Bamboo And Landscape Architecture

Landscape architecture is a key profession for a world facing an uncertain environmental future. Yet it is hindered by a chronic identity crisis. It is primarily concerned with making beautiful places, helping people or saving the planet from ecological catastrophe.Bamboo, as a versatile grass, has special values in Chinese Classic Gardening for its beauty, its architectural functions, and its ecological qualities. So, naturally, a conception is formed in mind, that is to build the relationship between bamboo and landscape architecture, which will contribute for each other.This thesis mainly answers two questions. The first, what are the values of landscape architecture? For this question, the thesis examines the three principal value systems, which influence landscape architectural practice - the aesthetic, the social and the environment. And it presents a tripartite framework for understanding the values and motivations of landscape architecture. It denies that any one value - beauty or usefulness or ecological integrity - can be elevated above the others but suggests that the richest and most successful designs occur when three of the main value fields are simultaneously addressed.Another question answered is what bamboo can do for landscape architecture? A number of practice samples of classic and contemporary are included, which are divided into three categories - bamboo practice in aesthetics, in social values and in ecology. It seemed necessary to locate the enquiry of bamboo use within wider fields of landscape architectural theory, and my hope is that this thesis seeks to reveal the implications of the research for contemporary practice, to point the way towards new areas for both design innovation and further research, and in this thesis, the theory and practice can thus be brought closer together.