A Dimensional Comparison between Classical Chinese Gardens and Modern Chinese Gardens

摘要

Garden designers and scholars are interested in metrics that define the differences and similarities between traditional design and modern designs. This investigation examines the similarities and differences of classical Chinese gardens and modern Chinese gardens. The comparison is accomplished by ordinating the design elements and basic normative planning and design principles for each garden. Three classical Chinese gardens in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China and five modern gardens in Xiamen, Fujian, China were selected for study. A mathematical method called Principal Component Analysis (PCS) was applied in this research. The objective of this method is to define the dimensions that characterize the gardens and plot these gardens along the dimensions/gradients. Seventy-five variables were selected from a literature review, site visits, and site photos. According to the results of the PCA, there are potentially seven meaningful dimensions suitable for analysis, which explain 100% of the variance. This research focused on studying the first three principal components, explaining 81.54% of the variance. The first two principal components reveal a clear pattern between the two sets of environments. The results indicate that the first principal component can be a way to identify the difference between classical Chinese gardens and modern Chinese gardens. The second and third PCA dimensions assist in characterizing the variance amongst the modern environments. Thus study suggests that it is possible to employ metrics to classify landscape environments and in this study the results support the heuristic normative beliefs of planning and design experts who attempt to classify these environments without science-based evidence.