Activity

Thanks Loe, very flattered.
I think it’s something to do with our approach to empty space. We have experienced shortage of flat land from the beginning. So, finding flat and open land was the first step. Some could find a plot in a ‘urban’ site (in medieval term) which is small and cluttered by neighbours, the others found a small plot on mountain side surrounded by forest. In both cases, we ended up finding the appreciation for ‘void’. Just empty is as beautiful as ‘well done’ in a crowd. In landscape, gradually technic/tricks to ‘make the site look larger than real’ has developed. Avoiding symmetry and focal point is one. Having layers of boundaries and make gardens to merge the surrounding nature is another. Blurred boundaries and ‘no center point’ give distorted sense of perspective, and make the space feel infinite. Keeping the garden simple helped the trick. If you have too much elements in a garden, it concludes itself. Making definition to a place is western approach, we are the other way around. Also, those approaches worked well with Buddhism which encourage humble and simple life, and in a way, believe in infinity. I hope you get it.