User:Gurdjieff/sandbox

The purpose of the book is a clear concise and complete guide to Classical Chinese Gardens for designers. The book has three sections on the history and theory of the garden. A second section of design patterns common to all gardens, all of the tools you will need to design a garden. The final section shows all the construction techniques used to build a garden. This books uses the pattern language approach to design

History
The classical Chinese garden is the ancestor to all East Asian gardens.

Design
The Chinese design was tightly regulated by the imperial adminstration. Architecture was seen as a kit of standard parts that could be assembled in a number of possible ways. Landscape architecture had more latitude but still followed general patterns of design. From a design standpoint, these patterns can be used, much like architecture, as a kit of parts, that can be combined in multiple ways to express the intent of the designer.

patterns

 * zigzag
 * lightwell
 * double passage
 * framed single element
 * major courtyard
 * covered walk
 * building transparency
 * pond and grotto
 * false termination
 * leaked view window
 * white field
 * sunken groundplain
 * poety wall
 * planes of depth

working
elements of a Chinese garden:
 * zigzag
 * lightwell
 * double hallway

by aligning the elements to a circulation frame work voids are created filled with tangent elements

activity: fins the motion paht identify all the target points and draw

Questions:
 * who was the usr of the garden
 * what program elements do they need
 * is the design of the eves and crevices bad design or only asian
 * what does a what whitewashed all mean for maitence is it a design failure
 * what are the dimensions of a comfy couryard
 * what about the degree of publicness?
 * were they building a clubhouse
 * were they creating their own civic institutions?
 * what about degree of enclousre?
 * when is a couryard not a courtyard by scale and by enclousre
 * do I feel like I am leaving the world into a dream when I step into this space
 * if the space is pleasant then why make it so?
 * why was this material of whatever used here or located here, what is the logic?
 * where are the control points of the design?
 * what statements are being made?

Pattern:
 * contrast a single element from the total compositon
 * create harmony by contrasting the opposites in sequence; dynamic equalibrium as seen in nature
 * the scale is small so at ped. velocity the effect is unconcious due to the near-exposure effect
 * three ways to lead the eye: 1)false termination with side passage:suprise 2)curved without end: compelling mystery 3)leakview screen:temptation
 * intellectual symbolic structure
 * major courtyard
 * leakview window
 * false terminate
 * zigzag
 * plant-rock balance
 * covered walk
 * building transparency
 * small and large views
 * light well
 * suprise
 * ground plane
 * place of depth
 * rain garden
 * white field

the purpose of a chinese garden? it was the embellishment of a courtyard the user was a beurocrat and that is where the poetry came in b/c in ancient China an understanding of poetry was the equal of an IQ test it was the final word on the level of intellect and that is why you will see so many poems here in fact almost every place in the garden relates to poetry it is a garden built on poetry. Chinese writing is a releic of the bronze age scribal clas had to work hard to learn all of the signs the writing is many times more complex than necessary for their job security. the scholar class was a descendant of this class. so their love of the writing system of words and poetry and calligraphy is natural even today so much time is spend in agonizing training is necessary to learn the system. therefore all chinese are as proud of their langage as any group of specialists and it is as inacessible too. Chinese humor is based on pun, homophony principals which extend into poetry. even a painting must include a poem I hope you understand the primacy of poetry in design.

I want to discuss the frame first. what is the context of this garden I want you to see it through the eyes of its user. Historically, Chinese culture began thousands of years ago whena military aristocracy what we would call warlords today enslaved thousands of neolithic villages the GDP of the villages funneled upwards into the du capitals from teh begining there were two elements the overlords and the servants after the unification of China the aristocracy relied on a third class of intellectuals to run things while they annexed new lands to the matrix at some point in the middle ages the intellectual class got the upperhand and ran the whole show at the time of the that powershift the gardens began to appear so lets look at the garden of one scholar.

the role of man and woman why did chinese society keep women and men separate? there are proximal and ultimate reasons. Ultimately there is no better love than forbidden love there is no better sex than forbidden sex. how many illicit affairs began here? how many moonlight sexual liasons?

the garden is a technology for shaping moods an emotional technology the use of sound see how these areas have been created to isolate the sound of rain in stone on leaf on water in a way that is lost in nature, look at the use of color all the things have a small but automatic effect on emotion to soothe to stimulate by altering emotions enought of a mood can be built the garden of the mind alters the octave of impressions

the garden is fractal mystery within mystery as your eye follows soothing impressions, the real garden is the subjective one in your emotions

GIS analysis layers: buildings by degree of enclousre proportion between building and open space courtyard scale lightwell court courtyard proportions relative to height nodes paths by degree of connectivity sonic effects locations viewshed types and degrees hierarchy of building and court fengshui positions poetry locations history of additions plant symbolism what are the patterns

books

 * 1635 ji cheng The Craft of Gardens
 * 1616 wen zhenheng Treatise on Superfluous Things
 * Zhang Yu Cannon of Flowers

Chinese








plants
In a Chinese garden the plant palette was restricted to about 100 species of which 20 were commonly used
 * small gardens 10-20
 * medium gardens 30-40
 * large gardens 60-70

all plants had symbolic associations especially after the Cannon of Flowers by XXX