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)

Seeing with the Mind

Boss: "Close your eyes.. What do you first see when you step across the entrance First thing you notice?"
Me: "I step in.. and I see the green wall with the fern..then to the side.. is the kitchen counter.. and the tree in the exhibition area.."
Boss: "Yes! Is the tree small? Too big? What else? You see it clearly, don't you? Great!"

A reminder lesson in visualization.. That design means seeing with my mind's eye.. That if only I focus, it all becomes clear..

Other nuggets of wisdom from Boss today:
"When you enter a room, I want you to observe.. And the things you observe.. You have to be able to see in a macro way, and then go to the micro things to support the macro, not the other way around.. Seeing the micro first, and making the macro to support the micro.."
"You have to be able to tell the clients the effects that you want.. You want a big tree? How big? 'Very big'.. No! 'Well, the tree is small, but relative to the room it seems big.. The height is around 3 metres and people will be able to walk under the canopy, such that it is indoor but it feels like being in a garden.. That's how you sell ideas to people."