decoration_Landscape Perspective

If I may just say that Asian landscaping is very beautiful. Not to be the LArch student on this trip, but it is very hard for me to not notice it just as much as the iconic buildings we have seen and entered. The Asian garden is very particular as it is a compacted form of the universe: as Jeff stated earlier, every element within the garden is representative of a greater element that exists in the world-- rocks to mountains, ponds to oceans, trees to forestry etc. The procession through the space, although based primarily on superstition, gives the feeling of journey: going from one place to another and experiencing something new. Also, the idea behind shake, the borrowed landscape, creating a natural threshold for the eye to continue onto for miles. For me, this is the most obvious decorative theme that plays out in the two countries we've been to (China and Japan), and its repetition and persistence to exist within the modern (or modernizing) world tells me of its blatant importance to both the Asian culture and aesthetic.
















Another thing that I saw was the works of architecture that were the most sublime were those made of the natural materials, predominately wood. These are massive structures and their age and endurance through tsunamis and earthquakes tell a lot about the structure itself, but also of the original craftsmanship and materials used. The relationship between nature and architecture, earth and development, seem to be mended in the form of preservation as what is being preserved it not the just the building/site itself, but also the materials, the ancient associations and connotations, the social relationship etc.

Well, with four or more types of precedents to find under the umbrella of decoration, I hope it won't get too hard for me for I fear that strategies for preservation by decoration will mesh too much.