Leeden Hotel

The Garden of the Master of Nets - Part 2

by mke1963

The Hall of Ascending Cloud sits behind classical rockeries. This three-bay building was the owner's winter study, with his library above. Osmanthus, camellia, plum and maple trees in the coirtyard outside are almost guaranteed to provide a different scene almost every single day of the year.
Note, in several pavilions and houses how the lines of sight are channelled through certain directions and through certain 'scenes' inside and out. Sometimes, the depth of field brings the scene closer, and at other times the design creates an illusion of great distance.
A pond takes up much of the western part of the garden, with pavilions and walkways all around, each with a different purpose and with a different season or mood in mind. The lace-bark pine is a partiuclarly notable species - often found in Chinese gardens, but rarely so beautifully positioned as here.
Perhaps the most famous courtyard is the Ming or Astor Court, reporduced in its entirety in New York's MoMA. Ironically, they first had to construct a prototype in Suzhou before reproducing it - again - in New York.
Throughout the western half of the building, the designer was faced repeatedly with problems of vision and height: the many walls would loom over the courtyards and the gardens, if it were not for the masterful use of horizontal lines, doorways and even fake windows to reduce the height visually. The Garden of the Master of Nets is as much a form of art as a garden.
Sadly the southern buildings are used as shops, selling artwork. The art is doubtlessly quite good, but it just seems so inappropriate to spoil the tranquility and style of one of the world's truly special gardens.

S U Z H O U

by marsistanbul

"The Humble Administrator's Garden"

Built as early as 4th year of the reign of Zhengde under the Ming Dynasty(1509 A.D)the Humble Administrator's Garden,covering 5,2hs. is one of the four most famous gardens in China.
It is divided into the eastern,middle and western parts.Parts of the housing complex have been converted for use as the Suzhou Garden Museum.Centering upon the broad expanse of a lake,the poetic and picturesque building and luxuirant vegetation,which seem to be changing at every step and awakening reminiscenes of the Venetian scenes in the area south of the Lower Yangtze,are archaic,rustic,extensive and naturalistic.
On the whole,it has kept the style of the Ming Dynasty.In 1997 it was inscribed on the World Heritage List by UNESCO...