Cultural Encounters of Landscape Architects Xiaoxiang Sun and Lawrence Halprin

Author: Yufan ZHU, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, China

“From nature to nature” is the major goal of landscape design. The former is the idea of nature, i.e., landscape architects regard nature as the archetype of design; the latter is the experience of nature, i.e., landscape architects hope people can perceive the natural atmosphere through designed landscape. In this sense, the transformation from idea to experience of nature refers to the process of landscape design, which materializes landscape.

According to this, the research by two scholars from Tsinghua University, China focuses on the following topics: 1) what role does nature play as the origin of the landscape design theory; 2) how does nature as an idea promote form-giving in landscape design; and 3) what aesthetic experience does designed landscape create. This research draws on two influential landscape architects, Xiaoxiang Sun and Lawrence Halprin, and analyzes their theories and works from the perspective of comparative culture, including the idea of nature and its representation, the inherent mechanism of form-giving in landscape design, and the experience created by designed landscape.

In Landscape Architecture discipline, Chinese scholars of gardening and landscaping have gradually divided into two schools: one is cultural conservatives, who insist on the creative translation of local concepts of nature and construction activities as appropriate paths for ideas, values, strategies, and methods; the other is cultural radicals, who believe that the current Landscape Architecture should fully embrace ecologism and act as “the savior” of scientific enlightenment. On the one hand, the conservatives own their mission of integrating the East and the West knowledge—both historical and contemporary—however they seemingly look too often inward and backward to explore external theories, tools, and other possibilities, thus becoming more and more exclusive. The radicals, on the other hand, take their mission to save the world and entire humans, but who seemingly look too outward and forward and see nature and ecology as rigid entities, either solving survival problems with calculations and formulas or linguistically realizing moral rhetoric, hindering the cultural and ideological evolution of nature and ecology.

The current Landscape Architecture profession seems prosperous yet also faces with an unimaginable fading. It is time to tear away the marketing rhetoric of self-deception to let landscape design face up to the serious situations of the discipline, the academia, and the profession. Where is the way out? We can certainly dialectically criticize and preserve and then find a third way. However, a viable way of practice is far more difficult than a strategy on paper. In any case, one thing is indisputable—the research, discernment, and discussion should return to the ontology of landscape design. This means putting the academic focus back on the work of landscape design, and empirical research, humanistic historical research and criticism should all anchor on design activities, where the works of the two masters in this article are prefect examples.

The works and words of Sun and Halprin have the magic power to go through the time and irradiate the current dilemma. They have spent their life-long wisdom to understand and interpret nature with a theoretical framework, from experience to nature and from nature to reason. They internalized and conceptualized nature. Sun and Halprin, two well-deserved masters in Landscape Architecture, came from the East and the West respectively, who learned from the external cultures and gained prominent achievements. The review of their significance to contemporary landscape and the comparison of their works lead to a profound dialogue between the eastern and western cultures: promoting the spread of traditional Chinese ideologies into the West, while witnessing the western cultural theories creatively fusing with the Chinese discourse. Nowadays China’s landscape design works that reflect the integration of the eastern and western cultures will greatly contribute to the theoretical development in future.

About the Researchers

Xiaodong MU, Department of Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, China

Yufan ZHU, Department of Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, China

About the Article

https://journal.hep.com.cn/laf/EN/article/downloadArticleFile.do?attachType=PDF&id=36764

About the Journal

https://journal.hep.com.cn/laf/EN/2096-336X/home.shtml