Thesis
Feng shui inspired Chinatown's park design: Hing Hay Park in Seattle, WA
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
2016
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/101557
Abstract
Since the mid-19th century, Chinese laborers immigrated to the United States. They began to build Chinatowns as their home overseas; meanwhile Chinese culture grew and spread from these ethnic communities. With the unique characteristics such as red dragon gates, buildings with wooden brackets, and Asian shops with large advertising signs, nowadays Chinatown has already become many tourists' destination. However, Chinatown is facing problems including safety threat, construction decaying, and loss of cultural characteristics. The cluttered and shabby streets leave an unfriendly impression to people. In fact, Chinese people devoted particular care to living environment through history. Feng shui, one of the popular ancient Chinese philosophies, aims at creating a harmonious dwelling environment by dealing with Qi (vital energy in the universe) and arranging placements. With culture spreading, feng shui has become familiar to people both in the western and eastern countries, and has been used in different v fields. For example, landscape site analyzing from feng shui perspective and plan design with feng shui methods can gather positive Qi, take advantage of natural conditions and enhance the rational usage of site elements. In this aspect, harmonizing Chinatowns' built environment by following feng shui guidance can be feasible. In order to find this feasibility, this thesis develops a redesign project of Hing Hay Park in Seattle's Chinatown, WA, and provides design solution based on the methods of Qi flow, four-animal configuration in feng shui aspect and Crime Prevention Through Environment Design in modern design concept. Through this project, to inspire landscape architects that using the traditional methods like feng shui is a way to solve the problems in historical and ethnic communities like Chinatown, with the hope of helping to revitalize Chinatown through landscape design.
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Details
- Title
- Feng shui inspired Chinatown's park design
- Creators
- Qiongyan Gao
- Contributors
- Robert J. Krikac (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Design and Construction, School of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525279801842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis