70年國際風景園林教育與展望

在風景園林作為一門學科在大學的課堂上被系統(tǒng)教授之前，人類早已經(jīng)歷了漫長的城市與園林營建的歷史。充滿詩意的古代城市、城郊風景以及城內(nèi)園林都彰顯著傳統(tǒng)的營造智慧。那些建造于19世紀以前，至今仍為人們所知曉甚至完好保留的古典園林和建筑，大都是特定階級所有。這些作品的設計和建造者，往往以非正式的方式接受教育和訓練，他們通過家族的傳承、做學徒和自學等方式獲得精湛的技藝，成為今天所說的建筑師和造園家。

當代風景園林學成為系統(tǒng)的職業(yè)，作為一門學科走入大學課程，與200余年人類社會經(jīng)濟發(fā)展所產(chǎn)生的實踐需求密不可分。從18世紀中葉第一次工業(yè)革命開始，西方國家用了100余年的時間，完成了生產(chǎn)技術、經(jīng)濟結(jié)構(gòu)到社會體制的全面改革，伴隨大量人口涌入城市，巨大的居住、工作、交通、運輸?shù)男枨蟠偈宫F(xiàn)代城市迅速發(fā)展，隨后，城市公園被視為解決環(huán)境污染、居住環(huán)境惡化的“良藥”而發(fā)展。在這樣的環(huán)境下，建筑學首先發(fā)展成了一個“高度組織化的職業(yè)”。1857年，理查德·莫里斯·亨特（Richard Morris Hunt）等建筑師發(fā)起了美國建筑師協(xié)會（AIA），影響了美國最早的一批大學開設建筑專業(yè)。同年，美國國民經(jīng)濟在恐慌中陷入蕭條。勞動密集型的城市公園建設作為失業(yè)人員再就業(yè)的手段之一被政府納入公共復興計劃。園林建設正在逐漸擺脫為少數(shù)富裕階層服務的局限，設計師開始將工作重點轉(zhuǎn)向公共園林建設和城市綜合整治。弗雷德里克·勞·奧姆斯特德（Frederick Law Olmsted Sr.）作為1857年中央公園設計階段的主要負責人，在此后30余年中擔當了美國風景園林學的奠基人角色，其家族的約翰·查爾斯·奧姆斯特德（John Charles Olmsted）于1899年創(chuàng)立了美國風景園林師協(xié)會（ASLA）。1900年，小弗雷德里克·勞·奧姆斯特德（Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.）和 阿瑟·阿薩希爾·舒爾克里夫（Arthur A.Shurcliff）在哈佛大學創(chuàng)立了世界上第一個風景園林學位項目，開啟國際現(xiàn)代風景園林教育的篇章。

兩次世界大戰(zhàn)之間的20年間，西方世界正值短暫的平和發(fā)展時期，一部分歐美院校開始設立風景園林專業(yè)，如美國賓夕法尼亞大學、挪威農(nóng)業(yè)大學，英國的雷丁大學；丹麥皇家藝術學院在此期間開展了北歐地區(qū)的風景園林“暑期課程”。1948年，國際風景園林師聯(lián)合會（IFLA）的創(chuàng)立重建了由于世界大戰(zhàn)而中斷的國際交流機制，更多的院校集中在“二戰(zhàn)”后設立風景園林項目，包括愛丁堡大學、謝菲爾德大學等。在教學內(nèi)容方面，“二戰(zhàn)”結(jié)束后的經(jīng)濟復蘇和繁榮帶來新城鎮(zhèn)的建設風潮、20世紀60年代工業(yè)城市對于生態(tài)環(huán)境的破壞日益凸顯、20世紀70年代歐美經(jīng)濟結(jié)構(gòu)的變革釋放出大量亟須再利用的后工業(yè)場地，這些社會經(jīng)濟變化對風景園林行業(yè)實踐提出了變革需求，進而影響到美國和歐洲風景園林學科教育的形式和內(nèi)涵。

中國現(xiàn)代風景園林的教育起源于對西方風景園林與建筑學科的吸納和借鑒，并融入傳統(tǒng)的營建特色。20世紀20年代，中國處于破舊立新的時代交點，大學和學科制度廣泛系統(tǒng)地建立，大批學生遠渡重洋學習西方的哲學思想和科學知識。1924年，梁思成、童寯?shù)雀懊肋M入賓夕法尼亞大學學習建筑，他們歸國后投入中國現(xiàn)代建筑的教育與實踐，1945年梁思成在創(chuàng)辦清華大學營建系的藍圖中提出設立“庭園計劃”專業(yè)；中華人民共和國成立后，國家恢復建設百廢待興，1951年汪菊淵和吳良鏞在梁思成的支持下匯集北京農(nóng)業(yè)大學（現(xiàn)中國農(nóng)業(yè)大學）園藝系和清華大學營建系的力量，合辦“造園組”，后于1956年轉(zhuǎn)入北京林學院（現(xiàn)北京林業(yè)大學）正式建系，設置專業(yè)，同時從全國調(diào)入陳俊愉、孫筱祥等眾多園林專家強化師資建設。中國風景園林學科肇始兼具工科與農(nóng)科交叉之特色?；厥?0個春秋，風景園林教育由一代代教育和實踐者艱難深耕，其發(fā)展起落浮沉。伴隨著改革開放后中國經(jīng)濟的飛速發(fā)展及社會的變革，中國風景園林的教育、研究和實踐得以不斷進步，取得今日兼容并蓄的開闊局面。2021年是“兩個一百年”的歷史交匯點，也是風景園林一級學科設立10周年和風景園林專業(yè)教育誕生70周年，在國家繁榮富強、社會文明進步的大背景下，風景園林學科發(fā)展也將繼續(xù)煥發(fā)出蓬勃的生機。

風景園林，一直會是一個協(xié)調(diào)人類和自然關系的綜合性學科。賓大首任風景園林系系主任羅伯特·威爾萊特（Robert Wheelwright），同時也是美國Landscape Architecture Magazine創(chuàng)辦人，曾清晰地描繪了風景園林專業(yè)獨一無二的復雜性：“只有一種職業(yè)，主要目標是將人類的創(chuàng)造與既已存在的自然相協(xié)調(diào)，那就是風景園林。風景園林需要解決的問題的復雜性，涉及工程、建筑知識、土壤、植物材料、生態(tài)等，再加上審美，一個沒有受過高等教育、沒有一定文化程度的人，是難以承擔這項職業(yè)的。”隨著人類社會價值觀念和生活方式的改變，以及自然環(huán)境的變化和科學技術的進步，未來風景園林教育所面臨的復雜性挑戰(zhàn)將與日俱增，在應對氣候變化、全球公共健康、保護地球生態(tài)的世界大勢中，在生態(tài)文明、美麗中國等國家戰(zhàn)略需求下，如何拓展風景園林行業(yè)和教育的增長空間、發(fā)現(xiàn)前沿學術問題以及改進教學和研究的技能？全球風景園林教育者需要持續(xù)耕耘這些重要議題，為世界人居環(huán)境的健康持續(xù)發(fā)展做出更偉大的貢獻。

International Landscape Architecture Education in the Past 70 Years and Future Prospect

Before landscape architecture was systematically taught as a discipline in university, human beings had already had a long history of urban and garden construction. The poetic gardens and landscapes in ancient cities and suburban areas all demonstrated the traditional construction wisdom of Chinese people.Most of the classical gardens and buildings which were built before the 19th century and are still known to people or even well preserved today were used to be owned by specific classes. The designers and creators of these gardens and buildings often received informal education or training. They obtained exquisite skills through family inheritance, apprenticeship or self-learning, and gradually became the architects or gardeners that we call today.

Contemporary landscape architecture has become a systematic profession and included in university curriculum as a discipline, which is inseparable from the practical demand for the more than 200 years’ social and economic development. Ever since the First Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century,western countries have spent more than a century to comprehensively reform the production technology, economic structure and social system. As a great number of people pouring into cities, the huge demand for residence, work, commuting and transportation has promoted the rapid development of modern cities. Later,urban parks were regarded as a “medicine” to remedy environmental pollution and deterioration of the living environment. In this context, architecture first developed into a “highly organized profession”. In 1857, architects, such as Richard Morris Hunt, founded the American Institute of Architects (AIA), which influenced the earliest universities in the United States to start the architecture major. In the same year, the American national economy fell into depression in panic. As one of the means of re-employing the unemployed, the labor-intensive urban park construction was quickly included in the government’s public revival plan. Landscape construction was gradually getting rid of the limitation of serving only a few rich people; and designers started to attach importance to public garden design and comprehensive urban renovation. Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., as the person in charge of the Central Park design stage in 1857, played the role of the founder of American landscape architecture for more than 30 years. In 1899,John Charles Olmsted from the same family founded the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). In 1900, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and Arthur A.Shurcliff co-founded the world’s first degree program in landscape architecture at Harvard University, which henceforth opened the chapter of international modern landscape architecture education.

In the 20 years between the two world wars, the western world had undergone a short period of peaceful development. Some European and American universities, including The University of Pennsylvania in the United States, The Agricultural University of Norway, and The University of Reading in the UK, began to set up landscape architecture majors. For example, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts carried out a “Summer Program” in landscape architecture in northern Europe during this period. In 1948, the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) was founded to reestablish the international exchange mechanism interrupted by the world wars. An increasing number of universities set up landscape architecture programs after the World War II, including The University of Edinburgh and The University of Sheffield. The programs focused on the construction trend of new towns brought about by the economic recovery and prosperity after the World War II, the increasing destruction to the ecological environment in the industrial cities in the 1960s, and the reform of European and American economic structure in the 1970s which released a large number of post industrial sites that need to be reused. These socio-economic changes have raised the requirements for reformation regarding practices of the landscape architecture industry, which further influenced the form and connotation of landscape architecture education in the United States and Europe.

Started from the absorption and reference of Western landscape architecture and the architecture discipline, the education of modern landscape architecture in China integrated the traditional characteristics of construction.In the 1920s, when China was experiencing a transition from the old era to a new era, the university and discipline systems were widely and systematically established, and many students traveled abroad to study western philosophy and scientific knowledge. In 1924, Mr. Liang Sicheng, Tong Jun and some others went to the University of Pennsylvania in the United States to study architecture. After they returned to the homeland, they dedicated themselves to the education and practice of Chinese modern architecture. In 1945,Liang Sicheng proposed to establish the major of “Gardening Program”in the blueprint for establishing the Construction Department of Tsinghua University. After the founding of PRC, construction was resumed in the country and everything needed to be reconstructed. In 1951, with the support of Liang Sicheng, Wang Juyuan and Wu Liangyong gathered the strength of the Department of Horticulture of Beijing Agricultural University (Today’s China Agricultural University) and the Construction Department of Tsinghua University to jointly set up the “Garden Group” which was later transferred to Beijing Forestry College (Today’s Beijing Forestry University) in 1956 to officially become a department with newly set-up majors. At the same time, a group of garden experts, such as Chen Junyu and Sun Xiaoxiang,were transferred from all over the country to the department to strengthen the faculty. From the very beginning, landscape architecture in China was incorporated with the characteristics of both engineering and agriculture.Looking back on the 70 years, the generations of educators and practitioners have been nurturing the landscape architecture discipline with great difficulties and times of ups and downs. With the rapid development of China’s economy as well as the social changes after the reform and opening up, the education,research and practice of landscape architecture in China have made continuous progress and eventually achieved the inclusive and open situation today. The year of 2021 is another historical intersection of “two centenaries”, and also the 10th anniversary of the founding of the first-class discipline of landscape architecture and the 70th anniversary of the birth of landscape architecture professional education. In the background of national prosperity and social civilization and progress, the development of the landscape architecture discipline will continue to prosper with vigorous vitality.

Landscape architecture has always been and will continue to be a comprehensive discipline to coordinate the relationship between human and nature. Robert Wheelwright, the first director of the Department of Landscape Architecture in The University of Pennsylvania and the founder of the American journalLandscape Architecture Magazine, once clearly described the unique complexity of this major: “There is but one profession whose main objective has been to co-ordinate the works of man with preexistent nature and that is landscape architecture. The complexity of the problems which the landscape architect is called upon to solve, involving a knowledge of engineering,architecture, soils, plant materials, ecology, etc., combined with aesthetic appreciation can hardly be expected of a person who is not highly trained and who does not possess a degree of culture.” With the change of people’s core social values and lifestyle, as well as the change of the natural environment and the progress of science and technology, the complex challenges faced by future landscape architecture education will sure to increase day by day. How to expand the growth space of landscape architecture industry and education, find cuttingedge academic problems and improve teaching and research skills in the global trend of dealing with climate change, maintaining public health and protecting the earth’s ecology against the country’s strategic demands of ecological civilization and the Beautiful China has become an important topic for global landscape educators to continue further exploration, so as to make greater contributions to the healthy and sustainable development of the global living environment.

Editor-in-Chief: Professor ZHENG Xi

Sep 28, 2021