I
n 2017 an almost kilometre-long park
constructed on a stretch of redundant
highway was opened in the centre of
Seoul. Design blogs and media across the
world disseminated the Dutch design
practice MVRDV’s inspiration for the
scheme. Claiming the park as “South Korea’s
a nswer to New York ’s Hig h Line,” t he desig n
website Dezeen outlined Seoullo 7017’s
major design features, including an urban
arboretum with plants organized according
to the Korean alphabet and set in a vast array
of circles, combined with the requisite urban
programs.1, 2 MVRDV’s co-founding director
Winy Maas describes the garden as “human
and friendly and green,” offering approaches
typical of European city planning. However,
he claims a “science fiction element” as an
Asian reference, stating that “in Asia they
want to dip their cities in this super-green
feeling that comes from science fiction, from
movies like Avatar.”^3
From Peter Walker to Winy Maas to Rem
Koolhaas, we have become accustomed to
European and North American designers
defining the potentials of our new world
cities. As an Australian academic I followed
with disbelief the design for Barangaroo
Reserve, which uncritically proposed the
reconstruction of a “natural” headland. Like
MVRDV’s design in Seoul, the Barangaroo
scheme by PWP Landscape Architecture
(USA) with Johnson Pilton Walker has been
spruiked in international design blogs and
magazines, and was nominated as a finalist
in the 2016 Rosa Barba Awards International
Landscape Prize and more recently was
awarded the American Architecture Prize
2017 Landscape Design of the Year. While
fresh eyes can certainly be useful, we are
often dealt cultural generalizations rather
than provocative insights, as iconic
designers country hop, spending just days
in complex economic, political and cultural
contexts. As one of my students pointed out
in relat ion to Ma a s’s science f ict ion
observation: at least reference Asian science
fiction (preferably without Scarlett
Johansson).It is t ime to t ur n t he tables on Europea n a nd
North American designers (and academics)
and to begin to celebrate and promote the
skills and innovations of homegrown
designers, thinkers and critics. Their
dominance is not just felt through the
“iconic” designs sprinkled around our
cities, but also in their prominence at
conferences and in design publications that
are framed as “global.” For instance, in 2016
the Landscape Architecture Foundation
(LAF) held a landscape summit in
Philadelphia, the USA, with the ambition of
producing an international landscape
declaration fitting for this century. Out of
the seventy-five summit speakers only two
were from Asia. While Australia accepts and
even celebrates its peripheral position, it is
impossible to deny t hat A sia is now t he
global centre, experiencing the fastest
growth in urbanization, economy and
population, and, returning to landscape
architecture, the most rapid developments
in the profession.Asian countries represent diverse cultural,
political and economic contexts that offerfascinating and, at times, challenging
influences on how spaces and ecological
systems are conceived, delivered and used.
The complexity and scope of work emerging
from the region is currently not represented
in academic discourse, international
awards, practice, publications or
curriculum. The International Federation
of Landscape Architects (IFLA) Asia-Pacific
Region awards program, run for the first
time in 2017, provides a valuable starting
point for developing knowledge of an
emerging contemporary Asian practice.
More than one hundred entries were
received, with projects in Thailand, New
Zealand, China, Japan, Indonesia, Hong
Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore,
Australia and South Korea. This valuable
collection of projects now invites greater
scrutiny and discussion.The reflections of international alumni and
PhD students at the University of Melbourne
(where I teach) and RMIT University
regarding contemporary practice in
Singapore and China suggest that in both
countries there is a maturing and dynamic
discipline that is growing less reliant on
international designers. Throughout the
2000s, the Singaporean government
employed many high-profile designers to
work on significant nation-building
projects such as Marina Bay Sands by Safdie
Architects and Gardens by the Bay by Grant
Associates and Wilkinson Eyre. Twenty
years on, this reliance on international
expertise is waning, replaced by
Singaporean designers and thinkers in
key government agencies (including the0201
Yueyuan Courtyard by Z+T
Studio explores the concept
of erosion through the design
of an intricate granite
watercourse that flows
through the space.
Photo: Hai Zhang
02
According to Winy Maas,
co-founding director of Dutch
office MVRDV, the design for
Seoullo 7017 was inspired by
science fiction. Photo: Ossip
van Duivenbode