Touching The Good Earth

An innovative campus design reconnects students to China's agricultural

landscapes
Mary G.Padua Landscape Architecture2006(12):100-107

THE SHENYANG ARCHITECTURAL UNIVERSITY campus is an ambitions attempt to

do something genuinely novel in campus design in Chinato build a bridge across a widening
gap in the fabric of Chinese society. Chinas economic boom of the past 25 years has turned
attention from a fundamental feature of the society: agriculture. Entrepreneurs have become
heroes, and university students dream of building new companies. Although several hundred
million people still live on the land , rural peasants are becoming a shadowy presence in the
imagination of the young, neither seen nor admired despite their massive numbers. Any attempt
to foster consciousness of the agricultural past and present among students is swimming
upstream against the flow of modern media, globalization, styles , and trends.
When Turenscape ,Chinas first privately owened landscape architecture and planning firm,
and Peking Universitys Graduate School of Landscape Architecture (GSLA) took on the task of
designing a campus for the new Shenyang Architectural University, they were acutely aware of
this problem. The design team saw the campus as an opportunity to use landscape architecture
to try to connect students to parts of Chinese society that they might otherwise shun . The
strengths and weaknesses of the resulting project have a good deal to say about the role of
landscape architecture in a rapidly changing society.
The project began in 2002, and The work schedule was extremely tight; the main landscape and
building components were to be completed in less than a year, before classes began in the fall of
2003. The challenge was compounded by the fact that the design of the campus architecture had
already been completed when Turenscape was brought into the process. 320,000 square meters
of building area had been constructed, and the bulk of the budget had been used up in the process.
Although this practice is common, it makes it difficult for the landscape architect to go beyond
a cosmetic role. The designers attempted to do something far more ambitious in the Shenyang
campus plan, and they achieved a great deal under these constraints.
Turenscapes principal, Kongjian Yu ,International ASLA who also is dean of GSLA
convinced the client to use the form of rice fields as the main organizing design element for the
campus plan. Yu also insisted on creating an area of the campus where existing rice fields could

continue to function as a productive landscape. Shenyang is the capital of Liaoning province in

northeast China, an area known for not only as a major automotive manufacturing center but as
the source of a short-grain rice renowned throughout China. Yus concept for the campus had
two major objectives: creation of a high -quality environment for education and incorporation of
elements of the traditional agricultural environment as a symbol and reminder of the historical
and contemporary role of agriculture in China. The resulting rice paddy area not only serves as
a symbolic link to the heritage of the region, but it is also a functional field that produces food
consumed in the campus dining facilities daily.

Project Design:

The rice paddies are located in the southwest region of the campus and cover
approximately 3 hectares(7 acres) of the campus approximately 200 acres. I visited the project
in March and late July. The two visits provided very different views of the landscape.
When I visited in early spring, the area was a study in light and dark earth tones.
The strong first impression created by the southwestern part of the campus where the rice fields
are located is an ordered grid of light-colored straw set against an expanse of dark soil. Green
shoots had not yet become visible, and the area was lightly dusted with snow in the morning.
There was a strong visual contrast between the path system and the fields at this time , too.
However, even this was a study in brown. The fields gave little hint of the lush green season that
wood follow.
The visual impression created by the rice fields ultimately proved to be stronger from
a distance than close up. From the roof of the campus buildings, the fields are stunning as a
design pattern and offer a magnificent plan view . however , the initial visual intrigue wears
thin relatively quickly on the ground. The experience of walking through the fields becomes
somewhat monotonous, in part due to the constant elevation. The various crops incorporated
into the agricultural landscape provide some textural interest , but the views are otherwise
uneventful.
This impression held true during both early spring and midsummer. I had a similar
experience during my visit to the campus in july. Initially, Iwas overwhelmed by the green
expanse of the rice fields and other crops and the ordered quality of the agricultural landscape.
But the experience on the ground offered little complexity beyond the initial impressions. If
anything, the landscape is less accessible during its lush season. The design provides little relief
from the harsh summer sun, and it is difficult to enjoy the landscape for more than an hour.

Again, the view from the roof of the campus building adjacent to the fields was stunning in July,
but the landscape on the ground was far less exciting.
The lush green of the rice fields in July offers a sharp reminder of the richness of the
soil that lies under the campus. At least four types of crops were scattered through the fields.
in addition to the rice paddy, the larger campus also has patches of agricultural land growing
soybeans, aubergines, green beans, lettuce, tomatoes, and squash. All of these vegetables
find their way to the tables of the university dining halls.
Late in the day, when the sun was lower, I visited the rice paddies again. The area was alive
with frogs and insects. University officials note that the rice fields have become a habitat for
frogs, freshwater crabs, and some types of insects. Like the produce of the fields, the crabs and
frogs are also harvested as food. They are served at special banquets held for dignitaries visiting
the campus.
Neither pesticides nor herbicides are used to treat the campus agricultural fields, partly
because of a long tradition by local farmers to allow frogs to inhabit the rice fields during the
wet cycle. Herbicides or pesticides would harm the frog population. In addition to the frogs, a
type of fish known locally as loach is cultivated. This fish eats mosquito larvae and minimizes
the mosquito population when the rice paddies are in their muddy cycle.
A system of pedestrian paths cuts through the fields to bring visitors close to the crops. The
path system consists of a main pedestrian way about twelve feet across with three-foot wide
paths intersecting it. Narrow, foot-wide concrete paths branch off to provide direct access to the
fields. The main paths are made of light-colored granite. The granite and concrete path system
creates a striking contrast with the lush green crops that surround the paths.
The day-to-day work of tending the agricultural land on campus is carried out by local
farmers who have been hired by the university. Students and faculty join in the agricultural work
for two major campus holidays. The first Saturday after mid-May has been designated Rice
Planting Day by the university administrators. Students and faculty mark the day by going to the
fields and planting rice seedlings, followed by celebrations on campus. On the last Saturday of
October, a similar holiday takes place for Rice Harvesting Day. These celebrations were created
by the university administration as part of the effort to raise the consciousness of students about
the agricultural sector and instill greater pride in agriculture. Programs are directed to informing
students about the agricultural heritage of the local area and the nation of China.

Student and faculty impressions:

During my second visit to the campus, I had two separate informal meetings: one with a group of
architecture faculty and the other with the architecture students.
The teachers noted that the agricultural landscape concept is a non-traditional campus form
and expressed pride that it makes their university identity cutting-edge. Faculty indicated that
it is attracting the attention of students nationally and is helping to bolster the schools reputation
for being progressive. The idea of a productive landscape that also functions as a demonstration
farm as opposed to a one-dimensional ornamental landscape was cited by the administrators
as one of the innovative aspects of the design. The teachers are optimistic that the campus design
will help to promote innovative ecological thinking in the design work carried out by students.
The faculty also had some criticisms of the design. They noted that it was clear that the
landscape design was formulated after the buildings were designed. They felt the basic
landscape concept was strong, but that there was not enough visual variety in the various open
spaces and that the physical links between buildings and landscape were insufficient. Apart from
the award-winning rice paddy project, much of the open space of the campus is in courtyards.
Apparently the courtyards are inaccessible to students and faculty because the ground-level doors
have been locked for management purposes. This sort of disconnect between design and
restrictive regulation of use unfortunately is all too common in China. Decades of scarcity have
given the objective of preserving facilities even at the expense of use a very high priority.
The students expressed very positive views about the rice fields, but they were concerned
that the location was too remote from the instructional facilities. Students liked having the view
of the fields from classrooms, and they visited the fields when they had spare time. However,
they felt the theme expressed by the rice fields was not fully integrated into the rest of the
campus design particularly the courtyard gardens. They were very concerned about the
inaccessibility of the courtyard gardens, and they believed that the design would be more
successful if they could use the courtyards for leisure and study.
Students indicated that they appreciated the ecological habitat created by the new
agricultural landscape, but they also found it unfortunate that the same level of environmental
awareness was not employed in building design. Some of the students from small rural villages
in agricultural areas also suggested that the rice fields on the campus are less than entirely
authentic. They see the as an idealized re-creation of the agricultural landscape. However, even
these students agreed very strongly that the rice fields play an important role in helping to keep
their classmates conscious of Chinas agricultural heritage.

The scope of what could be accomplished inevitably was limited by all these factors. The ASLA
award was made for an elegant rice field that occupies only a small fraction of a remote part of

the campus. It is a testimony to the strength of the design that the rice field plays as important a
role as it does in campus life providing food for campus tables and serving as the centerpiece
of important campus celebrations.
The most notable feature of the project ultimately is not its successes as a design ----- It is
the vision brought to the project by the designers and their recognition that a university campus
is a special place that affects the thinking of people at a critical point in personal development.

Project credits:
Client: Shenyang Architectural University President and Communist Party Secretary Mr.
Zhang, and Vice-President Dr.Wang Baolin
Landscape Architecture: Peking University Graduate School of Landscape Architecture and
Turenscape, China
Design Team: Kongjian Yu, International ASLA; Ling Shihong, Long Xiang, Han Xiaoye, Han
Yi, Wang Danwei.
Architecture: Tang Hua , Shenzhen, Guangdong ,China.