CHENGXI
HUANG
Live , with Snow During Our Life
Chinese Traditional Garden Design of HONG-XUE
“Live, with Snow during Our Life” designed a Chinese classical garden called Hongxue Hermitage, which is situated in Changzhou, a typical Jiangnan city in the Yangtze River Delta, within the Baiyun Temple of the ancient Changzhou Prefecture. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Changzhou was known as the "City of a Hundred Gardens" in China. However, the city's historical landscape has gradually vanished due to the ravages of war and modern economic development, leading to the loss of its river networks, city walls, and gardens, which were once integral to its character. Project aims to revive a garden to rekindle the memory of the "urban wildness" that once defined ancient Changzhou.
The garden is organized along a north-south axial layout, connecting two primary halls and three significant botanical landscapes to form an interconnected plan and tour routes. Entering through the "Gateway to City Forest," visitors ascend "Whispering Pines of Thousand Valleys" to the main hall, the "Hongxue Hermitage," located by the tranquil "Frosted-Mirror Pond". Within the lake lies "Island of Jade", accessible by boat via the "Depths of the Bamboo Grove". The "Fragmented-Clouds Corridor" leads westward to the "Snowy Bamboo Pavilion", spanning "Azure-Crystalline Ravine", with a physical model of this section documented in Project 2 - II. North of the pavilion is the "Bamboo Grove Depth", ending at the half-pavilion "Mystic Spring". To the east and west, paths to the "Spring-Whisper Garden" with medicinal herbs. Though the Yangtze River Delta's subtropical monsoon climate allows only a brief snow season, the imagery of "snow" in Chinese philosophy evokes life's imperfections and the unexpected trials that shape it.






