"2007 The Holiday Bookshelf " written by Bobbie Schwartz APLD a book review on 'Planting Design Illustrated' by Gang Chen

'One of the most significant books written on Landscape Design for decades that covers East and West design principles every professional should read'.

2007 The Holiday Bookshelf

by Bobbie Schwartz, APLD

Many books have been written on the subject of landscape design but, until recently, none had been written solely on the topic of planting design. Gang Chen, a licensed California architect, fills this vacuum with Planting Design Illustrated. He immediately distinguishes planting design for formal gardens from planting design for naturalistic gardens.

He begins with a discussion of the approach to planting design problems and then moves on to basic planting design principles. I particularly liked his drawing of texture design that illustrates the theory of contrast, this theory frequently discussed but rarely concretized. I also thought that his analysis of color theory was excellent, including the effect of factors such as the texture of the leaf, reflections from surroundings and the intensity of the light.

While massing is frequently cited as an important element in design, it is a concept that is rarely analyzed but Gang Chen defines it as the three dimensional quality of plants and relates its importance, in combination with emphasis on form, to the ultimate view. There is also an excellent discussion of the relationship between solid and void space, the type of pattern to be used, and the transition between them. This discussion includes spatial organization and contrast with analogous allusions to literature and art. In his examination of planting patterns, he says that “the secret of a good design is to achieve the balance between repetition and contrasts, between unity and changes.”

The author is very erudite and uses his extensive knowledge of the arts to simplify and concretize what all designers know or should know, with many analogies to music, particularly in his discussion of rhythm.

Beneficial to every landscape designer and architect is knowledge of the history of landscape design. Most books written about formal garden design are based on Italian and French gardens but Gang Chen leads us further back in history, taking us through the evolution of formal garden prototypes while discussing how different cultures influenced that evolution. He demonstrates, with sketches, how formal gardens look from above and below and also how they evolved from hilly regions to flat ones. I was especially pleased to read of his belief that there should be unity of the building and the garden since this is an element that is often lacking in design.

While many books have been written about Japanese gardens and a few about Chinese gardens, none analyze naturalistic planting design. Gang Chen uses Chinese gardens as a case study in order to explore their cultural, symbolic, emotional and psychological aspects. These gardens serve as a subjective interpretation of the natural landscape found in China. He then demonstrates how Japanese gardens are a climatic and cultural adaptation of Chinese gardens as French gardens were of Italian gardens but distinguishes the differences between them and then compares them to the evolution of the English naturalistic gardens.

In his analysis of Chinese gardens, Gang Chen emphasizes the importance of two crucial concepts, plant iconography and Yi-Jing, to Westerners. Plant iconography is relatively easy to understand; it is the symbolism of plants and thus Eastern gardens frequently use fewer kinds of plant material than Westerners. Yi-Jing is a bit more difficult to grasp but critical to naturalistic design. It “focuses on the interaction between the designer’s subjective ideas and the objective site conditions.”

I found this book to be absolutely fascinating. You will need to concentrate while reading it but the effort will be well worth your time.

Gang Chen, Planting Design Illustrated, Outskirts Press, Denver, 2007.

Review by Bobbie Schwartz Former President of APLD Association of Professional Landscape Designers