Study On The Genius Loci Of Temple Garden In Mount Emei

Architect Ieoh Ming Pei once said:"Every city has its own history and culture, in which it forms unique features and characteristics." Similarly, every landscape contains exclusive connotation of culture that cannot be replicated. The landscapes taking shape form the local history and culture convey different features and characteristics of the place. Landscape interprets genius loci.However, with the acceleration of urbanization and the boom of tourism, quantity increasingly overweighs quality in landscape designs, resulting in the decline of spirit of place of the sites that should have been reflecting the long history and broad culture of China. Although integrating history, culture, art, science and technology, the temple gardens, as one of the four classical gardens, also face the crisis of losing their original rich spirit of place through constantly renovation.This essay explores and analyses spirits of place of traditional and historical Chinese landscapes, and summarizes design and configuration methods of landscapes by the means of literature review, field research, questionnaires. Mount Emei, as one of the four most famous Buddhist temples, is chosen to be the researching objective. It has great researching value because of the unique natural conditions, centuries of history and countless cultural heritages. The author humbly and sincerely hopes to provide some guides to later garden construction."To understand truths, one must study the history first." So, in the first chapter, the author reviews the genius loci, temple gardens and the historical background of the spirit of place of temple gardens. To study the genius loci of Mount Emei, the basic concept of the genius loci, experience mechanisms, key influential factors and the historical background of the spirit of it need to be bore in mind. Thus the author studies all these aspects in the second chapter. The influential elements of the genius loci of Temple Gardens in Mount Emei are analyzed in the third chapter. The environmental characteristics of the gardens are also studied, including the selection of base location, layout patterns, spatial composition and architectural layout. The landscape elements, such as buildings, landscapes, sketches, botanical gardens, also affect the expression of the spirit of the temple gardens. In the forth chapter,the author studied how tourists feel in Mount Emei, their ideas about the genius loci.In the fifth chapter, the author summarized the design ideas and techniques that can influence the genius loci of Temple Gardens in Mount Emei, looking forward to offering some help to the later building of the the genius loci of Temple Gardens.In the last chapter, the author figured out the problems which harm the genius loci in Mount Emei and offered solutions to these problems.