Caring for history from a landscape architectural perspective: how to treasure the heritage landscape of Yuan Ming Yuan in modern Beijing

Abstract

Heritage and landscape are two important aspects of individual life and broad collective memory and identity. And when heritage and landscape join together, they become an even richer field of investigation. Heritage landscape is landscape as the carrier of the heritage, such as ancient gardens, old battlefields or buildings. Compared with other forms of heritage such as designed objects, skills or festivals, heritage landscape provides an opportunity for people to walk around and experience within. As a landscape architect, I regard myself as a narrator to tell the story of the site to visitors through smart design, to help visitors gain an authentic cultural experience through their journey. Since more and more people travel to explore culture, tourism on heritage sites becomes another dimension of heritage landscape. Though providing an enriched experience, the heritage value of a site is less likely to become neglected. This dissertation takes Yuan Ming Yuan, or the Old Summer Palace, in Beijing, China, as an example to demonstrate the current lack of attention to some valuable heritage landscapes. Yuan Ming Yuan was a magnificent imperial garden of the Qing dynasty. It represents the highest standard of a Chinese traditional garden but was burned and looted first by the Anglo French Allied Forces, then by the Eight Powers Allied Forces and damage continued through the next 100 years. Now, Yuan Ming Yuan is a relic park open to the public. However, except for the patriotic value of the site, other values are overlooked and are thus not being utilised. This dissertation provides some design solutions to its current issues, such as using an augmented reality device to recover garden scenes from its heyday. Since all kinds of intervention or designs for heritage landscapes should be reversible to make sure future generations can still get the value they need in the time of their society, landscape architects must cooperate with experts from other fields and know the limits of design.