I wish someone told me..

Eye candy : Michael Singer

One of the things I want to do with this blog, is to research and write about the who's who of the landscape architecture field, whether past or present. Well, not much time for a proper post, but here's a visual introduction to Michael Singer, an American artist who does outdoor compositions that, in my view, are Carlo Scarpa-ishly beautiful and totally deserved to be called landscape architecture.

Some things to ogle at:

Wish I can be that good in detailing... but well, it all comes with practice and, as my colleague said, "I have 15 years of experience... coming soon!"

That little bit which makes all the difference

'Above all, be true to yourself. If you cannot put your heart in it, take yourself out of it.'
- Anonymous

Been almost two months now working at my new firm, and I can absolutely say that I LOVE my job. Signified, amongst other ways, by lack of complaining even after working on weekends and ot-ing almost everyday for the past two weeks. Stress? yes. Pressure? yes. Exhaustion? yes. Feeling like I have no life? yes. But even I feel there is enormous difference compared to with the previous company I worked for. I am happy. My colleagues commented on how I just seemed to take things positively and in stride. My boss told me that, 'well you seem to not be so affected by all the pressure, in a good way.' (Wanted to say, "But I am affected!!!" ) The difference is, I feel that my work counts towards something I believe in. I love the design approach. The projects feel like they are moving fruitfully. When I work over time, there's a sense of doing something important and purposeful. I have guidance and I feel my boss/mentor is in the thick of battle with me instead of leaving me to fend for myself. I am learning lots of stuff I think are both useful and interesting. Also, thanks to the work policies (transport allowance, food allowance, off-in-lieu for overtime work), I feel that it is fair work being done and not exploitation.

So, what's that bit that makes the difference? To sum it up, for me it's the sense that what I am doing counts for something. Passion, in a way, that gets ignited because of all the factors I mentioned above.

No shit, I worked harder and more intensely for the past two weeks than for many of the submissions I had in school. (Which maybe is just saying I didn't work hard enough during school >< ) I was, due to very tight, clashing deadlines for projects under my responsibilities, given the office access card key though I was still under probation. The reason for the exception, you can guess, is so I can OT all I want without being affected by other people leaving office. I view it, both in good humor and sarcastically, as a great honor =)


Not sure if posting photos of the work done here will count as indiscretion towards company? But for now, all is well and right with the world.

Yeah!

A Picture Speaks Four Hundred Years

Was reading the thesis of my boss, Colin Okashimo, and I came across this diagram created by him. I think it's a very good picture of what's been going on in landscape architecture history, while also showing us what periods or art movements correspond to the pieces of history. A gem of a diagram!

The full thesis can be found here   
It's titled 'Art as A Contemplative Place, with reference to Isamu Noguchi's sited works'. Truthfully, I am still in the middle of digesting it, but to me it gives a very good example of analyzing landscape works through narrative, and also the thought processes of an artist and landscape architect in designing with a specific objective: creating contemplative places.

Elements of Garden Design by Joe Eck

One thing I have learned from architecture school is the methods of designing: from doing your homework with site analysis, to conceptual development, right on to space planning and detailing. Of course,as a student I was more often daydreaming about the day I'd design with so-called "inspiration" and without need for late, late nights.. or, better yet, there's the day I will just doodle some lines and be loved for it! *cough* Frank Gehry *cough* Over the years, though, I've come to appreciate how a disciplined thought process really help working ideas into viable projects. Think out of the box, you say? I say, it is precisely the rigors of methods that serve as boundaries of the box, and  hence a design framework is necessary even as foundation to less conventional design processes.

Well, this is the problem with me and landscape architecture: mere two years of school has not given me enough foundation on landscape-specific design processes. Hence, I see what I can absorb and learn from books.

In this quest for landscape architecture knowledge, the book I have read is 'Elements of Garden Design' by Joe Eck. Unfortunately, a Wikipedia search yields no page on Joe Eck and hence I would need to research (= browse ) further on him. The book is written in 1995,  but I would say the contents are still interesting and relevant, though more on small-scale landscape design.

The book is divided into two sections: "Theory" and "Practice". The Theory part seems to concern more on the big picture, the main factors to consider when designing a garden. It is further divided into chapters,e.g. 'Intention', 'Site', 'Style', 'Structure', 'Access', 'Scale', 'Mass', 'Symmetry' etc. The Practice part goes into more details, 'Foundation Plantings', 'Lawn and Ground Covers', 'Water in the Garden', 'Sculpture in the Garden', 'Vegetable Gardens', even 'Children in the Garden'!

Here are some quotes from the book:

".. this is a book of rules. Rules are both the life and death of any art. When fresh and new, they strike the interested as revelations, followed slavishly, they yield results that are sterile and formulaic."


"Hard though it might be for a gardener in possession of a new site to hear, the first thing to do when beginning a garden is to do nothing at all. Attend acutely to what is before you... Come to know the site intimately, and perhaps to love it, or parts of it, just as it is. Only then will your site and the garden in your mind conspire together to yield a garden on earth worth the name."


"Of the many delights a garden can offer, one of the most precious occurs when it cannot be taken in all at a glance."


"Nothing that is used for a contrast in a garden ought to ever call so much attention to itself that it distracts from the whole. Elements of contrast must always be used with restraint. They are the spice to the dish, but no one would want to dine on cinnamon."


Honestly, I read this book as much to learn about garden design as to just enjoy its 'old and proper' language =D Oh, since the book is actually a compilation of magazine articles authored over the years, it's an easy read, yet still meaty enough to glean interesting principles and thoughts!

A Blog on (Singapore!) Landscape Design

"When I first came to Singapore, I remember sitting in on a meeting at which the architect was talking about his work, and I said something - being a foreigner, I didn't know any better - about site planning. I said, couldn't we do it another way?

He turned around and said: 'You're the landscape architect. Why are you asking me this question? You're just here to stick the plants in after we've finished."

- Henry Steed, on being a landscape architect in the industry's early period

Despite landscape architecture coming a long way since then, the field is really still in its infancy. Ok, I'll admit that my yardstick of 'infancy' consists of google-ing 'landscape architecture in singapore', and concluding that it did not yield any interesting result.. School programmes, landscape design firms.. No prominent landscape works, no story of Singapore urban landscape, natural landscape... Moreover, we don't have a Bachelor's Degree program for landscape architecture, the only magazine catering to landscape design has pages upon pages of articles sponsored by contractors.. Aaaaaand, when I google-ed 'landscape design blog singapore' nothing much came up too! (Hey, I have to survey the competition, no?)

Which I think is rather upsetting, because I do think there are interesting landscape things going on here in our sunny little red dot.. There are issues to discuss, projects to showcase, firms to feature, and plants to ogle at!

Which is the whole reason for starting this blog, aside from chronicling my journey from greenhorn to (hopefully) Green Thumb. Disclaimer though, the things I will put here reflect my opinions, my biases, my preferences.. I am not trying to be comprehensive, though I will try to be interesting.

Enjoy!

Eye candy : Person of the Earth

That's the meaning of 'tu ren' in Chinese, the roots of the firm name Turenscape by Kongjian Yu. I first read about him in an article about Zhongshan shipyard park - an abandoned shipyard that he turned into a landscape able to clean the waterways, and very beautiful to boot! "Instead of growing grass, we should grow weeds," was what he told the city officials. For all his thoughts that I admire (and I really admire this one person, my ideal of what is being a landscape architect is al about), his ideas take root from an underlying belief: "We need to be attached to the land."

Well, I can harp on and on about his ecologically AND aesthetically inspiring projects, but I think it's better if I just leave my readers with plenty of eye candy to ogle at =D
(All photos taken from Turenscape official website)