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Chinesegardens 170501104306
Chinesegardens 170501104306
-Tanisha Agarwal
B.Arch/10003/14
Introduction
• At the beginning of eastern civilization a form of religion based on
animist beliefs developed.
• The mountains, sky, seas, rivers and rocks were materialized
spirits to be honoured.
• From this background a Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu, began to
teach Taoism which taught people to integrate themselves with the
rhythms of life.
• This resulted in the importance of good manners towards nature
and human beings.
Concept
• The Taoist beliefs led Chinese to take much
pleasure in the calming landscapes of their
natural environment and eventually emulate
these scenes so they were closer to hand.
• This was achieved through the creation of
landscape paintings to view or by creating
imitation landscapes some of which were
on a very large scale.
A stone sculpture of
Lao Tzu, located
north of Quanzhou
at the foot of Mount
Qingyuan.
Geographical Influence
• The most impressive feature of China is that it is endowed with
a diverse natural landscape.
• Eighty-five percent of China is markedly mountainous. The five
famous holy mountains – Hua mountain, Tai mountain, North
Heng mountain, South Heng mountain and Sung mountain
symbolize the centre of the earth and its four corners. These
mountains frequently appear in Chinese landscape art.
• China is also traversed by three of the world’s greatest rivers. –
the Yellow River (Huang He), the Yangtse River (Chang
Jian), and the West River (Hsi He).
• They rise in the central area of the China and flow east into the
Pacific, splitting into myriad small streams and several great
lakes.
• The third feature of China’s physical context is its distinct
regional variation in climate.
• The abundance and beauty of the natural landscape resources
originated and nurtured Chinese art, as well as Chinese gardens
and Chinese architecture.
Design Philosophy
• Chinese garden may be viewed as a miniature of the Chinese landscape.
• Nature is loved and held in highest honour in Chinese art, but this does not mean
that the nature must be simply “duplicated” in its original form.
• The main principle of Chinese garden art is to recreate nature, to present its
essence without an artificial effect.
• The recreation must be based on profound observation and a deep
understanding of the nature.
• The design of Chinese garden is a process of abstraction and stylization of the
existing landscape.
• The aim of creating a natural form in Chinese garden is to celebrate the human
spirit.
Characteristics of Design
• In the Chinese garden, the garden scenes are concealed inside different scenic sections,
thus, they only can be revealed in sequence along the paths.
• The paths in a Chinese garden are usually constructed with varying widths or paved with
different pavement materials to give the beholders the different senses of experience:
constriction, roughness, release, and smoothness.
• The scenic spots in the private Chinese gardens are built for static and dynamic
viewing, and lingering observation.
• Thus, a scene in a private Chinese garden was designed for viewing from a number
of observation points and angles.
• Every scenic section should have its own landscape character, but the garden as
whole must be unified under a central theme.
• Walls were the most common means of demarcating one spatial segment from another.
Design Features