"Move bamboo as a window, divide the pear into a courtyard; dissolve the moon, the sound of the wind; quietly disturb a piano book, move the half-round autumn water, clear the qi to come to a few seats, where the dust is far away." The famous gardening master of the Ming Dynasty, Ji Cheng, vividly displayed the charm of ancient Chinese gardens in "Garden Governance", which is breathtaking.
Traditional Chinese gardens are the materialization of Chinese residential aesthetic ideas, and natural landscapes such as mountain stones, flowers and trees, and pools constitute the main content of the landscape. Although with the development of society, today's garden design styles have undergone great changes, we can still see the cultural elements and design ideas of classical gardens in the modern garden landscape.
In recent years, the national tide and national style culture have prevailed, and the values, philosophy, lifestyle and aesthetic taste of the Chinese have also been applied to the architectural layout, shape system, garden construction and other residential design ideas. Chinese garden culture was born out of Chinese unique landscape view and philosophy, and after thousands of years of tempering, it has formed its own set of artistic language.
In August 2022, the first [New National Tide Conference] will be held, which will gather top experts and scholars, national tide brand managers, and mainstream media people to discuss the growth of the national tide brand and help China's economic double cycle. The Interface City Observation Column, jointly curated by Interface Property Market Channel and Urban Environment Design (UED) Magazine, has an exclusive dialogue with Professor Xu Hao to discuss classical Chinese gardens and their applications and values in modern life.
Xu Hao, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of the College of Landscape Architecture of Nanjing Forestry University, Director of the Research Center for Landscape Image History of Nanjing Forestry University, and Director of the Institute of Landscape Architecture History and Theory of Nanjing Forestry University Are the transcripts of the dialogue:
Interface property market: The living mode in traditional Chinese culture is not divided into gardens and buildings, but pays more attention to the organic combination of "scenery" and "residence", you have long been engaged in the study of garden and garden history, can you simply introduce the characteristics or spiritual core of China's classical residential culture in a few words?
Xu Hao: Due to his perennial scientific research and practical work in the field of landscape architecture, he has a deep feeling for classical Chinese residential culture. Traditional Chinese residential culture is a combination of practical function and spiritual sublimation, as well as a reflection of order and ideals. First of all, the residence should meet the function of people's residence and provide people with shelter; on the basis of satisfying the living function, it has developed derivative functions such as meeting guests, reading, communication, collection, and garden tours. Therefore, the spiritual core of China's classical residential culture should be the pursuit of naturalism and life ideals in an artificial living environment to achieve the perfection of people's spirit.
Interface Property Market: What does the "beauty" pursued by Chinese gardens look like?
Xu Hao: The "beauty" pursued by Chinese gardens is, first of all, the beauty of a natural landscape, for example, in the Qin Dynasty, the earliest royal garden "Shanglin Garden" is this kind of natural garden, and the palace is scattered in it; to the imperial garden "Jianzhang Palace" in the Han Dynasty, there are natural elements such as ponds and rockeries; and the classical gardens in Jiangnan that we see now have very developed water systems. These are some of the most fundamental elements of the Chinese garden, all of which are elements of naturalness.
This kind of natural system, I think it has all-natural characteristics on the one hand; on the other hand, its styles are different, some gentle, some rough and so on. These different styles, artificially organized and incorporated into the living system, are very suitable for condensing various natural landscapes in a limited space, which can be more suitable for our living scenes and can better match the needs of living. The result is a system of symbiotic coexistence between man and nature. I think the beauty of the garden lies in this fusion of nature and man.
Image source: Figureworm Creative
Interface property market: At present, is there any misunderstanding among the public on the concept of garden, architectural and residential concepts? What are the misconceptions?
Xu Hao: At present, I think there are still certain misunderstandings in the concept of garden construction and architectural residence. For example, equating gardening with greening, understanding it as simply planting trees and planting grass, thinking that this is a very simple thing, which is a misunderstanding. In fact, we say that greening is a major means of ecological construction, but garden landscaping is more of a culture and an art. At the same time, this misunderstanding has also caused another misunderstanding, such as in the usual construction activities, we all pay more attention to architecture, and we are not able to pay much attention to the creation of the garden environment.
Interface Property Market: How Do Western Countries View Classical Chinese Garden Aesthetics? What is the impact?
Xu Hao: Probably in the 17th century, some concepts of Chinese gardens began to form and circulate in Europe. Mainly from the European missionaries and missions at that time, they sent back to Europe in the form of letters or reports what they saw and heard in China, and published them in Europe, causing the spread at that time. More representative is the Dutch Neuhof, his mission to the mainland of Guangzhou, Nanjing, Beijing, along the way of some famous garden scenery have been painted, and these travelogue paintings have been transmitted back to Europe at that time and widely circulated.
By the middle of the 18th century, there was a very famous figure named Chambers, who introduced Chinese gardens in great depth and wrote a book called "The Theory of Oriental Gardening", which catered to a kind of curiosity and social trend of European society for oriental culture at that time.
However, the study of classical gardens requires a corresponding linguistic and cultural foundation, so the Western academic community has inherent deficiencies in this regard, so the research is still not in-depth enough.
Interface property market: Garden, landscaping, poetic dwelling, in ancient times, was it only the patent of the gentry and the gentry above?
Xu Hao: I think this is indeed the case, because the garden was not public in ancient society, it had its own limitations, which were limited by the social identity at that time. The practicality and appreciation of ancient gardens has its own specific circles, because it also needs to have a certain cultural background to support this experience and aesthetic.
Interface property market: With the modern life more and more abundant, people's requirements for the living environment are also constantly improving, from "some live" to "live well" transformation, of which, garden landscaping as an indispensable factor, has moved from high-end to popular, has become one of the focus of people's attention. So, what role does the garden landscape play in people's lives from ancient times to the present? And what are the most important roles?
Xu Hao: Through a variety of ancient documents and images, we can understand that in ancient social life, the garden landscape on the one hand satisfies people's pursuit of nature and spirit, and is an object of appreciation for people; at the same time, it is also a social place, a field of cultural dissemination, and a space for literati to think about reading.
In modern society, garden landscapes have more publicity and wide application. In modern society, people's life and work pressure is very large, in addition to meeting the viewing needs of the public, gardens can also be regarded as a place of spiritual comfort, but also a platform for the inheritance of traditional culture.
Image source: Figureworm Creative
Interface property market: To create gardens, landscaping, and projects that can achieve "poetic habitat", what higher requirements are put forward for the owners (developers) of the project?
Xu Hao: "Poetic dwelling", in my understanding, should be to make a landscape with cultural implications and connotations. For the owners of the project, I think that first of all, it is necessary to have the enthusiasm of loving Chinese traditional culture and understanding Chinese history and culture, and on the basis of satisfying the practical functions of living, to achieve the purpose of pursuing a higher level of spiritual enjoyment.
Interface property market: In the garden and landscape design of modern residential projects, there are many elements that borrow from traditional Chinese gardens and architecture, such as etiquette, regulation, etc. What aspects of the integration of classical gardens and modern life should be discussed and paid attention to?
Xu Hao: People's awareness of classical gardens, understanding of relevant knowledge and cultural identity should be paid attention to and discussed.
Today's society has some good conditions, such as museums open to the public for free, and various information channels for obtaining knowledge reserves are very developed, which is a very convenient way for the public to enhance cultural knowledge and enable them to pay more attention to Chinese garden culture.
For scholars, on the one hand, the research work should be further deepened, on the other hand, it is necessary to pay attention to the popularization of garden culture knowledge, to be able to spread the concept of life in the garden, so that garden culture into thousands of households, should do a good job in this popularization of the public.
For professional designers, it is necessary to actively integrate Chinese cultural concepts into their designs, which requires them to have rich historical and cultural knowledge and passion for disseminating traditional culture.
Interface property market: In recent years, the rise of the national tide, behind which is the enhancement of the cultural self-confidence of the Chinese people and the affirmation of self-awareness, in the residential function of The Chinese design is increasingly used in architectural performance and garden display, also known as "new Chinese style", please ask in your understanding, what is the new Chinese style? Is there a standard?
Xu Hao: The new Chinese style has actually appeared in the field of Chinese residential environment design for a while, and it is indeed very popular. The new Chinese we are seeing now, in my understanding, is the use of modern landscape materials, combined with Chinese elements to design the living and garden space.
At present, it does not have a unified standard, and I think it is not necessary to set a unified standard, in fact, as long as it can reflect the excellent traditional garden mood of China, it can be regarded as a new Chinese style. So I think the new Chinese style is an application and combination of traditional culture in contemporary residential design, which enriches the landscape type of our dwelling, which is worth affirming (style).
Image source: Figureworm Creative
Interface property market: Garden landscape is an important part of modern urban landscape, but also an indispensable part of modern residential real estate, garden landscape is good or bad, will it bring value-added effect to residential life or investment? In what ways?
Xu Hao: The answer is yes, we can see from many practical results that its value-added effect is still very obvious.
First of all, the garden landscape can improve the environmental quality of living; secondly, it can extend the function of the building, some functions are not easy to solve inside the building, but can be solved in the garden space. Finally, it gives people a sense of belonging, a landscape with a humanistic spirit that allows people to find a sense of cultural belonging. This increases the attractiveness of the entire residential product. Therefore, the garden landscape will definitely bring a lot of value-added effects to life and investment.
Interface Property Market: We have a theme that we want to try to explore in this column: "Contemporary Chinese ideal house". What elements or standards do you think the ideal house in contemporary Chinese should have?
Xu Hao: I personally believe that a house should be understood as a living space, rather than a single building. Then in a person's life, the most important and fundamental space is the living space, so the ideal house, in addition to the practical function of living, should also be able to bring us cultural nourishment and spiritual enjoyment.
The house we Chinese ideal should not be just a house, but a spiritual home Chinese. In such a home, the aesthetics of the garden should be indispensable!