Working in Asia vs in Western Countries as a Landscape Architect

It has been some time but I too have personal experience working in China and I can honestly say it was a lot of work and often without a weekend off.

Meanwhile here in the US in my extensive experience there are seldom times where I had to work on a Saturday let alone and entire weekend. We might work more than forty hours a week but that too is a far cry short of the long hours in China.

I can honestly also give you a perspective on the design and drafting changes that have come to our profession over those same twenty five years. It is my assertion that clients have taken that technology and computers are suppose to make the process of designing and production drawings shorter and have tightened up on fees as a result. Conversely it should be noted that the use of computers is not just for production but also for the design. With the advent of Vectorworks Landmark and other BIM and 3D design packages we should be finally achieving the true intent of CADD as “Computer Added Design and Drafting”.

I hope this helps and if you would like to discuss this further please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Ben, I have to sort of disagree with some of Robert Anderson’s comments above.

To me, computers are a GREAT “production” tool….but, actual “design” should, I believe for the most part, “by hand”.  I have interviewed with some of the TOP 2 or 3 LA firms in the World and they all told me their design work was “by hand”…then, after getting their clients approval, they would move into production and use autoCAD to produce all of their contract documents. 

That being said, that was a few years ago…maybe things are changing.  But, even if I had a very active LA firm today, personally, I would want my design staff to have excellent design skills “by hand”.  I know to some here on LAND8, I sound like a broken record…no, I’m not at all against the use of computers in the LA profession.

But, let’s look at the MOVIE industry for a second.  The recent movie “Prometheus”, an outstanding SCIFI movie…the creators of this film first began with hundreds of hand drawn sketches….of the space ship, space suits, interior of the space ship, the aliens….everything was hand drawn…..then, those drawings went on computers to create the final film product. You just don’t SKIP the “hand drawing” process when you’re DESIGNING.

On Ben’s subject of, well, work ethics (Hi Ben, we’ve chatted here before).  Approx. 10 yrs. ago, I was offered a Senior LA position in Hong Kong, China by the well known LA firm “Belt Collins” based out of Honolulu, Hawaii.  Their Hong Kong office at that time had a total of 120 LA’s on staff.  I was told by their HR director, that a majority of their LA’s remain at work approx. 2 hours after normal business hours (every day), because, their clients were very demanding and that they were continually trying to keep up with project dead lines.  Also, I was told that every LA was “required” to work every other Saturday from 8 am to 1 pm.  So, that’s an additional (20 hrs. per month) I would have had to work…and I assumed it was not paid time.  So, with that LA firm, I think I would have been looking at an approx. 60 hour work week…at least.

Here in the U.S., I worked for a Dallas, Texas LA firm for approx. 12 years.  Working over 40 hours per week was “optional”, not required.  However, for every hour of over-time we worked, we were paid “double-time”.  Though, in looking back, I feel our salaries were held artificially LOW.  Because, I felt my salary was on the low side, I did work a lot of over-time hours…normally, 40 to 60 hours per month.

I think Tosh is correct though…that, it really depends on the LA firm.

every country has their own unique situation or the rate of urbanization. one cannot compare apple to an orange.

Rapid urbanization such as China required a quick, mature ( creative is secondardy) design solution.For those who has experience working in China for sure understand the momentum.. so you either try to catch up or just not a good fit for you.

long hours sure does not help to come out with creative design but i am glad to expose to different type of projects types and sizes which i cannot get from working in US. ( unless you work for those Big LA firm)

i believe it is the choice for what each designer hope to accomplished in their professional career.