Hybrid Modernity

Mary G. Padua, PhD, RLA, is an internationally recognized educator, thought leader, contemporary theorist and artist. Her research focuses on socio-cultural phenomena, human-centered design and the meaning of public space. She is one of the first English language writers on post-Mao designed landscapes and the discipline of landscape architecture as contributing agents to China’s late 20th century urban experiment. She maintains MGP Studio, a critically minded practice rooted in craft, equity, inclusion and restorative experiences, and teaches at Clemson University’s School of Architecture.

"Mary Padua has authoritatively chronicled the growth of the landscape architecture profession in China over several decades. This volume frames recent landscapes within a framework of China's rich legacy of gardens and cultural landscapes. Eminently, it collects her valuable insights on seminal projects and persons who have shaped landscape investigations of China's rich history, culture, and ecology within the context of globalization, urbanization, and international design.Ron Henderson, Director of the Landscape Architecture and Urbanism Program at Illinois Institute of Technology"A plethora of scholarship on China’s urban architecture and built environment has charted the heat of the nation’s urban construction since Deng’s reforms opened it to the world. Dr. Mary Padua's book supplements this work with her in-depth investigation of public parks in China’s late 20th century. The arts and garden tradition since its ancient beginnings, Zhongshan lexicon for the modern park and nation-building in the Republic period, places for workers in Mao's era and international influences all pave the way to the public park in post-Mao China – an epochal quest for modern urban life. Rather than examining China’s major cities like Beijing and Shanghai, the author keenly focuses on cases in the secondary cities, places of innovation and potential for China’s hopes in the years ahead."Dr. Charlie Xue, author of Building a Revolution: Chinese architecture since 1980, A history of design institutes in China: from Mao to market and Grand theater urbanism – Chinese cities in the 21st century."Hybrid Modernity imparts valuable insights on the creation of urban public parks in late 20th Century China and envisions new directions emerging in the 21st Century. Offering a new theoretical framework, Padua’s perceptive analyses confirm the innovative contributions of major park development projects and their impact on shaping public urban spaces in China’s rapidly developing cities."Linda Corkery, Professor of Landscape Architecture, UNSW Sydney, Australia

• Table of Contents Preface List of Figures and Tables1 Introducing Hybrid Modernity Post-Mao transformations: framing hybrid modernity China’s physical setting and settlement patternsBook scope and structure 2 Navigating Modern(s) and the Park in modern China Modernization: social construction and nation-buildingModernity, Globalization and IdentityHybrid modernization: expanding modernization theory and alternative modernitiesRe-visiting Modernism (international) genreModernism in Architecture and Landscape ArchitectureModernity in China China’s early modernity and westernizationForced (Colonial) ModernityThe Public Park, Republican modernity (1912-1949) and nation-building Mao’s Modernity: 1949 – 1976Summarizing China’s modern experience3 Pre-Modern China: Nature, Cosmology, Mythology and the Chinese PicturesqueNature, Cosmology, Mythology and FolkloreBrief History of China’s designed landscapesInterpreting garden-making throughout pre-modern ChinaChinese Picturesque Garden Design Language4 Looking “Inside” and “Outside” post-Mao ChinaA Glance back at the Arts and Culture in the Mao eraInside Post-Mao China Post-Mao art trendsTrends in post-Mao China’s Built EnvironmentPost-Mao Landscape Architecture: foundations of professional practice and educationLandscape Architecture “Outside” post-Mao China5 Revealing late 20th century Hybrid Modernity: four purpose-built parksCase Study One: Living Water Park, Huoshui Gongyuan, Chengdu, Sichuan Chengdu contextProject inceptionDesign RealizationHybrid Modern synthesisCase Study Two: Zhongshan Shipyard Park, Zhongshan Shiqi Jiang Gongyuan, Zhongshan, GuangdongZhongshan contextProject InceptionDesign realizationHybrid Modern synthesisCase Study Three: Jinji Lake Landscape Master Plan, Jinji Hu Jingguan Zongti Guihua Suzhou, Jiangsu Suzhou contextProject InceptionProject realizationHybrid Modern synthesis Case Study Four: West Lake Southern Scenic Area Master Plan, Xihu Huanhu Nanxian Jingqu Zongti, Hangzhou, ZhejiangWest Lake, Hangzhou contextProject InceptionProject RealizationSSA Experience Hybrid Modern synthesisFour public parks – the schema for post-Mao China’s hybrid modernity6 Transforming from ‘Hybrid’ to ‘Ecological’ Modernization in China’s 21st centuryFour case study parks and trends in the host citiesTop-Down China + Five-Year-Plan = Green Revolution and Ecological ModernizationChina’s Sponge City program and contribution to international “green” urbanism Revolutionary Praxis, Trends and Beautiful ChinaIndex