Eastern Style A
Area: 600 sqm
This is a very interesting project. The client purchased two villas with identical layouts and merged the two gardens to create a single, unified space.
Located in Suzhou. In the initial draft, I retained the existing water feature in front of the villas (see the next scheme for details). During subsequent discussions, the client expressed a desire to move the water feature to the passageway between the two villas, allowing both the couple and their children to enjoy the view and use the space together.
Drawing upon Suzhou's native Jiangnan garden culture, I have attempted to deconstruct the spiritual essence of the traditional Eastern Zen–inspired private garden, presenting an Eastern natural aesthetic through a more contemporary language.
The core courtyard area is organized around a naturalistic cascading pond. The pond employs traditional Eastern stacked-stone (rockery) craftsmanship. Paving is kept as simple as possible, using variations in material finish and texture to replace the intricate patterns found in classical Jiangnan gardens. This approach simplifies construction while achieving a restrained yet expressive result within a limited budget.
In terms of plantings, Pinus thunbergii (Japanese black pine) provides a strong, vigorous structural backbone for the entire space. Trees such as maple and crape myrtle, along with low flowering plants, shift in color with the changing seasons, adding a warm, narrative layer of nature to the cool-toned contemporary architecture.
