This April, National Landscape Architecture Month becomes
World Landscape Architecture Month. The Indiana Chapter
of the American Society of Landscape Architects celebrates
the profession of landscape
architecture with our sister
organization, South Korea, to
collaborate, share ideas, and
reach new audiences with
social media.
Christine Johnson
Student How does the profession of
Ball State University, landscape architecture in South
Muncie, Indiana Korea and the state of Indiana
compare?
Candidate: Bachelor of Art in Landscape
Architecture, Ball State University, 2016
Currently Interning:
Group Han (그룹한)
Seoul, South Korea
Christine’s Blog during her experience
in Seoul can be found at:
https://expatetteinasia.wordpress.com/
Tag #WLAM2015 + #INASLA in your
social media and see what everyone is
up to this April! Become a member at
INASLA.org or ASLA.org
ASLAindiana
indiana_asla
facebook.com/ASLA.Indiana
“...It would be like comparing apples and
oranges. Korea is coming from a much
different cultural, historical, and social context
than American landscape architecture and it
has only had the last 20-30 years to develop...
The culture here is very fast paced (빠리빠리,
‘bali-bali’, or literally ‘fast-fast’).... we have
gotten project statements where the entire
design must be done (renderings, AutoCAD,
everything) in two weeks.”
“[Another] issue that South Korea is facing
right now is very similar to those being
experienced in China. Korea has grown
very rapidly in 20 years, which means that
infrastructure has to built quickly with not
much time to test out a good design to make
it great. It also means that valuable natural
resources are often misused or covered
entirely for the sake of advancement. I’ve
talked to my coworkers about this many times
and they agree with me that it is disappointing
to see nature misused in this fashion, but
that right now South Korea is much more
concerned about growth than environmental
legislation.”
Is there a different design approach
in South Korea?
“...Landscape architecture philosophies in
Korea are different than they are in Indiana,
especially because the mountains here, as
well as Confucianism and 풍수지리 (“pungsu
jiri”, a form of mountain feng-sui), have a
large influence over site location, monument
construction, and overall “flow” of the design
through the site. I have had a lot of fun
learning about these various techniques from
my manager and coworkers. I would like for
people in South Korea to know about how
many different design options and theories
there are in the States, especially because the
profession is a lot smaller in South Korea than
it is even in Indiana..
What project in Indiana would
you want to share with landscape
architects in South Korea?
Indianapolis Cultural Trail, Indianapolis, IN;
Rundell Erntsberger Associates, 2012
“We were working on a project near a few
schools and they were having issues because
the new park extended across several roads.
I ended up sharing the Indianapolis Cultural
Trail and how they had designed around
this problem by raising the level of the road
to meet the sidewalk and therefore give
pedestrians more right of way.”