The Art of Survival - Positioning Contemporary Landscape Design

Author: Yu Kongjian
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-10-01
Features: Globalization and urbanization have brought numerous challenges and opportunities to landscape architecture. Environmental and ecological crises, cultural identity crises, and the lack of spiritual belief demand that contemporary landscape architecture must take on the responsibility of rebuilding the Peach Blossom Spring and restoring the harmony between heaven, earth, humans, and gods. In the face of such a responsibility, landscape architecture must return to the survival art of land design and stewardship, venturing into vast, authentic, and ordinary lands to seek the spirit of Yu the Great and absorb the techniques and arts of survival on the land. Landscape architecture is not a product or continuation of garden art; it originates from the "survival art" accumulated by our ancestors in the process of making a living. This art has long been overshadowed by the so-called garden design in the upper culture, both in China and around the world. China's problems are also the world's problems. Solving China's problems, in a sense, will help solve the world's problems. Therefore, Chinese landscape architecture will also be the world's landscape architecture.