CHINESE GARDENS

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE ( 6 TH S E M ) BY: Ar CHETANA R

CHINESE GARDENS

• Beginning of Eastern civilization- a form of religion based on animist beliefs developed.

• Mountains, rivers, seas, rocks, sky – materialized spirits to be honored.
• Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu - taught people to integrate themselves with rhythms of
life.
• Develop – good manners towards nature, human beings.
• 2 types: The Imperial garden and the private garden.

PHILOSOPHY

• “Even though everything is

the work of man, it must
appear to have been created
by heaven” – Ji Cheng

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE ( 6 TH S E M ) BY: Ar CHETANA R

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GEOGRAPHICAL INFLUENCE
• China endowed with diverse
natural landscape.

• Five famous holy mountains –

frequently appear in Chinese
landscape art:
• Hua mountain
• Tai mountain
• North Heng mountain
• South Heng mountain
• Sung mountain

• Distinct regional climatic

variation.

• Abundance and beauty of natural

landscape resources originated
and nurtured Chinese art, gardens
and architecture.

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• TIMELINE: • TYPES: • DESIGN:
• Shan • North Imperial • Concept
• Han garden • Approach
• Wei • Southern garden • Layout
• Sui • Scene
• Song • Borrowing
• Ming and Qing

• ELEMENTS: • ELEMENTS:
• Rocks • Pond
• Water • Mound
• Plants • Pavilion
• Architecture

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TIMELINE:
▪ SHAN DYNASTY (1600 BC – 1046 BC)
• Agricultural – for common people.
• Royal – Imperial – Raised platform surrounded by lush garden – feasts were held.

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▪ HAN DYNASTY

• Garden built as villa for king, called Yuan.

• For rest and to deal state affairs.
• Qin and Han style - Pond in garden with three man-made islands.
• Islands houses palaces, pavilions, and rooms.
• Various wonderful plants were used.

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▪ WEI DYNASTY
• Important period in China. Flourishing economy and prosperous civilization,
• Scholars and bureaucrats seeking natural beauty.
• Upper class toured far-off mountains and rivers.
• This influenced the gardens to look like nature with mountain and rivers as its main
feature.
• “The garden with natural mountains and rivers.”

▪ SUI and TANG DYNASTY

• Integration of garden to
literature and art.
• Scenes based on poems and
paintings.
• Sometimes exact replica of
paintings.

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▪ SONG DYNASTY
• Golden age of gardens
• Nature abstracted and embellished with principle features of water and rocks.
• Enhanced with plants and animals particularly birds.
• Better skilled in managing rocks

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▪ MING & QING DYNASTY (17th – 18th century)
• Peak time for garden building.
• Natural, enjoyable, poetic and graphic.
• Placing buildings – main technique to make
scenic spots.
• Function of living reinforced along with
viewing.
• Imitated not only mountains and rivers but
also other famous gardens – to enjoy “garden
of gardens”

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TYPES:

1. The Imperial garden –

• Mostly in north China, with those in Beijing as representatives featuring
magnificence

2. The private garden –

• Mostly in south China
• Designed and created – a place of retreat for ancient scholars to escape the chaos
of the city and relax.

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CONCEPT
• Taoist beliefs led Chinese to take much pleasure in the calming landscapes of their natural
environment, eventually emulate these scene.
• Achieved through creation of landscape paintings to view or by creating imitation
landscapes, some of which were on a very large scale.

DESIGN:
• Naturalistic planting designs. Rusticity and spontaneity existing in nature.
• Yin and Yang - Harmonious arrangement of various elements and contrasting elements
placed in juxtaposition.
• “Borrowed scenery" - garden incorporated with the surrounding landscape.
• The aesthetics of the garden are judged by its conception, approach, layout, scenes, and
borrowing.
• CONCEPT - Garden reflects a painting or poem.
• APPROACH - Express the idea of nature.
• LAYOUT - Use of multiple layers of scenery.
• SCENES – How opposite scenes create harmony
• BORROWING - How artfully distant views are incorporated into the whole.

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DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
• Viewed as miniature of the Chinese landscape.
• Nature – valued, regarded and held in highest honor.
• Main principle – recreate nature, to present its essence without an artificial effect.
• Recreation must be based on profound observation, a deep understanding of nature.
• Design process: abstraction and stylization of existing landscape.
• Aim of creating a natural form – to celebrate the human spirit.

CHARACTERISTICS OF DESIGN
• The garden scenes- concealed inside different scenic section, thus, only revealed in
sequence along the paths.
• Paths constructed with varying widths or paved with different materials – to give
beholders the different senses of experience: constriction, roughness, release,
smoothness.
• A scene in a private Chinese garden was designed for viewing from a number of
observation points and angles.
• Every scenic section- its own landscape character, but the garden as a whole must be
unified under a central theme.
• Walls – most common means of demarcating one special segment from another.

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▪ ELEMENTS:
• ROCKS –
• The artificial mountain or rock garden
– integral element.

• Mountain peak – symbol of virtue,

stability and endurance.

• Mountain peak in an island – a

central part of the legend of isles of
the immortals, thus became central
element.

• Decorative rocks – scholar’s rocks –

used for both sculptural and
structural purposes.

• During the Song dynasty, it was the

most expensive element.

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▪ ELEMENTS:
• WATER –
• Pond or lake – central element.
• Main buildings usually placed beside it, pavilions surround the lake to view it from
different view points.
• Garden – pond for lotus flowers, with special pavilion for viewing them.
• Water represents – lightness and communication.
• Shape of pond hides edges of the pond from viewers on the other side, giving an
illusion that the pond goes on to infinity.
• Softness of water – contrasts – solidity of rocks.
• Water reflects sky, constantly changing - Visitors - enjoyed inverted reflection in water
of the landscape, watch the swimming fish, admire the lotus, and view the bright moon
from the water.

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▪ ELEMENTS:
• PLANTS –
• Compliments in decorating rockery and water.
• Flowers and trees compared to hair of mountains.
• Three criteria in choosing plants - to realize the pursuit of nature.
• Appearance - shape of crown of a tree, texture of bark, shape of leaf, and so on.
• Color - leaves, trunks and flowers must have various natural colors, for example, red
maple leaves, verdant bamboo leaves, mottled elms, etc.
• Fragrance - Best to have fragrance in every month. For example, the smell of calyx is
refreshing while that of orchid is delicate.
• Essential symbolism - Pine trees represent wisdom and bamboo represents strength
and upright morality.
• Plum trees - extremely valuable to the Chinese for their beautiful pink and white
blooms during winter.
• Chrysanthemums - extremely well loved because of their autumn bloom (when most
plants wither and die) and symbolize the perfect Confusician scholar.
• Peonies symbolize wealth and power, and the lotus symbolizes purity.

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STRUCTURES:

• The most important structures – walkways, pavilions, bridges.

• Timber frame construction plays a decisive role.
• Halls, pavilions, temples, galleries, bridges, kiosks, towers – occupy a large part of the
space.
• Gardens also feature two storey towers,
usually at the edge of the garden – provided a
view from above of certain areas of the
garden or distant scenery.

• Bridges- common features – built from rough

timber/ stone slab.

• Small, austere houses for solitude and

meditation.

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TYPES:

1. The Imperial garden – NORTHERN IMPERIAL GARDEN

• With material resources and generous financial support combined with supreme
power, emperors were able to construct Imperial Gardens with almost unlimited
extravagance Harmonious unity of architecture with nature - contributed to the
decision to construct many gardens in scenic mountain areas. Summer Palace –
best example. Gentle babbling brooks meander through delicate palaces,
pavilions, platforms, and bridges.
• Large lakes shimmering in the early morning or late afternoon sun, where fish
swim delightfully in and out of duckweeds add to the incredible beauty of the
pleasant surroundings. Example: The Summer Palace, Beijing

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2. The private garden –
• Smaller but no less exquisite.

• Although rich in water resources – limited land area for private gardens.

• Garden owners skillfully and cleverly constructed their private gardens according
to their own personal tastes.

• Simpler and more elegant.

• Selection of colors - dark grey tiles to cover the house roofs, while walls were
painted white.

• Wooden pillars were colored dark brown or greenish black that blended with the
bridges, pavilions and corridors - made of natural stone.

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• Some of the noteworthy gardens would be 'Garden of the Master of Nets', 'Li Garden',
'Canglang Pavilion', 'Lion Grove', 'Garden for Lingering', and 'Humble Administrator's
Garden„

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THANK YOU

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