EL JARDÍN DULE EN IGA 2017

Design background

America Cleveland Museum of Art has a hand scroll of “DuLe Garden” which is drawn by Qiu Ying, a great painter in Ming Dynasty of China. The hand scroll shows the picture of famous garden DuLe Garden in Song Dynasty he imagined. In the painting, the clear axis geometric pattern of garden is amazing, which is quite different from the general natural landscape of Chinese garden and different from the poetic feeling of traditional European geometric garden.

DuLe Garden, as an important and unique masterpiece in Chinese garden history, is an art ideal perfectly combining oriental philosophy, literature, painting and garden. The owner of DuLe Garden is Sima Guang, a famous politician, historian and litterateur in Song Dynasty (11th century). He personally designed and directed the construction of this garden and wrote an article Record of DuLe Garden to describe the frame and scenic spots of the garden. Based on DuLe Garden, a sense of value of Chinese literati with independent and introspective personality and highly characterized lifestyle are established and advocated. Hereafter, DuLe Garden becomes an important theme for Chinese painting and calligraphy work, which is similar to the historical influence of Laurentinum Villa in Letter Home of Pliny the Younger to European garden.

This is an interesting research subject. We are always looking for ways to show the historical dimension and depth of the diversity of Chinese garden to the world. INTERNATIONALE GARTEN AUSSTELLUNG (IGA) 2017 provides an opportunity.

This IGA is held in Berlin - "Gardens of the World, existing nine gardens that have been created since the mid-1990s". The first built international garden is DeYue Garden, a natural landscape garden, designed by China's Mr. Jin Bailing. The Organization Committee of IGA invites Pro. Zhu Yufan and renowned landscape architects from nine countries to design their forward looking gardens that have regional features to serve as durable exhibits in the garden. Each garden, measuring 380 square meters and 12*32m, is enclosed by 2.2m-high hedge.

What we are trying to do is to make performative poetic reinterpretation for DuLe garden, so as to make people feel as if they are standing on the intersection of the tradition & the modern, east & west.

Design concept

1. Philosophy is mixed into garden layout.

"Self-amusement" originates from the thinking of Mencius, the Second Sage in Confucian studies in the Warring States Period (476-221BC), to people and their relationship with external world. Confucianism in Song Dynasty thinks that nature develops from pure aspect and is the process of seeking "truth" (nature); mixing of subject and object has went deep into the inside of people's mind. Sima Guang named the garden as "DuLe" which means be happy and contented in one's own way in nature and indicates fair & peace order as well as implicate & vacant ideal condition in garden.

Bamboo hut, water bowl, water channel, bamboo forest, mirror wall are arranged into a space with geometric axis and the axis sense is strengthened via iris planting belt and debris belt. People and bamboo hut are placed in the same image space with natural elements like water and plant through mirror reflection, which stretches the vertical depth of space. Scene depth of mirror image strengthens the infinity of perceived space, and via this design, the nature experience and self-investigation in "self-amusement" are connected, which makes the view of time and space more conspicuous and intensify the theme.

There is white marble water bowl at the center of bamboo hut; bubbling fountain symbolizes heart source (the inner self); the fountain runs to the distant place along with the gurgling water in water channel and vanishes finally. Water channel is 18m-long and 2m-wide, on the back of which, "DuLe Garden" in Chinese calligraphy is imprinted reversely; via mirror image, people can see the forward graph-text. Water has its source and tail, moves in circles and becomes the intimate, playing and thinking object. It is the starting of space vitality and musicality. People sitting in the bamboo hut can experience the depth and tension of axial space and interact with images in the water; bamboo hut is a stage on which people can amuse themselves sufficiently. The space awareness of reflecting infinity in flowing, reciprocating and small space is exactly the nature of Chinese garden natural spirit.

2. The link between people and the nature by materials and forms.

Since Wei and Jin Dynasties, in Chinese garden, bamboo is generally used to express natural flavor and the elegant integrity of scholars. In the painting, bamboo shoots are bound crookedly to make a cluster of bamboo grove become "bamboo hut", which is a typical construction for Chinese literati to cultivate mentality (cultivate oneself according to a religious doctrine). DuLe garden continues such handwork sense and has more abstract imagination. In DuLe garden, bamboo hut is reproduced by using modern material stainless steel and fine process. The bamboo hut is 5.3m in both diameter and height, the connection nodes of strip layers form several twisted spiral lines and bring sight to the universe. Interlaced texture forms the stable structure of bamboo hut and introduces changing light and shadow in four seasons to make history and culture "shine" in space. There are two exits and entrances at the corresponding axis of bamboo hut for the convenience of entrance/exit and two layers of frame are formed.

3. Landscape narrative

At the entrance, landscape wall is "obstructive" and has built-in structure. "Picture of DuLe Garden" is printed on steel plate to exhibit for the convenience of people with different cultural backgrounds to read the picture and understand unique narrative and emotional bi-xing of Chinese garden. The wall specifies the forward and backward directions in spatial order and defines touring routes. Tourists are guided to the center of the garden along fine aggregate concrete road in clockwise direction and then walk out of the garden in clockwise direction. Those including virtual & essence relation between mirror surface and bamboo hut, frame level inside and outside the painting, see and be seen, near scene and infinity make people's care for themselves and the nature unified.

Cultural exchange in global context

DuLe garden, as an exhibition garden, is a small but complete epitome. It is an easy and delighted axis garden with oriental implication and constructed with the most concise elements by using modern technique, technology and material. DuLe garden provides a window for the world to understand Chinese garden more comprehensively and profoundly.

In all ages, static quotation will not inspire people's resonance and fragment duplicate does not have enough significance. Nature and geometry are not the basic difference between China and the West; mathematical geometry from farm irrigation and poetic geometry originated from hall foundation shall not be mixed. In the culture exchange collision between China and the West, keeping open-mindedness can make designers have comprehensive and profound understanding for each other.

We also thank America Cleveland Museum of Art for authorizing us to use the HD image of "Picture of DuLe Garden". Cultural fragment will have more extensive social effect when it moves around the globe. High-quality finished work shows the high-efficient team spirit of Sino-Germany in design communication, drawing cooperation and construction.