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the world also needs more doers

Yesterday, I wrote ‘the world needs more thinkers’ today I though it would also look at actually doing something after the thinking.  There is a need for more thinkers to attack the world’s problems but there is also the need for people to put things in motion by actually doing something. Doing is underestimated and often seen as too hard. Also doing has become easier but also lazier, merely tweeting about a cause to few hundred or thousand followers or facebook friends really doesn’t do much. We need people to be doing more of the ‘heavy-lifting’.

Easy Action – Build on others Energy
How many times have you attended a conference where everyone gets a great energy and buss from the event for it to just dissipate after the event finishes. This is true of many conferences or symposiums the energy is high we a learning a great deal from each other and then the event ends we go back to our everyday lives and the conference becomes a memory. Why not do something with that positive energy whether as a group or as an individual. Whether its merely placing some of your notes on an internal email or blog – curation is underrated do to vast amount of information we are exposed to per day, but at some point at some time someone will want to know or read that information.

Harder Action – Make something of the Energy
The bigger step is contact all the people you met at the event and try and get something more substantial out of all that energy whether as a group by creating new ideas and publishing them. The power of information is very powerful and the ability to disseminate information is easier than ever before with the internet and digital publishing.

Little Harder Action – Join the Energy
The other form of doing is the unselfish action of taking part without any benefit, why not clean up the local river with a couple of friends or join a local group – tell a few people but don’t paste it on facebook, twitter, google+. Get gratification from just doing something different for one day or more regularly if the mood takes you.  Join a local or international group in your area of expertise and dedicate time regularly to achieving the groups goals.

Hardest Action – Creating Energy
Creating an organisation and dedicate some or all of your time to setting goals, promoting and doing those goals and thus making a difference in the world (aka making a dent in the world/universe)

At this time of year we make lots of plans and  ‘to do’ lists why not add a few things you have been meaning to do for years and take action on them.

 

Improve tourism development through holistic design

In China, government and developers are looking more and more towards tourism development to captialise on the growing market of middle class Chinese who travel across China on national holidays. They are seeking new places, different cultures, different food and new experiences to remember for years to come. The current developments they are visiting are all to familiar to many of them as the style and features of these developments blend into a common Chinese or South-East asia style with similar architecture, food and generic landscape.

The development market needs to take a fresh approach and realise that the local area, people and culture is what differentiates the place and masking it with a veneer of mixed cultures does the place and development a disservice. A more holistic design approach needs to be taken using influences from the local culture, architecture and people to create a unique experience to the place. There are many examples around the world were places (especially tourist towns) have lost their identity as they bend and twist to service visitors with a wide variety of cultures and nationalities. You only have to go to some of the islands in South-East Asia to see the effect where nearly all resorts and restaurants have a similar architecture and have abandoned local food to fly-in large quantities of produce to cater to the tastes of world tourists.

In some of the design competition for developments I have been involved in Hainan (southern island off China), I have tried to introduce the local culture, architecture and of course local people. I had one competition project a few years ago were the beach was long and had a small fishing village which housed a few hundred people and numerous long boats, crab pools, along with vegetable farms and pineapple plantation. My idea was to to take a holistic approach, maintain the village and locate the development within walking distance of the village. The village could supply the food with assistance of other nearby villages. The architecture would reflect local styles and include various landscape elements including a natural lagoon on the site. Our design was not chosen but a Balinese style development with large chlorinated pools and overbearing architecture was chosen for the development. It was probably more commercially viable and investment return would be quicker, but the long term implications to the social and environment will be everlasting due to a lack of sophistication and understanding of tourism development.

Holistic approaches for tourism development in China needed to be taken as development increases across urban and rural China not just in the booming tourism markets such as Hainan, Xiamen, Xian, Yunnan, Xinjiang, Guilin, Jiuzhaigou Valley and Huangshan Mountain. The environmental, social and cultural elements need to be incorporated to maintain the culture of the place, too many places are becoming homogenised thus loosing their identity. Through using holistic approach the local place maintains its identity, the local people can maintain and hopefully improve their lifestyle and the environmental impact can be kept to a minimum.

I write this after reading and reflecting on China becomes 3rd biggest tourism market (Xinhua)

the world needs more thinkers


The world needs more thinkers to help with the current global crisis but also to help with the small and big problems (environmental, social, economic, etc) that hinder developed and developing nations. Ideas and then following up with action is the greatest thing that thinkers to do. We need less people with intelligence talking about how to use a social network(I am guilty of this one) or how XYZ did this. Thinkers need to create ideas and put them into action by getting the message to the right people. Also we need thinkers to be able to step outside of their own opinion, listen and see that there is more than one approach to a problem. I have learnt whilst living in China that there is not one way or one right way to do something as long as we get to the same destination and the bigger idea is achieved then we have achieved the goal we set out to do.

So if your a thinker(I mean this as in your constantly thinking and can’t stop), start using your thinking to create solution to big problems and advance ideas that will create a solution. Throw some of your brain power not money at problems. How? there are many non-profits in your city that are looking for people to help with ideas. To better utilise your ability concentrate on non-profits in your area of expertise.

Less opinion, more action

Image: The Thinker by artist Rodin – Image via Flickr dSeneste.dk

Landscape in China | 2012

2012 will be another interesting year for landscape architecture in China. Currently a lot of people are looking at a slow down for 2012 as the real estate market continues to cool. I hope that it is not too great and that the market slows gradually. For landscape architecture this could be a good thing as many design and construction projects run a too greater speed often missing great opportunities to advance landscape architecture.

There will always be the residential market in China with its luxury residential and neo-classic designs which I am not a great fan of as they do little to progress landscape architecture in a nation which has a great opportunity to integrate green infrastructure into cities including residential developments. Green, Eco, Sustainable will continue to be buzz words inside and outside of China, but I think there is still great opportunities to advance the profession including many aspects including design, technical competency, quality and overall environment and ecology.

I think in China we need to concentrate more on quality of design, quality of green (not just creating 30% green ratio to meet regulatory standards), urban forests, green infrastructure, and talent within the landscape profession in China. If there is a slow down, I urge all principals and managers to take a step back and instead of cutting staff to lower costs look at other ways to captialise on the slow down and see it as an opportunity to train and enhance your team. You have reaped the rewards of a booming economy now its time to give back to the profession in 2012 and create a generation of great designers who can take China and your firm forward through the coming decades. Have a great 2012 and feel free to contact me damian@chinalandscapearchitect.com

Changing landscape uses in China

Use of landscape and recreation is changing in China. Over the last few years I have been in China landscape uses have changed from passive uses(people watching, reading, singing & card/table games) with a some active uses(dancing, exercises, badminton & kite flying) to more and more different uses. There has been a great increase in active(roller blading, basketball, tennis, football(soccer), running, dog walking/running) and passive (more younger people reading/chatting on phones, computers and electronic devices). As landscape architects we need to address this increase in uses not only in designing parks but also for future planning. Future planning is one area that requires greater involvement from landscape architects and government, there are numerous passive parks around major cities and new cities but not enough future planning for active recreation.

Passive Recreation

In The Park from Ricardo Mendialdua on Vimeo.

There is also a change in the use of regional and national parks as tourism increases and younger (&older) generations start to get participate in ‘newer’ sports such as skateboarding, bmx/fixies, rollerblading, skiing, snowboarding although not that new to western countries these are burgeoning sports that are spreading across the nation. Although Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou may already have some of the facilities for these sports there is a need for urban designers, landscape architects and landscape planners to plan for these future uses. Leaving planning to later will lead to ad-hoc landscape design and planning along with devastated landscapes as developers & government see a need in the market and rush to provide facilities. Also remembering that there are sports and uses that haven’t been invented yet and that unplanned or disused areas (not oversized plazas) are needed to allow new forms of recreation will be created and grow.

Active Recreation

Shanghai Basketball from Paul Hammond on Vimeo.

Snowboarding
“串儿 (chuan’r)” is a snow boarding video parks in Beijing – one indoor park and one outdoor park. Also is shows that brands and parks are blurring the lines between public, private spaces and park funding.

mellowparks.cn “串儿 (chuan’r)” teaser from Steve Zdarsky on Vimeo.