Gemdale Hua Zhu | Yangzhou, China | ANTAO

During the reign of Emperor Qianlong and Emperor Jiaqing, it was said that the gardens in Jia Dynasty were in Yangzhou, not Suzhou. It is recorded in the Yangzhou Painted Boat Record that Hangzhou wins with lakes and hills; Suzhou wins with cities and Yangzhou wins with gardens and pavilions. Wander around Yangzhou and you may stumble upon a famous garden.

It is a joyful and challenging task to build a garden in Yangzhou, a city famous for its numerous gardens. In the Guangling District of Yangzhou, we aim to capture the essence of the region’s misty rain and the allure of the South of the Yangtze River through a simple and understated painting style.

With the theme of “Misty rain south of the Yangtze River,” the canal context, and the ancient charm of Yangcheng as the key, it collects the memory of life in Yangzhou, integrates the aesthetic background and humanistic atmosphere into it. With the four seasons of Yangzhou Geyuan Garden as the cultural background, it presents the flowing modern garden landscape by means of walking, touring, looking, and living in the garden. On the way home, you can walk more slowly, more slowly, in the jiangnan misty rain, winding water crystal, four seasons of elegance slowly feel the ancient charm of Yangzhou.

The recombination of visual image structure and narrative system activates the poetry and imagination in contemporary garden context. Landscape is all in reading, eating, sitting, and looking at daily life, landscape has become daily life, landscape, and body.

Gemdale Hua Zhu | Yangzhou, China | ANTAO

Landscape Architect: ANTAO

Collaborators (Architecture): LACIME ARCHITECTS

Client: GEMDALE (Nanjing Group, East China area)

Image Credits: Xuepeng Li

About Terren Shi 116 Articles
Terren is an emerging graduate landscape architect with a passion for design theory and history. She holds a Bachelor of Design and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Melbourne, which she completed in 2020 and 2022 respectively. Currently, Terren works as a sessional tutor at the Melbourne School of Design. She also contributes interviews and essays on landscape architecture and design.