Research On Rainscape Designing In Chinese Classical Gardens

Rainscape plays an important role in the designing of Chinese classical gardens in history and is influenced by the designing philosophy of soundscape. Sound effect has been endowed with unique meaning in Chinese traditional culture and thus when it is combined with landscape designing, a new designing philosophy comes into being---soundscape. Rain, with its special form and sound, is an indispensable part of sound effect. Studying the rainscape in Chinese classical gardens can provide a deep insight into Chinese traditional culture and garden designing philosophy and therefore offer some guide to modern garden designing.The paper first presents some theoretical background on soundscape, which helps gaining a better understanding of the development of Chinese classical gardens. Then the paper analyses the possible elements which contribute to the formation of the soundscape, such as Chinese painting, calligraphy, poem and etc. And some basic characteristics of rainscape in different forms are classified and studied in the next part of the paper. This part employs the method of both theory and case study to probe into the means of rainscape designing. The study on rainscape designing in Chinese classical gardens provides important guide to modern garden designing, especially in the aspects of maintaining and imitating the classical gardens. It's of great importance for the contemporary designers to know and inherit the essence of classical design philosophy and the culture in it.