CHINA SWEEPS ASLA Awards–Your Thoughts?

I could not believe the High Line didn’t win..A lot of the US teams were same ones as usual – Warren Byrd in Virginia, Wlm. McDonough, Val Valkenburg and Oehme Van Sweden….Some good new names, though.. – oh, yeah, the Beirut one was exciting..Why is china winning? What do you think? Better computer graphics? (no, I’m not snarky! 🙂

Kongjian Yu is the chair of Turenscape as well as the head of school of landscape architecture in Peking University.

Im personally quite happy to see more non-American projects winning this reward, ASLA has been dominated by “American Style” since long ago. On the one hand, as an American based organization of course it should focus on domestic projects more ; on the other, in a time when globalization effectively shapes landscape designs all over the world and makes them look more and more similar or just simply “American-like”, as one of the most influential LA awards in the world, ASLA may also need to think beyond “community, ecology and delight”.
Every year’s award winning designs undoubtedly influence the aesthetic of the world-wide profession and therefore indirectly transfer the land around people.
American-centrism or Cultural Diversity ?
I think this year’s ASLS awards give a strong and thoughtful answer!

Meh. If I had to work with their labor costs, lack of public participation/nimbyism in the design process, a forward-thinking population with enthusiasm for new construction in the built environment, and government policies that encourage development, I could build some pretty cool places as well! ; )

I just read an interesting article about a speech by NU guru Andres Duany and others where they’re criticizing the whole public process as a force that pretty much stops anything worthwhile from being built. I have to agree with a lot of it. See: http://www.planetizen.com/node/43935

I’m on the fence about it. There is definitely a difference between international and domestic projects. As Boilerplater kind of got into above. I appreciate that ASLA has reached out internationally and I think it is really important that they do. It just seems like it’s a little bit tougher for the domestic projects to compete. Though this is not to say that this year’s domestic project winners aren’t great projects, there is just difference. And I hope that Turenscape’s award winning projects help inspire a few of those types of projects over here in the States because boy do we need them.

There’s much to be said for how a team markets their project here as well. I must say that Turenscape’s projects carry a lot of impact – “Art of Survival” by Dr. Yu in its full glory is something to behold. I think it is very important to note that in most cases Turenscape has had to convince the local governments in China to do these projects that emphasize ecology and a local aesthetic instead of recreating famous European landscapes.

The firm is strongly tied to the university and shares many resources – they are a counter point to Tsinghua University and EDAW’s partnership; emphasizing Chinese culture and values in design. Having interned there briefly I see no stronger ties there than many of the practices States-side that have practitioner/instructors.

As for the emphasis on slightly academic projects, I commend the ASLA for awarding projects that push our profession. Doing good projects well should be expected and those that help bring the profession forward in the discourse of landscape architecture should be recognized for their contributions.

I only hope that practitioners here in the States can be inspired by the possibilities China has shown us and convince our governments and the public to take more risks in reshaping our landscapes.