This project built with Blender explores the possibility of a combination between traditional Chinese aesthetics and modern commercial potentials. Chinese gardens have been the treasure of its culture for millennia. However, modern entertainment places like amusement parks and shopping malls are gradually replacing gardens. Through this speculative experiment, I hope the Garden of Ephemeral can rekindle people’s interest in Chinese gardens.
Initial Ideas
The project initiated from a speculative project. My initial statement was to create a project that reignite people’s passion to Chinese Gardens. According to statistics, Chinese Gardens used to be a popular choice for entertaining, but as modern commercial locations rapidly developed in the 21st century, people’s choice have been continuously shifted. In the project Garden of Ephemeral, I seek an organic way of incorporating commercial opportunities with traditional views, finding the balance between sightseeing and consumption.
The overall layout of the garden was inspired by the Yin-Yang graph, with a central island surrounded by two separate platforms. Visitors will be recommended to travel along a certain path (suggested by the lines in Sketch 2). They will start from the lowest platform on the north, seeing the sun rising from the east platform, and in the evening, they will see the sunset on the highest west platform. They will see different locations at different times of the day, and the view will never be the same. This is why the garden is called the Garden of Ephemeral.
Development
Based on sketch 2, I built the initial form of the garden. I chose an intersection of mountain and lake as the location to build the garden, which are all symbols of beautiful scenes in Chinese culture.
I divided the garden into 5 sections: the harbor (where the visitors arrive) on the lowest level, the history museum on the second level, commercial center on the third level, the cultural village on the highest level, and the central island that connects all sections. According to the planned route, visitors can view the scene in the morning, and rest or buy products in the afternoon and evening.
The design of architectural elements, including the outer facade, the roof, and the museums were inspired by traditional architecture, but modeled with modern materials. I covered a layer of matte translucent acrylic board over the white concrete to present a warm and modern aesthetic.
Renderings
Ticket Sample
JIHONG ZHAO 