What is the design philosophy of the landscape architecture team at the Beijing Tsinghua University Urban Planning and Design Institute?
Hu Jie: The first thing we face is our environmental problems, and right now, Beijing, and the whole of China, is in a period of fast development. As landscape architects who work on large scale development, our responsibility is to keep projects environmentally sound. It shows our respect for nature, and environmental quality. Another important philosophy is to study traditional Chinese landscape and culture, and to design from our tradition and bring the tradition of old historical landscapes to today’s contemporary design. Even when we call a project a contemporary project, it has to have elements from Chinese culture. So, while we talk about projects, we always focus on two areas. One is to study local culture. Another is to bring in modern ecological research and technology. JG: The Beijing Tsinghua Urban Planning Design Institute was founded in 1993 and the landscape architecture branch was created 10 years later in 2003. What has changed in terms of academic views on sustainabil
