"Landscape design is much more than the art of making the site Iook beautiful; it is about making senses."
《Landscape Today》2007
Dr Kongjian Yu got his Doctor of Design Degree at The Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1995. He is also the founder and dean of the Graduate School of Landscape Architecture at Peking University, and the founder and president of Turenscape, which is an internationally awarded firm with more than 200 professionals and is one of the first and largest private landscape architecture firms in China. Dr Yu has practiced actively and has been awarded four ASLA Honor Awards in 2002 and 2005, and 2006 respectively by the American Society of Landscape Architecture. Dr Yu is also the winner of the National Gold Medal of Fine Arts (2004, the Cultural Ministry, China), twice winner of the Human Habitat Model Award for designed projects (2002, 2005, the Construction Ministry, China). In 2004, he was awarded Oversea Chinese Pioneer Achievement Medal by the Chinese central government for my overall contribution to the nation. Dr Yu has published widely, including more than 150 papers and 15 books. His major research interests include: the theory and method of landscape architecture and urban planning; the cultural aspect of landscape; landscape security patterns and ecological infrastructure.
Ladscape Today: What led you to believe that you could make a difference through the practice of landscape architecture?
Dr Yu: "Landscape architect is the profession of the future", to quote IFLA president Martha Fajarde’s comment (2005), and the future of the profession lies in its unique positioning in dealing with the landscape as a medium, where the natural processes, cultural processes and the spiritual processes interact, and where all these processes can be integrated harmoniously. But this future will be ours only if are prepared.
Urbanisatlon, globalisation and the spread of materialism have positioned landscape architecture as a profession to address three major challenges/opportunities in the coming decades.
The first is about the survival and sustainability of humanity on the earth. Now than ever, more and more people are exposed to natural disasters, pollution and shortage of natural resources, as seen by the catastrophes of tsunami in Southeast Asia and Katrina in New Orleans and the numerous floods each year in China. Currently, China is reshaping its rural and urban landscape: thousands of dams are built across almost each of the rivers across this country, 65 percent of the 1.3 billion population will be living in the cities (now 40 percent)in the coming twenty years, two thirds of the 660 or so cities are in shortage of water, not a single river in the urban and suburban areas is not polluted. Landscape architecture is the right profession, at the right time to rebuild a harmonious relationship between land and people.
The second is the protection and recreation of cultural identity. The losing of cultural and regional identity to globalisation and westernization has eroded the meanings of our cities and places. Landscape architecture is possibly the most legitimate profession among those dealing with our physical environment to keep and regain our cultural identity. The strength of landscape architecture lies in its intrinsic association with the natural systems and in its root of agricultural tradition that are identical to local natural systems and variegated in thousands years of evolution. Methodologically, landscape architecture should strengthen our legacy of "design with nature", with cultural heritages and people in mind. Noticing the fact that the urbanization and globalisation processes are so fast and overwhelming, a "negative approach" should be taken against the conventional development planning approach.
By "negative", I mean landscape architects and planners should lead the way of urban development by identifying and designing, before development plan, an ecological infrastructure that are critical in safeguarding the ecological processes and cultural heritages, which are the root of cultural identity.
The third is the protection and recreation of our spiritual homeland. Landscape architecture should take the role to protect and rebuild such spiritual connections through the design of physical landscape.
Ladscape Today: In your opinion, what constitutes an effective landscape design?
Dr Yu: An effective landscape design is an economic (ecological) approach to solve the problems of the site. Landscape is a medium upon which various natural, biological and cultural processes occur and interact. Landscape design is therefore much more than the art of making the site look beautiful; it is about making senses.
Landscape architecture is not a direct decedent of garden art, but a descendent of surviving skills of our ancestors who had to survive and make living through sitting in a changeable environment, making a safe place away from floods, enemies, and making living by leveling the land, planting and irrigating crops, and saving water and other resources for sustaining the family.
Ladscape Today: Do you feel that China is making good progress in creating good landscape designs?
Dr Yu: China has made some great progresses in landscape design in the past few years, especially in new residential developments, newly developed zones in cities, as well as science and business parks. However, we still have a long way to go in terms of creating environmentally sensitive and culturally Chinese contemporary landscapes.
Ladscape Today: What advice would you give to young professionals who want to make their contribution to landscape architecture and to the society at large?
Dr Yu: I would like to give three a contribution to the profession of landscape architecture and to the society at large.
First of all, one must have the passion for the land. Love for the land and then being dedicated to the profession, is the sustaining power to become a successful landscape architect.
Second, one must have a big picture in mind. Urbanisation, globalization and the spread of materialism have positioned landscape architecture as a profession to address the major challenges/opportunities in the coming decades - this is the big picture. And a successful landscape architect must have the social and environmental responsibility, and this is especially true in China.
Thirdly, with a big picture in mind one must act based on the ground. Try to accumulate knowledge about people and their land. Travel through farms, mountains and villages, learn about what local people deal with land and water in order to survive various environments, is no less important than taking university courses.
Ladscape Today: What kind of future do you see for landscape architects in China over the next 3 years?
Dr Yu: The profession of landscape architect in China is now at the cross roads, or one may say at a new start. One may remember that more than half a century ago, the past prominent educator of landscape architecture Hideo Sasaki commented, that the profession of landscape architecture stand at a critical fork in the road. One fork leads to a significant field of endeavour contributing to the betterment of human environment, while the other points to a subordinate field of superficial embellishment. Unfortunately, except for some rare cases, landscape architecture in the past decades in the world as a whole, and particular in China, has been biased toward "a subordinate field of superficial embellishment". We could have taken more important role in such most pressing environmental management, the protection of biodiversity, cultural heritage protection, urbanization and land resources management. There are several reasons for the weakness for landscape architects to get involved in, or not being able to take the leading role in dealing with the big environmental projects or associated policy making processes.
In the coming three years, the still growing but more selective market will require more qualified landscape architect professionals. This will lead to a great demand for the training programmes of landscape architecture in Chinese universities, which will lead to a dramatic development in the education of this profession, and a great demand for qualified landscape architecture teachers.
There will also be a trend where we will see foreign experienced landscape architects and landscape architecture teachers and young graduates who are educated abroad returning to China to fill the shortage of qualified teachers. Meanwhile, the next three years will be a critical period for the landscape architecture profession in China to build up its profile and demonstrate its professional territory that: we are not gardeners, but landscape architects with a mission of saving the land and people.
Ladscape Today: What projects are you currently working on?
Dr Yu: There are about one hundred projects ongoing, and they range from regional ecological infrastructure, to the heritage corridor of the Grand Canal that extends more than 1,700 kilometres across China, new towns, new urban centres, school campuses, new residential communities, urban squares, parks, river corridors, beaches and water fronts.
北京朝陽區(qū)
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