Principles and Cases of Ecological Design of Green Building Landscape (III)

3. A few practical cases of ecological design

3.1 Turning decay into magic: re-birth and re-use of site and materials in Zhongshan Qijiang Park

Zhongshan Qijiang Park was built on the former site of Yuezhong Shipyard, covering an area of 11 hectares, and from 1953 to 1999, it has gone through a short but sad course from development and growth to demise. This case takes the reuse of the historical lot of the old industrial site as the main theme, and adopts a variety of ways of utilizing the old industrial site and the structures and machines, based on which a new form of design has been developed, and this has led to the understanding of the concept of eco-design (Yu Kungjian, 2001; Yu Kungjian Pangwei, 2002, 2003; Pudua, 2003).

(1) Preservation: Respecting Design without Designers

Good landscapes are not created out of thin air by professional designers; they evolve through time, and the best policy for creating good and meaningful environments is to preserve the legacy of the past. As an old shipyard site with a history of nearly half a century, there are many things left from the past: in terms of natural elements, there is a body of water on the site, many ancient banyan trees and well-developed zonal plant communities, as well as habitats and soil conditions that are adapted to them. In terms of humanistic elements, the site contains a number of dockyards, factories, water towers, chimneys, gantry cranes, railroad tracks, transformers, and various machines from different eras, and even waterfront berms, and quotations on the walls of the factories that read, "Grasp the revolution, promote production. It is these "things" rendered the atmosphere of the place.

The park design team measured, numbered and photographed all these "things", as well as the entire site, one by one, to study the possibility of their retention: including the retention of natural systems and elements, the water body and some of the barge are basically retained in their original form, all the old trees are retained in the site, in order to retain the river side of the more than ten banyan tree. In order to preserve the more than ten ancient banyan trees along the river, and at the same time to satisfy the requirements of water conservancy and flood control on the cross section, branch canals were opened to form banyan islands; retention and reuse of structures: two steel and cement framed shipyards reflecting different eras were retained in-situ, and a red-brick chimney and two water towers were retained in-situ and integrated into the design of the site. The preservation and reuse of machinery: large gantry cranes and transformers, many of which have been integrated into the site design, are important landscape elements that enrich the experience of the place.

(2) Change: Reuse

The original site "design", after all, only reflects the work and life of people in the past, as well as the aesthetics and values of the time, from the artistry will be, but also need to be refined, and the desires of the modern people and the functional needs of a certain distance. Therefore, it is necessary to change or modify the original form and site. Through the design of addition and subtraction, new forms are created on the basis of the original "design", with the aim of reproducing the living and working scenes of the original site more artistically, telling the story of the site more dramatically, and revealing the spirit of the site more poetically. At the same time, the needs and desires of modern people are more fully satisfied. A few typical additive and subtractive designs in Gijiang Park include: the use and renovation of the old water tower; the reuse of chimneys and gantry cranes, the reuse of the dockyard, and the reuse of machine limbs.

In addition to the large number of machines that have been preserved intact through artistic and craftsmanship modifications, most of the machines have been selected to have part of their bodies preserved and combined in certain scenes. On the one hand, it is for the safety of the children, and on the other hand, it tries to make it more of a refined and abstracted artistic effect

(3) Recycled Design

The materials in the original site, including steel, native species, etc., can be processed and designed to manifest into a new landscape and fulfill a new function. After regenerative design, steel is used as paving material, and native weeds become beautiful landscape elements. Even the socialist and collectivist spirit of the site is reproduced through designs such as the 'red box'.

Qijiang Park exemplifies a complete eco-design concept: the designer's first task is to read the site, to preserve the "design without the designer", because it is a work of time, a natural process and a historical deposit.

3.2 Rainwater Utilization and the Beauty of Weeds: The Ecological Design of Yongning Park, Taizhou, Zhejiang

This is a case study of ecological restoration and reconstruction of a river. A hardened river with a single purpose of flood control is restored and rebuilt into a modern ecological and cultural open space full of vitality in the most economical way (Yu Kongjian et al., 2005). The Yongning River Park proposal puts forward six major landscape strategies, the core idea is to use modern ecological design concepts to form a natural, "wild" base, and then on this base, design a "map" that reflects the humanities; the base is massive and wild, it exists because of natural processes, and provides natural services. The base is massive, wild, and exists because of natural processes and provides natural services, while the "map" is minimal, refined, and exists because of the human experience and acceptance of natural services. These strategies include:

(1) Preservation and restoration of the natural form of the river, and cessation of channelization projects

(2) An instream wetland that creates an ecologically sound drought and flood regulating system and vernacular habitats

(3) A landscape substrate composed of an abundance of vernacular species

(4) Metasequoia Squares, a mundane memorialization

(5) Landscape Box, the least amount of design

(6)Continuation of the city's road texture, the most convenient output of the park's services

Yongning Park was officially completed and opened in May 2003, and due to the large number of applications of native plants, the park has presented a vibrant scene in just over a year's time. The visions and objectives at the beginning of the design have been largely realized, and the park also experienced the worst typhoon damage in 25 years in the summer of 2004, but was quickly restored. As an important node and demonstration site of ecological infrastructure, the ecological service function of Yongning Park has been fully realized in the following aspects:

(a) Protection and restoration of natural processes: the 2-kilometer-long water bank of the Yongning River has been restored to its natural form, and the wetland system along the shoreline has been restored and perfected; an inland wetland system was formed, which has a positive impact on flood control and stagnation of the watershed;< /p>

(b) The natural process of the Yongning River has been restored to its natural form. /p>

(b) Protection and promotion of biological processes: retaining the populations of reeds and calamus in the waterfront zone, applying a large number of native species for the protection of the riverbank, and forming a diversified habitat system in the riverfront zone. The green area of the whole park reaches 75%, initially forming a species-rich and diverse biological communities.

(c) Human process: It provides a characteristic leisure environment for the general public. Whether it's in the grass of the river, or on the trestle bridge collapsed in the wetland of the river, or in the landscape box covered with weeds, we can see young men and women, the elderly and children happily enjoying the park's beautiful scenery and natural services: the distant mountains are recruited to introduce the park's art gallery, and the history and stories of Huangyan are unintentionally passed down and interpreted in the park's users, and a sense of belonging to their hometowns and identity is thus born; unnoticed, Huangyan's history and story are inadvertently passed on and explained in the park's users. A sense of belonging and identification with one's hometown is born; the unnoticed weeds of the countryside suddenly show an incomparable charm, and a new ethic about nature and the environment is nurtured in the hearts of the visitors as if it were a silent spring rain: take care of every kind of weeds under your feet, they are beautiful; through the ****same natural and vernacular things and objects, exchanges between people also take place: between young men and women, between family members, between colleagues and fellow travelers. Between young men and women, between family members, between coworkers and fellow travelers.

Yongning Park improves and promotes the ecological services of the natural system through the design of key sections of the ecological infrastructure, while allowing the city's inhabitants full access to these services.

3.3 Prolific Landscape: Rice Field Campus Landscape of Shenyang Architecture University

In the new campus of Shenyang Architecture University, a campus rice field was designed using northeastern rice as the landscape material. In the rice field landscape that changes in four seasons, a reading platform is distributed, so that the fragrance of rice is integrated into the sound of books. Using the most common, economical and high-yield materials, the story of cultivation and reading about the land, people and farming culture is interpreted in a contemporary campus, which explains the concept of "vernacular" landscape, and shows the attitude of designers when facing the ecological crisis of the land and the crisis of food security (Yu Kungjian et al., 2005).

Shenyang Architectural University, formerly known as Shenyang Architectural Engineering College, is located in downtown Shenyang and was founded in 1948. In order to meet its development needs, the university, like hundreds of other universities in China, has moved into the planned Hunnan University Park. The new campus covers a total area of 80 hectares.

The project has the following opportunities and challenges:

(1) The site was formerly a high-yield farmland, where northeastern rice was grown, with fertile land and abundant water. This site feature impressed the designers during the site investigation. Although the site was completely changed due to the construction, the luxuriant growth of tares, polygonum and other native species can still tell the designers that the vegetation is suitable for this place.

(2) Time constraints: the university wanted to create a new campus landscape in the shortest possible time to welcome the new students in September of that year;

(3) Limited funds: the campus infrastructure budget was basically limited to the construction of the school buildings, and it was difficult to find funds for the environmental construction;

(4) Characteristic requirements: the new campus needed to have a distinctive personality, and the landscape played a key role.

These opportunities and challenges predetermined that Inaba would be a most suitable landscape strategy. Because:

Firstly, rice paddies are best suited for local growth, moreover, northeastern rice has a growing period of 150~200 days, therefore, there is a longer ornamental period;

Secondly, rice paddies are low-cost to build and manage, with low technical requirements, and are even simpler to manage than the traditional campus flowers and plants, a few ordinary farmers can well complete the whole process from sowing to harvesting, and not only that, but also have the Income;

Third, quick results, within a few months can be formed with four seasons alternating rice paddy landscape;

Fourth, distinctive, in line with the characteristics of the site, you can form a unique rice paddy campus.

Fifth, has a profound educational and cultural significance, after three years of spring planting and fall harvest, at present, Shenyang Architectural University has formed a unique campus culture around the campus rice paddies. Chinese farming culture, including the twenty-four seasons, in the labor of teachers and students to participate in and seasonal changes in the living show. Rice planting festivals, harvest festivals, and visits to the rice paddies by high school students have become an important part of the campus culture. Recently, the campus rice paddies have also been used as a part of the Shenyang International Horticultural Exposition as an expo.

Sixth, "Jianyuan gold rice", the annual output of nearly 10,000 pounds of rice harvest, was packaged as a souvenir of the school, loved by guests at home and abroad. Yuan Longping academician for the inscription said: "campus floating rice, rice as breeding", can be said to mean a lot.

In this rice paddy campus response, how to make the rice paddy at the same time to meet the function of a modern campus, and can go beyond the rice paddy, and become a "post-agricultural" era of the rice paddy landscape, with the aesthetic enlightenment, recreation and reading, etc., is the landscape design needs to be addressed.

4. Conclusion

Compared with traditional design, eco-design has its own characteristics in dealing with many design issues. However, ecological design should be used as an evolution and continuation of the design approach, rather than mutation and fragmentation. Eco-design only that lacks cultural meaning and aesthetics cannot be accepted by society, and thus will eventually be forgotten and submerged, and the value of the design will not be realized. Ecological design should and must be beautiful.

Landscape design has a long history of ecological thinking at its core, but it is also the ecological significance of design that has divided the profession, with one pole emphasizing the organization and structuring of ecological processes, and the other emphasizing the expression and reproduction of art and beauty (Mozingo, 1997). This long-standing division should be dissolved in ecological design.

Eco-design is not a luxury but a necessity because it is related to everyone's daily life and work, everyone's safety and health, and the continuity of mankind. To understand eco-design as a design in the jungle or in a nature reserve far from the city, or as an experiment by environmentalists in their backyard, or as a display in a model area that can only be found in the city, is to be prejudiced against eco-design, or at least not to understand the concept of modern and future eco-design.

Eco-design is a process, a "way", rather than a product delivered by professionals (Cunha, 1997). It is a process through which each person becomes familiar with the natural processes in a given place and thus participates in the building of ecologically sound environments and communities. Eco-design is the way to move cities and communities towards ecologization and towards greater sustainability.

Eco-design is more of an ethic. It reflects the designer's responsibility to nature and society, and is the embodiment of the noblest professional ethics of every designer. The late Sassakii, a leading figure in the landscape design profession, said that a landscape designer can bring about profound changes to the earth, and likewise, he may revel in the self-expression of the art of chicken scratching. With a sense of responsibility to society and the land, the landscape architect is likely to choose the former.

Ecological design is economic, ecology and economy are essentially the same, ecology is nature's economy (Nature's economy). The reason why there is a contradiction between the two today is due to the incompleteness of our understanding of the economy and the contemporary and anthropocentric value bias in measuring the economy (Yu Kongjian, 1998). Eco-design, on the other hand, emphasizes multi-objective and complete economy.

Table, Comparison of Conventional and Eco-design (with reference to Vander Ryn and Cowan)

Problem Conventional Design Eco-design

Energy Consumption of natural capital, which essentially relies on non-renewable energy sources, including oil and nuclear energy. Utilizes solar, wind, hydro, or bioenergy.

Materials Utilization Excessive use of high-quality materials, so that low-quality materials become toxic and hazardous, remaining in the soil or being released into the air. Recycling of renewable materials, reuse of waste, easy to recycle, repair, flexible and changeable, long-lasting.

Pollution Massive, ubiquitous Reduced to a minimum, the amount and composition of waste is compatible with the absorptive capacity of the ecosystem.

Toxins Widespread use, from pesticides to paints. Used with great caution.

Ecological measurements Only done for prescribed requirements, such as environmental impact assessments. Measurement of ecological impacts throughout the project, from extraction of materials to recycling and reuse of ingredients

Relationship between ecology and economics See the two as opposites, short-term vision. See the two as united, and take a long-term view.

Design indicators Habit, comfort, economics. Health of humans and ecosystems, ecological economics.

Ecological sensitivity Normative models are repeated globally, with little regard for local culture and place identity, skyscrapers are the same from New York to Shanghai. There should be variation from one bioregion to another, with design following local soils, plants, materials, cultures, climates, and topographies, and the solution coming from the site.

Sensitivity to the cultural environment Global cultural convergence undermines the ****same wealth of humanity. Respecting and cultivating local traditional knowledge, techniques and materials enriches the ****same wealth of humanity.

Biological, cultural and economic diversity Use of standardized design, high energy consumption and material waste, leading to loss of biocultural as well as economic diversity. Maintain biodiversity and locally appropriate cultural as well as economic support.

Knowledge base Narrow specialization pointing to a single. Comprehensive Integrating multiple design disciplines as well as a broad range of sciences is integrative.

Spatial scale Often limited to a single scale. Design that synthesizes multiple scales, reflecting small-scale influences at large scales or large-scale influences at small scales.

Whole system A design that is limited to a human-imposed boundary and does not take into account the continuity of natural processes. Taking the whole system as an object, design aims to achieve integrity and unity within the system

The role of nature Design imposes itself on nature to achieve control and narrowly meet human needs. Work with nature to maximize the use of nature's ability to act and self-organize.

Potential allegories Machines, products, parts Cells, organisms, ecosystems.

Participability Reliance on jargon and experts, exclusion of the public. Committed to broad and open discussion, everyone is a participant in design

Types of learning Nature and technology are hidden, design does not contribute to education. Natural processes and technology are revealed, design takes us closer to the systems that sustain us.

Responses to the sustainability crisis Seeing culture and nature as opposites, trying to slow down the deterioration through weak conservation measures without pursuing deeper, underlying causes. Seeing culture and ecology as potential **** organisms, not confining ourselves to superficial measures, but exploring practices that actively recreate the health of humans and ecosystems.