The “New Silk Road” garden, based on the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China, uses plants planted along the Silk Road landscape belt to construct a garden journey from Beijing to the West. The entire garden was created by British designer James Hitchmough andTom Stuart-Smith. “We want to create a unique, interesting, colorful garden that has strong characters of natural landscape,” said one of the designers.
The overall layout of the garden adopts the form of woodland surrounding the grassland to create a feeling of independence from other exhibition gardens, so that the visual languages inside and outside the park are free from interference. Visitors cangradually approach and eventually enter the heart of the garden after passing through the garden enclosure made of woodland.
“This experience process will give the inner core garden stronger sense of presence and arrival,” said the designer.
The open space in the center of the garden draws on the concept of grassland distributed along the entire Silk Road to create nature-like dry meadow grassland vegetation. Native and non-native plants are selected, which are native to China, Central Asia, Turkey, Eastern Europe and North America. These plants can adapt well to Beijing’s natural environment and can survive the winter in the open ground.
The garden road is mainly composed of a pair of staggered loops, symbolizing the different branches of the ancient Silk Road. The curved path that passes through the woodland and the heart-shaped garden symbolizes the New Silk Road, which is based on the railway. Following this, visitors can see the changing landscape, experiencing the feeling of alternating sunlight, coolness, and scorching heat.
A relatively wider square is formed at the intersection of the loops. A large structure stands in the square, similar to a tent and also a big tree, overlooking the entire garden space. This tent is made of raw bamboo, which is the place where people meet in the garden and also the place where inorganic artificial structures and organic vegetation merge.
On the whole, the entire garden intends to show how the new landscape can meet the harmonious coexistence of man and nature through reshaping and cultivation after the artificial transformation of the natural landscape. At the same time, the designers also want to use this exhibition garden to express the idea: China, as a major power spanning the east and the west, will surely bring countries closer and shorten the world by means of new trade routes, transportation methods and various exchanges.
