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Resilient Landscape: 

Sustainable Urban Transformations

On 16th October 2019, the Second Landscape Architects’ Forum & 25th Designing Lecture was successfully held in the hall of the Building of Translational Medicine. Professor James Hayter, president of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA), with Vice Dean of Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s School of Design CHE Shengquan, Chair of Department of Landscape Architecture WANG Yun, Vice Chair Wang Ling, Teacher representatives LI Junxiang, ZHU Liqing, YU Bingqin, MO Fei, ZHANG Yang, Zhang Liqing, and students mostly from the Department of Landscape Architecture, and representatives from Shanghai Society of Landscape Design attended the lecture. The event was hosted by Vice Dean at School of Design, CHE Shengquan.

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James appreciated the warm welcome by the Department of Landscape Design and CHSLA. His lecture’s main theme was Resilient Landscape: Sustainable Urban Transformations, in which he consistently emphasized the value of nature-based solutions of landscape planning and design. He stated that resilient landscape should respect rules of nature, fully consider matters such as climate changes, and influence the environment. Next, James introduced six experimental programs that he oversaw to illustrate design ideas and approaches for handling climate change, preserving biodiversity, reforming industrial wastelands, urbanization, improving residents’ welfare and sculpting urban landscape structure. James thinks that the functions of landscapes could be compounded and bring forth multiple effects, besides providing a view, it may also benefit economy, society, health, and ecology system.

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James pointed out that current landscape designers are facing complex challenges, which require them to cooperate with scholars from other research fields. At the same time, landscape designers should prepare themselves with skills, conviction and passion, be specialists and generalists, so that they can play a leading role in land management and in the construction of urban transformational projects. Thus landscape designers should try to solve problems in an open-ended and dynamic way to play a critical role in resilient landscape design for community development.

Resilient landscape design requires paying attention to the integrity, consistency and connection of the site, communicating with local residents and respecting their expectations, and understanding the complex mutual effect between nature and civilization, so that we can apply the latest understanding of technology and engineering materials and create vital cities.

In the end, James concluded the essential difference between landscape designers and architects. In his opinion, because of the inclusiveness and width of landscape designing, landscape designers should be leaders and pioneers in city-building projects, and focus on climate change, food safety, health and well-being, and community involvement.

During the Q & A after the lecture, teachers and students who attended shared their questions and opinions about site memory, principles of design and emphasis in designs with James. Students expressed that they developed a deeper and more thorough understanding of resilient city transformation design, a great achievement of this lecture.

Before the lecture, RUAN Xin, the Founding Dean of the School of Design invited Professor James Hayter to the International Symposium on the Idea of Design Education held by the School of Design from 20th to 22nd, November, discussed the SJTU - Adelaide 3+2 Articulation Project and cooperation between the Department of Landscape Design and IFLA. The Vice Dean of Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s School of Design CHE Shengquan, Dean of Department of Landscape Architecture WANG Yun and other teachers also attended the meeting.

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​A graduate of Adelaide, Sheffield and Harvard universities, James Hayter was elected as president of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) in July, 2018. IFLA represents 76 national member associations of landscape architecture worldwide, including the Chinese Society of Landscape Architects (CHSLA). James is the Founding Director of Oxigen, a landscape architecture and urban design practice in Adelaide, South Australia, and currently serves as Professor in Landscape Architecture at the School of Architecture and the Built Environment at the University of Adelaide as well as leading his design practice.

The Landscape Architects’ Forum is an advanced professional lecture series held by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Department of Landscape Design and the Shanghai Society of Landscape Architects, inviting domestic and international scholars and masters influential in landscape design academia to discuss the frontier of research and practice. The series of lectures are open to all students and teachers of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, members of the Shanghai Society of Landscape Architects, and any civilian interested in landscape design, intending to promote the sharing of cutting-edge ideas between practitioners in and out of the country, serve as a platform for professionals, and encourage cooperation between institutes for the benefit of academia.

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Translated by ZHANG Yang XIE Hongli WANG Ling

Photographed by TANG Feilong