscape architectural field, it is neglected in both planning and design, and post-occupancy operations and maintenance. With the case studies of three public landscape sites in North Carolina, the United States this article introduces the concept of stewardship, and outlines the contemporary public landscape stewardship practice as management efforts predominantly driven by the landscape architect’s long-term duty and proactive care to create a sustainable landscape for the site. This article emphasizes that the essence of stewarding public landscapes lies in the ethics—the attachments to and the responsibilities and care of the land and the landscape; and modesty, discernment, and enthusiasm when facing the ever-changing socio-ecological systems—and the outcome of public landscape stewardship typically takes the form of developing and implementing new and futureoriented master plans for the sites. This article also summarizes a set of site-based principles and approaches to public landscape stewardship. Finally, based on the discussion about the case studies, this study points out the practical implications of public landscape stewardship for Chinese cities which are progressively entering into an era of inventory development. Recommendations for its application to the Chinese landscape architectural profession are further addressed.     

THOUGHTS ON DESIGN EDUCATION IN CHINA: FROM CLASSROOM TO WORKSHOP

Li Dihua from Peking University, Jason Ho, Founder of the Mapping Workshop, Liu Yulai from Tongji University, and Wang Yuan from Huazhong University of Science and Technology were guest instructors at the 2018 Mapping & Making Summer Workshop of National College Student Campus Building Alliance. They each work on bringing new ideas to traditional design education. In this interview they shared their opinions on current design education and teaching in China. They believe that design education in China is currently at a point of crisis where both instructors and students need to be aware of the urgency to change. However, little attention has been given to the improvement of design education, nor has a discourse to explore a future direction been built. The interviewees approached the workshop as an opportunity for students and educators to see new possibilities in design education. Meanwhile, they hope to develop students’ curiosity and confidence in observation, exploration, independent thinking, and evidential design.     

Knowledge and reasoning in design systems

This paper deals with problem-oriented visual languages used for solving design tasks during the conceptual design phase. Visualization of early design solutions by means of visual languages requires an appropriate design knowledge representation in computer systems. The continuation of our method to develop a knowledge-based decision support design system is presented. It consists in connecting a graph-based knowledge representation with a design reasoning method which uses first-order logic formulas. The design diagrams being elements of a visual language are automatically transformed into hierarchical hypergraphs and then information stored in these hypergraph data structures is translated to formulas of the first-order logic forming design knowledge. Modifications of design diagrams cause changes in logic formulas, which can be traced by the designer. The approach is illustrated by examples of designing floor layouts and navigating robots in them.     

Digital Design Exploration of Nature-Approximating Urban Forest Basing on the Miyawaki Method: A Case Study of Xingtai Forest in a Hebei Green Expo Garden

Driven by digital technologies, urban forest development is at its height in China. Guided by the theories of nature-approximating forestry, potential natural vegetation and new succession, and by the Miyawaki Method, this paper explores the digital design of nature-approximating urban forest by innovatively applying widely-accepted theories with digital technologies. The paper reviews the evolution of nature-approximating urban forest and discusses why it is essential to introduce digital technologies into this type of forest’s development. Based on the Miyawaki Method, this study proposes a three-step digital design approach to creating nature-approximating urban forest: cognition, simulation, and construction. Also, an empirical study on Xingtai Forest in a Hebei Green Expo Garden is conducted to analyze the digital design methods of nature-approximating urban forest. Steps include 1) cognition of plants to investigate characteristics of natural communities by collecting their key parameters; 2) construction of target communities by simulating natural communities, analyzing and classifying target habitats of designed communities by relevant software, and developing type and pattern designs of target communities; and 3) production of detailed construction schemes by utilizing Grasshopper and Python to generate digital generation clusters, after which planting design drawings and seedling information can be obtained by inputting values of key parameters. This method provides a new perspective on the digital design of nature-approximating urban forest, which helps facilitate urban forest development in an efficient way.     

Built Environment Supported by Cognitive Sciences: From Aesthetic Judgment to Intelligent Management

The knowledge integration of Cognitive Sciences and other related fields supports the rethinking of environmental aesthetic experience. Compared with the explicit logical reasoning, aesthetic judgment is an implicit way for the brain to process information based on personal instincts or experiences. As a rapid information processing of the environment, the experiencing of beauty facilitates individuals’ cognition of environmental information and their prompt making of beneficial behaviors for survival. Compared with human’s instinctive love to the nature (or biophilia), our attitude and preference towards natural landscapes is more complicated. Seemingly complex environmental perceptions can be simplified and measured promoting corresponding research and designs. Meanwhile, the multidisciplinary integration provides insights for technologies including Artificial Intelligence and helps people obtain external information through different input channels. In this issue, LA Frontiers attempts to encourage researchers to explore a more profound understanding of environmental perception. The combination of scientific knowledge and technology can contribute to the creation of intelligent built environment that can actively respond to people’s needs.     

THE SPARK OF CONTEMPORARY LANDSCAPE CREATIVITY — THE FOUNDATION LANDSCAPE DESIGN STUDIO IN THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

Traditional landscape design studio training starts with the learning of a classic or prominent landscape project, may it be through site observation or a trace-over / imitation exercise. Foundation year students in a landscape program typically take the landscape precedent project as a study ground, to learn about the landscape master’s design through the mimicking process in the trace-over exercise, or to learn about the articulation of spatial design through site observation. Landscape Architecture, afterall, is a creative endeavor. Thus, an alternative approach is to start the fundamental training with the study of artistic processes, to foster appreciation in art and design, innovative concept development, and articulation in craftsmanship. Also, the contemporary discourse of Landscape Architecture is no longer simply about spatial design, but has transformed to require understanding of process, operation, step-by-step mechanism, movement, and how a system works. The performative and dynamic aspects of landscape are being valued nowadays. Such ways of seeing landscapes require a different set of observation and representation methods and skills. In this article, the author shares how the pedagogical content and developments of the foundation year landscape design studio in the HKU Bachelor of Arts in Landscape Studies BA(LS) Program help train students with such new interpretations to contemporary Landscape Architecture.     

The Heritage of the Productive Landscape: Landscape Design for Rural Areas in the Netherlands, 1954-1985

In the current debate about the future of the Dutch countryside, more and more attention is drawn to the role of landscape heritage. Spatial designers are asked to translate historic identities into spatial forms in order to bridge the gap between past and future. Special cultural heritage policies are developed to stimulate a shift in design practice and to increase awareness of the value of cultural landscapes. Because interpretation of the rural landscape is often rooted in nostalgia, most conservation efforts are directed at old historical landscapes and rural scenes. But what about modern rural landscapes? How do these landscapes relate to the emerging issue of heritage protection and development? To answer this question the historical significance of these landscapes was examined by analyzing their design in the slipstream of post-war reconstruction. Attention was also given to their possible future in a planning and management context that is increasingly influenced by a public and professional demand for landscape conservation and heritage. We argue that these landscapes are at odds with the values and core convictions of the current heritage policies and merit recognition in their own right.     

Sustainable landscape use and aesthetic perception–preliminary reflections on future landscape aesthetics

In this paper, a conceptual framework is described for a better understanding of future landscapes as aesthetical objects. The paper is divided in four parts. In the first part, the poor aesthetic reality of today’s landscapes is described and the consequences for aesthetic perception are explained. In the second part, a more sustainable use of landscape is discussed as developmental necessity for the next decades, and some aesthetic aspects of such a development are examined. In the third part, human aesthetic perception is described as a basic cognition process, differentiating between four major levels of knowledge or of sense (perception, expression, symptomatic information, and symbolic meaning). In the last part, all aspects of the first three parts are used to determine basic aesthetic categories of future landscapes. As the most relevant aesthetic categories are identified: the beautiful, the (new) sublime, the interesting, and the plain. Finally an attempt is made to derive from these categories the most important aesthetic prototypes of tomorrow’s landscape.     

国土空间规划体系中 景观设计学科与行业的困惑及机遇

A true understanding of Ecological Civilization Construction is key to comprehend the connotation and goals of China’s territorial spatial planning, which echoes the ideological keynote of the country’s upgrade of socio-economic development mode. Missioned as a means to public policy making, territorial spatial planning develops roadmaps for Ecological Civilization Construction by addressing macro spatial governance problems such as the shortage of resources, severe environmental pollution, and ecosystem degradation. Furthermore, the author interprets the relationship between ecological restoration and territorial spatial planning system, and argues that the territorial spatial planning system should employ a macro-medium-micro hierarchy in scale while focusing on life-circle ecological restoration planning and implementation. In addition to the necessity of developing crossadministrative border plans, the author emphasizes the importance of multi-disciplinary cooperation. Then, he points out that "The Two Assessment Standards" should value regional characteristics and avoid to indiscriminately apply planning and design patterns in different cases. Finally, the author puts forward suggestions to practitioners in Landscape Architecture and other allied professions to prepare themselves by selfretraining with new concepts, methodologies, and technologies to be more competent for the contemporary needs of territorial spatial planning.     

ILLUSTRATED PRINCIPLES OF LANDSCAPE ECOLOGICAL PLANNING AND DESIGN : TEACHING EXPLORATIONS ON BRIDGING THEORIES WITH PRACTICE OF LANDSCAPE ECOLOGICAL PLANNING AND DESIGN

By reviewing the structure of the book Illustrated Principles of Landscape Ecological Planning and Design, this article reexamines the relationship between theoretical study, teaching, and practice in landscape ecological planning and design. It first explores how to apply the principles of ecological sciences (and other relevant disciplines) into related research, teaching, and practice of landscape ecological planning and design. The authors put forward a multi-level research system that integrates fundamental theories, application bases, and practice, in order to bridge ecological principles with planning and design practice. In addition, based on this landscape ecological planning and design system, the authors developed a T-P-C Approach, a universal operating procedure that links up Theories, Patterns or Principles, and Practice Cases and centers in spatial principles. Through a reader sampling survey, the research system of landscape ecological planning and design is refined and improved based on audience’s comments.     

AN EVIDENCE-BASED METHODOLOGY FOR LANDSCAPE DESIGN

As a design method supported by scientific knowledge and findings, evidence-based design now is widely applied in the field of architectural and landscape design. This design process makes architects and landscape designers’ decisions about built environment sound and reliable. Combining two practice cases — the Urban Ecological Corridor Planning of College Station of Texas, a regional planning project, and Landscape Design of the Yangpu Bridge Park in Shanghai, an urban public space project — this article illustrates the concept and process of key issue identification and response, a pivotal step in evidence-based design, and points out the challenges in related applications of this method.     

Logical analysis of assumptions in code calibration

A logical model of the process of calibrating a new code of practice has been developed. The hierarchical system of statements was derived from an initial statement that structures built in the future should be no less reliable, on average, than existing structures. The other statements which are connected by fuzzy logical operators and are necessary conditions on the first statement, cover random hazards, human controls on tolerance and quality, human systems such as design and construction and the process of code calibration itself.Data were acquired for input to the model from two individuals who were involved in the calibration of BS 5400 against BS 153, the new and old codes for steel bridge design in the U.K. These data were intended only for use in illustrating the potential of the fuzzy logic modelling. However, the analysis showed that both donors felt that statements outside the detailed calibration process were less dependable than those inside, particularly those concerned with the human activities of design and construction. Within the calibration process the quality of data and the loading model was considered to be the least dependable part of the analysis. The fuzzy logic method described in this paper, with some development of consistent ways of obtaining subjective estimates from various sources, could be used to report a consensus on this type of complex process.     

基于城市设计视野的旅游规划设计研究

城市正经历信息化、智能化、生态化等新进程,依靠单一学科范畴越来越难以应对复杂因素驱动下的城市发展问题。城市设计被视为形体环境创造所凭籍的政策和技术框架,而旅游规划设计则是有效配置资源、平衡经济与环境发展的重要手段之一。从城市设计视野出发研究旅游规划设计,结合深入剖析体现岭南地区自然和人文特色的斗门镇区旅游规划设计案例,为探讨两种学科结合的可能性、整合专业价值和技术体系提供思路与借鉴。     

PERSPECTIVES OF DESIGNED ECOLOGIES

Designed ecology refers to a process of active and purposive design interventions that help enhance functional improvement, restoration, or reshaping of ecosystem in human settlements, especially in the areas suffering from severe ecological degradation. Different from ecological design, designed ecology is to creatively intervene and improve human beings’ complicated living environment. Starting from an examination of related concepts, this paper reviews designed ecology from four perspectives: creating natural environment; reintroducing native habitat; enhancing natural regeneration; and tending natural ecosystem. It further defines designed ecology at three levels: 1) ecological functionality, i.e. the design creates a self-maintaining ecosystem; 2) succession efficiency, i.e. the effect of the designed succession surpasses the results of natural regeneration or the design helps promote natural regeneration; and 3) landscape experience, i.e. the design offers aesthetic services to better respond to the needs of human society. The authors argue that an effective promotion of designed ecology relies on both the efforts of design practice and ecological study, including research on regional / local ecosystem, self-succession of ecosystem, and ecosystem capacity, as well as exploration of improving human living experience through design practice.     

义乌工商学院规划设计分析

从设计理念、总体布局、单体建筑形态、绿化景观等方面论述了山水校园规划设计的新概念,并通过义乌工商职业技术学院校园规划设计实践与探讨,印证和丰富了这一理念,对类似校园的规划设计具有借鉴与参考价值.     

论乡土景观及其对现代景观设计的意义

该文探讨了乡土景观的含义,论述了解读乡土景观对现代景观设计的意义,提出乡土景观是指当地人为了生活而采取的对自然过程和土地及土地上的空间及格局的适应方式,是此时此地人的生活方式和价值观在大地上的投影。因此,乡土景观是包含土地及土地上的城镇、聚落、民居、寺庙等在内的地域综合体。这种乡土景观反映了人与自然、人与人及人与神之间的关系。乡土景观的这种理解包含几个核心的关键词：即,它是适应于当地自然和土地的,它是当地人的,它是为了生存和生活的,三者缺一不可。这可以从乡土景观的主体、客体及相互关系方面来理解解读乡土景观对现代景观设计的意义在于理解景观是乡土经验的一种历史记载,帮助设计师用种新的、非自我的视角,设计内在人生活的景观,从种不自觉的、没有设计师的景观和唯设计师的景观,走向自觉的为使用者而设计的景观。