The Bamboo Forests of Moganshan

This is Moganshan, a mountain about 3 hours southwest of Shanghai. It was discovered by expat Shanghainese in the early 20th century and became a villa retreat from the hectic life of the city. I visited here from the 16-17th of July. The bamboo forests were impressive, but, as I learned later at an ecological fair I went to recently, these bamboo plantations were a relatively new introduction. Previously, the mountains in this area were covered with pine and other evergreens. You can still see them in the valley below where this weed tree that is bamboo has not yet taken hold.

I explored around the village and found many piles of things placed neatly in a geometric yet impermanent order. Restive, but still. The bamboo forests on the hillsides were filled with the tremors of beings unseen yet definitive of the familiar sound of summer.

But it was a late night walk, in complete darkness, where I discovered the missing symphony of Moganshan. It took some patience to record this audio as there was a dog alert to my presence, but hesitantly barking, as it could not discern my location from 100m away. I recommend listening to these two files in darkness and preferably with headphones. It is not high fidelity but there is a discernible deliberateness to this symphony that one might otherwise miss by walking past. I stood completely still for the duration of these recordings:

Moganshan Creaky Frogs Concert (originally AMR 8Khz; recorded 23:24 July 16, 2011)

As I mentioned in the first post about the master gardens, there was this publication about the garden designs. There is also a book available in english about the expo planning. I might pick it up actually; I recently saw in the Red Town Bookstore.

As I have myself experienced, what is articulately designed as a concept is so ever rarely built well in China. Compromises are made which may have been worse choice than the choice of building it at all. So I will give the benefit of the doubt here to the designers of the university portion of the expo because what was submitted to the Expo as a design didn’t quite make it as built. As an example, the two projects above were a bit of a let down. The field of green towers ended up looking like this:

University of Saint Joseph (Macau). I thought we walked into a nursery! But oh nevermind.

The overwatering of these plant racks did create a bit of micro climate... it felt cooler and pleasant than elsewhere

The other project on that page above was designed by the University of California, Berkeley, on the top (the water channels), and Columbia University on the bottom (the wood deck wetland). The Berkeley design projected water from a central spring channeled into spreading metal water channels. This water was then deposited by waterfall into Columbia University’s wetland at the lowest grade to return to an adjacent waterbody:

The only interest for me in the Berkeley design is that the idea behind the emerging water channels exposed to the air seems to function like an artificial estuary... on a miniscule level.

My criticism of the Columbia University garden is that without the marshland plants they proposed to be planted, having annuals in a heavily water logged condition doesn’t quite deliver the message of their design. Likewise, while I would have looked forward to seeing an inundated deck with waterplants, I suspect that, like most waterways in China, they are heavily regulated and not permitted to rise or fall naturally.  Like I mentioned in the beginning of this post, they might not have had (and probably didn’t) final control over planting species. It also may have been a struggle to acquire such “rare” natural plants because they were undoubtedly provisioned from a nursery (which in of itself is incredulous not having a wide variety of species for a garden expo).  As I have realized over the months designing here, the tastes of a Chinese audience almost always steer to towards a fantastical, highly manicured picturesque which often directly conflicts with a true, natural landscape in transitional areas.

"The designer creates a multidimensional ecological swamp by building a riverside platform and displays different landscape effects by seasonal plants change as well as the rise and fall of water level."

Meanwhile, this garden by Peking University was closed for unknown safety reasons:

Peking University, "Poem of Wind", 590 sq meters

It's quite nice in its abandoned state

Other gardens were plagued by technical failures, such as this Aromatic Garden by the University of Toronto:

There was no scent coming from the perforated posts... And the glass structure behind was filled with scent bottles, but the building was locked.

A glasshouse of inaccessible curiosities

Finally, I realized that not only was it difficult to quickly explain one’s design idea on print, it is an even greater challenge to prevent it from immediately aging:

Hong Kong University I think

...and this is how it was built. Granted it was a cloudy day but it just looks so dreary and so 30 years ago.

In the adjacent garden, the last one we went to, I didn’t bother taking any photographs except for this last one. I think it epitomizes the spirit of the Expo from a western perspective:

Just replace "Pampa" with "Expo" and you'll capture the spirit

The Garden of 10000 Bridges by Adriaan Geuze

Area: 1005 sq meters
Design Theme: The path of life
Introduction: The Garden of Bridges is designed by Adriaan Geuze, a famous landscape gardener from Holland, professor of landscape architecture at Harvard University, and chief designer of West 8 city planning and landscape designing firm. In this garden, life is likened to a narrow endless path and also a labyrinth. The path leads to Nature, guiding you across thousands of bridges. Consisting of simple but potent elements such as bridges, narrow paths and bamboo, the design tries to give people a strong impact both in vision, scale and emotion. Every bridge will be passed as their locations are elaborately arranged to accord with the general layout of the Expo, offering different views from each, so that visitors on the bridges can appreciate the landscape. 

Where's the tail?

Somehow I think that the “path of life” should not be so tightly choreographed, but, as a garden it was a pleasure to run up (and run under) each of the bridges. Sadly most of the garden was marred by the heavy odor of what I think was either glue or mineral spirits. It seems that the painted concrete was not holding up very well. Still, having the opportunity of having some sense of a view while on top of the bridge was appreciated. In fact, very few of the gardens played with any kind of idea of level change or distant view sheds. This garden seemed to be more outward looking than most since you were either looking out of the garden or up at the sky:

Hello red dragon bridge...

The bamboo path. The crushed stone pathway was affected by poor water drainage in certain areas. This was one of the few places where it was dry.

Detail of underside bridge texture

Maze Garden by Martha Schwartz

Area: 1054 sq meters
Design Theme:  The most primitive and truest behaviors of human in the variable and endless forest
Introduction:  Maze Garden is designed by Martha Schwartz, an internationally renowned master hand and artist of landscape architecture, Lifetime Professor at Harvard University, has honorary fellowship at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), and is chief designer at Martha Schwartz Design Firm. This garden is constructed with Xi’an’s traditional 3 meter high black brick walls, which looks like a box from the outside. The space in the garden is divided into a series of roofed narrow corridors. Willows are planted in the space between every two walls. Over 100 little brass bells hang in the garden, making beautiful sounds as the breeze blows. When walking inside, visitors can not only experience the change of space, but also see the various behavior of others with the help of the one-way mirros set in the corridors. 

The Almost Infinite Maze Arcade

Another simple idea and just repeated over and over. A simple material palette but did not notice the brass bells that was provided in the description. It has a very voyeuristic quality to it because the one-way mirror was a mirror on one side but a window on the other, so the garden was successful in its portrayal of design theme…

The view from the other side of the mirror..

Ghost Reflections... and the Maze continues...

Landscape Garden (Map of China) by Catherine Mosbach

Area: 1032 sq meters
Design Theme:  Modern garden art displayed with Chinese landscape painting
Introduction:  The Landscape Garden is designed by Catherine Mosbach, an outstanding French designer of landscape architecture; chief designer at Mosbach Landscape Architecture Firm; founder and chief editor of Pages Paysages; visiting professor at the Graduate School of Pennsylvania Institute of Art and the receiver of the 2003 Rosa Barba European Landscape Design Award as well as the Grand Prize of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). This garden gives visitors the experience of being spectators by expanding the garden’s boundaries. It uses the art of Chinese landscape painting and gardening for reference, aiming at creating miniature natural sceneries which is similar in spirit rather than in form. This garden will fully display the traditions of gardening in a modern way in the ecological corridor of Xi’an International Horticultural Expo, 2011. 

Good linearity, eh?

In the foreground you might notice the boulder gravel; it was quite painful to walk on unless you were wearing mountain boots. The tiny path system which forced you to walk in goose step was, in that case, very much appreciated.

That is quite an inhospitable terrain... makes you think about using material to steer people away from things rather than using traditional barriers

The only reference to the map of China may have been a container pool/artificial wetland that was in such a geographic shape, but I wonder about the rest of the garden and what it may mean. Specific tiny paths, uncomfortable material groundcover and an overhead spray system (that fed water to the artificial wetland) were all things that you either wanted to avoid or quickly run away from.

Frames, Rocks, and Flowers

The overhead spray system

Frames and Spray

Froggies in the wetland!

The Big Dig Garden, by Martin Cano

Area: 1002 sq meters
Design Theme:  leave the garden, leave the hole, to ther other end of the world
Introduction:  The Big Dig Garden is designed by Martin Cano, one of the chief designers of Topotek one of the most progressive design corporations in Germany, and has received a number of awards such as the First Prize in competitions at Wolfsburg, Tiergarten, and Eberswalde. This design takes the earth as the model, guiding visitors back to the world the imagined in their childhood, where digging a mysterious hole in the ground, is a means though which everyone can travel to the other side of the world. The design empathizes with visitors’ emotions, building a multicultural backdrop for them. It gives people the experience of transitioning from indoors to outdoors and from cities to Nature. Furthermore, it shows the combination and transition of two different cultures, broadening the traditional conception of garden.  

The Chinese are skittish about using glass as any kind of a barrier. Perhaps it has something to do with using poor quality tempered glass everywhere that shatters to pieces from temperature differentiation

The hole “in the ground” had traffic sounds emanating from it. Before I found the hard to find tablet describing this project, I thought that the idea was meant to show some kind of an underground life, and not that it was the other side of the world.

A simple idea with clean execution is marred by all the safety add-ons. The barrier is understandable... except that few people approached this garden (there was a rest pavilion nearby that was more appealing to hundreds of Chinese). I suppose if you fell into the hole, they could use the barriers as ladders...The /two/ fire extinguishers outdoors were odd... was it because the plasma/LCD TV could possibly explode into a fireball?

Four Boxes Garden by Wang Xiangrong

Area: 1012 sq meters
Design Theme:  Poetic quality of garden space
Introduction: The Quadrangle garden is designed by Wang Xiangrong, a presiding designer at Atelier DYJG in Beijing, a professor and doctoral supervisor in the School of Landscape Architecture, Beijing Forestry University, associate editor of Chinese Garden; chief editor of Landscape Architecture; editorial board member of magazines including Landscape Design, Modern Garden, etc., honorary professor of University of Hong Kong, and visiting professor at Southwest University, Nanjing Forestry University, and Zhejiang Forestry University. The naming of the Four Boxes Garden (Si He Yuan) comes from the Four Boxes Courtyard (Si He Yuan). The garden is divided into four smaller gardens, symbolizing a cycle of seasons. The ground of the garden adopts a linear flow and the plants, white gravel and tiles are made of various materials. the design pursues an artistic concept and poetic quality, where visitors can take part in meditation and experience the garden, demonstrating the Eastern way of understanding and appreciating gestures. 

These rotating doors are effective at creating a private space,

...or opening up into a larger continuous space

This garden visit was my favorite of the entire exposition. It is successful at portraying varying scales, it has very few dead spots or awkward moments (something that, quite possibly, is impossible to avoid in any project), it was designed for multiple users (from bbq cookouts to private outdoor reading it seems), almost all viewsheds were carefully considered, and it provides shade from the sun (though there seemed some missed opportunities for this).

Four Boxes Courtyard Panorama.. well, looking from Box 1 onto Box 2 & 3

Closeup of Rustic Window wall (represents Box 3 I think)

Inside Box 2: Grape Vine Trellis

Inner Courtyard of Box 2. Even has seating! (the space was quite small)

Threshold from box 2 to 3

Rustic Perspective Lines and Squares

I suspect that the cables above were meant for whatever climbers to come up and cover this larger space. This part was the most enclosed of the boxes and felt more constrained. Just distant in far center is the fourth box which is nothing more than an atrium for an exit/entrance.

Botanist Garden, by Eelco Hooftman

Area: 1031 sq meters
Design Theme:  Expressive force of chinese rare species
Introduction: The Botanist Garden is designed by Eelco Hooftman, a leading figure at Edinburgh College of Art, chief designer of the renowned landscape design studio, Gross Max, receiver of international awards such as the First Prize at the competition of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and the First Pirce in Colchester Invitational Tournament. This garden exhibits various noted rare plants in Wilson’s collection such as metasequoia, the living fossil of cupresssaceae, Meconopsis punicea and highlands of Tibet. In terms of the space design, the designer adopts the baskets with crickets in and bamboo poles white separate the garden, the Botanist garden successfullly ahcieves the surreal transition from the forecourt to the outer court and the inner chamber. 

The forecourt that is mentioned in the description is constructed with these perforated bricks. Behind this wall is where the inner chamber is located and was the most interesting part of the garden:

The Botanist Garden Inner Chamber

What was really striking about this construction was its relative simplicity. It is a circular structure a small garden core. There is only one entrance. It is simply constructed, but the pattern of using these ceramic roofing tiles creates an articulated yet dizzying effect. What was most surprising was that, upon entering it, I immediately felt perceptibly cooler. Perhaps this Inner Chamber acts like a heat sink and causes the air on the inside to be slightly cooler, or perhaps the structure creates a natural micro climate with cooler air (or perhaps it traps more humid air which gives the feeling of a 1-3 C temperature drop).

The Inner Chamber and Garden Core

Inner Chamber Entrance Detail

Ceramic Roofing Tile Detail with Mortar

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Passages Garden, Vladimir Sitta

Area: 1,001 sq meters
Design Theme: Recombination of eternity and instant
Introduction:  The Passages Garden is designed by Vladimir Sitta, a professor at the University of Western Australia and President of Terragram in Australia. His representative works include the National Museum of Australia, and Fantasy Garden in Canberra; He is also the receiver of the 1981 and 1986 Berlin Peter Joseph Ronna National Award. This design integrates three unique independent gardens. Close observation will expose some exquisite sights. Inside the garden there are mainly scattered walls, inserted with some cutouts for people to take a glimpse of the indistinct sceneries in front. The birches in the garden are the witnessses of the seasons’ change, with trunks turning from vibrant to barren and leaves from green to gold or red. The change of seasons and the automatic reproduction of plants indicate the transitory beauty of Nature. The garden becomes Nature’s minature, offering residents in cities a chance to experience it. 

We thought that the description was referring to a text of another garden, but there was no other signpost. This garden was full of disappointment of half envisioned things. It was also a pity that the water feature was not correctly working. Unlike the last garden we visited (the Labyrinth), there seemed less to do, such as experiencing this idea of “eternity and instant”…

Xi’an Expo 2011 Master Gardens on Map

Right, so if it weren’t for the Master Gardens, the Xi’an Horticultural Expo 2011 would have been a complete bust. There was a special magazine that was released prior to the Expo detailing all of the projects and which acted as our guidebook. I do not have access to this guidebook but I can ask for the specifics and will post a link or otherwise an update when I do have this information. In the meantime, I’ve taken the time to transcribe each of the garden’s sign posts. In the image above, most of the Master Gardens are located there, with the illustrations corresponding to roughly the real thing. You’ll see once you see the photos. There were also the “Student Gardens”, just west of the main axis but we’ll get to them last, as that’s how we traveled the expo site.

Labyrinth in the Mountain, Benedetta Tagliabue

Area: 1,000 sq meters
Design Theme: Being with Nature
Introduction:  The Garden with a Labyrinth of Mountainous Paths is designed by Benedetta Tagliabue, one of the founders of the new and prominent Spanish architecture firm EMBT. The garden is named in honor of nature. Such an inspiration comes from Chinese landscape painting. It is untraditionally imbued with rich local features. It is constructed with the vibrant colors of an oil painting and ideas from the modern deconstructionalism. As all the construction materials are natural and the manufactured landscapes in the garden embody Nature’s best. Once entering the garden, the visitors can smell the fragance of the pines, cypresses, shrubs and flowers and also touch the veins of the stones, helping the visitors connect with Nature.

It was hard to imagine that this garden was truly 1,000 square meters because it felt, at most, half that. But the ambiance and presence of the site structures suited the design concept of a mountain oil painting: the lattice arbor overhead contributed soft shadows, the bundled bamboo presented a solid yet permeable barrier, the overall layering of bamboo construction seem to invoke layers of oil paint, and there the entire garden seemed to be treated as a series of rooms, which, many landscape designers may aspire to, but few succeed.

Here Amy got trapped in one of the bird(?) cages. Not sure if that’s what their purpose was, but the lack of shouting guards here was a relief. Almost all of the Master Gardens were comparatively quiet, but that was a very good thing to get away from the crowds. By the end of the day, I would rate this garden as my second favorite.