作为ASPECT Studios现任亚洲区工作室总监和设计总监，Stephen Buckle先生是一位在行业内具有影响力的景观设计师和城市规划专家，以其一系列大胆挑战和打破常规的城市塑造项目而著称。他致力于通过项目解决当前高密度城市中复杂的社会、环境以及技术挑战，使其带来积极反响。

从业二十多年来，他的设计足迹跨越了地域、文化和气候的阻碍，项目分布在全球多地，其中不乏一系列广受行业赞誉、屡获国际大奖的设计作品。

▲ ASPECT Studios上海工作室 ©ASPECT Studios

Recent projects

Stephen Buckle：成都的“超线公园”项目是我们最近的项目之一，第一期的“城市灵感空间”在新冠疫情之前开始施工，并在疫情期间完成。它是2.4公里长的多层的商业空中公园的一部分。整个设计意在创造“渗透性”，即让周围社区可以从空间的一端穿行到另一端，同时打造东西走向、直达火车站的连接。

The Hyperlane project in Chengdu, is one of our more recent projects. The first phase of that is completed during COVID, but it started on site just before. It's part of 2.4 kilometer long multi-level sky park. The intention of the whole design is to create that permeability to allow the community to use the space from one side to the other, but also to create the connection east/ west down towards the train station.

▲  Hyperlane超线公园概念图 ©ASPECT Studios

我们设计的出发点是以人为本。

So the starting point for us was to look at the people.

基地本身特有的细小狭长的捷径和巷道是项目的亮点，墙上有很多涂鸦、喷绘等艺术表达，这些墙上艺术传达出了与众不同的声音。

The character of the way of expressing themselves and this tiny little narrow cutaway was a great way. There was graffities. There was spray paints. there was art, there was expressions. There was a voice that was coming through on these artworks that had been put on the wall and stuff.

▲  Hyperlane超线公园原貌 ©ASPECT Studios

客户对整个项目的要求是“以人为本”，这和我们的设计态度非常吻合。当一个商业项目提出这样不肤浅、不以商业利益为主的需求时，实在太让我们兴奋了！他们非常支持超线为周围社区创造的迷你室外空间，而且不过分纠结于红线范围、视线遮挡、公共区域范围、店面出售率等方面的事情。在中国工作十年之后可以和这样的客户合作，让我喜出望外，内心更是喊出“这样的业主和项目怎么才出现！”的话语。

超线这个项目里，通过对一个形态的变化，让它满足不同的功能需求。即使处于新开发的区域，在城市的街道尺度上，这个设计从人进入场地的那一刻起，就和场地创建了强烈的视觉连接。这样较小的空间里，人们可以在这谈天说地、做即兴艺术，举办展览、表演或者音乐会。我们希望利用社区本身的特质，创造一种独特的设计语汇，然后将它以不同的形式在每个空间内表现出来。

政府对这个项目的态度是非常积极的。他们不仅让我们主导了场地的设计，还鼓励我们去影响周围的道路规划，探寻如何以可持续的理念去考虑行人导向的环境，以及高铁站与大学的连接。整个超线有2.4公里，但我们创建了丰富的人行网络、舒适的步行空间，更加注重以人为中心、以行人为导向的环境。

The governments embracing the ideas of the project has been really positive. They've allowed us to influence not only the on-site design, but they are also encouraging us to influence the entire road network. Look at how we can create a more pedestrian orientated environment, considering sustainable transport ideas for the connection from the train station to the university. It's 2.4 kilometers, but creates cycle networks, walking networks and more people-orientated or human- and pedestrian-orientated environment.

Teanworking and collaboration in ASPECT

Stephen Buckle：ASPECT有超过220名员工，全球9个工作室。在这些工作室里，我们有极其丰富且多样化的设计技能和经验可以带到项目当中。

▲ ASPECT Studios上海工作室 ©ASPECT Studios

对我们来说，现在重要的是从这些知识中学习成长，并在内部分享这些知识。我们也会尝试开发知识库，这样可以巩固我们在设计方面的立场、想法、精神和原则。公司内部，我们也将知识库作为一个培训平台，每个人都可以从平台和项目中学习，所以本身这个事情就是一个活的项目。

Now the important thing for us is to gain from that knowledge and to share that knowledge internally. We also do that through the creation of knowledge packs, which are shared internally and externally. It really cements our position, ethos and principles on certain aspects of design. We share that internally as part of a training platform everybody can learn from. Combined with that is also LIVE-on projects. 

例如，上海工作室正在做的项目涉及到生态建筑（或者绿色幕墙），我们就会把有相关知识的同事组建成一个团队，包括墨尔本和悉尼参与过我们悉尼中央公园（涉及40层高绿色幕墙）的同事。我认为这是一个将我们团队国际视野、知识技能和设计经验高度融合的一种方式，并且结合项目当地文化和体验，两者相辅相成，共同为项目带来最佳的设计解决方案。

If we have a project that we're working on and we require a living architecture and green facade treatment on the project, we’ll pull together a team, including some guys in Melbourne and Sydney, who have worked on the One Central Park project, which is like a forty-stories high green facade project, and get them involved in the creative process. I think It's a balance of international knowledge, skills and experience, bringing the best and highest thought processes and intelligence through a project, combined with local knowledge and experience in culture. And two of those coming together.

Design focus

Stephen Buckle：我所有行业内的朋友都是建筑师，所以我要谨慎选择我的用词，哈哈。

All my friends are in the industry, they are all architects, so I’ll choose my words carefully.

当建筑师在思考一个高层建筑（通常是混合功能的），一般指三到六层的零售或商业和一些办公楼等。他们对建筑表面的设计考量，更多时候是从城市大尺度的立面、鸟瞰效果图的角度来理解整个氛围和比例关系。但是在这些宏大的思考和建筑落地之后，场地并没有考虑到人的尺度，比例是失衡的。无论建筑师说多少次建筑的表皮、立面、塔楼是多么地美，大部分人的生活仅仅只会接触到日常视线的范围，也就是建筑一到三层的范围。

When they're dealing with a large tower, which quite often mixed-use projects, you get three to six floors of retail, commercial and some towers and the towers are offices... The consideration that they're giving on the façade, at an urban scale of how that feels and the scale proportions of it, at a big city scale when they're doing their big elevation, their bird's eye view, their renders… After that big impact, they're not for the human scale consideration when that facade comes down hits the ground. Everything is disproportionate, it's not considered at a human scale. No matter how many times an architect will tell you how beautiful its facade is, elevation is, tower is… day to day people are operating at a human level. They are dealing with the peripheral of their view. They’re dealing with the first two to three floors of buildings.

▲ 南信控股青岛环球金融中心 ©ASPECT Studios

因此，我们常与建筑师合作，一起研究较低楼层的材料、开放性、透明性及通透性，让建筑巨型的姿态留在高空中，确保让它在接触地面时有一个人性化的尺度。 

So we'll work collaboratively with the architects on the materiality, the openness, the transparency of the permeability at those lower levels, and let the building, as a strong, overarching gesture coming from the sky stop, and allow it to have a human scale interface.

我们有一些项目非常大胆。因为从中可以看出客户对景观的重视，在建筑和景观部分投入了同样的精力，这对我们来说是件好事。景观设计并不总是遵循建筑的设计方向，或者是建筑的附属。其实景观需要有强有力的立场，尤其是当我们试图去打造一个品牌印象的时候。这里指的是，当人们进入场地后他是能够有记忆点和体验感的。

Some of our projects are very bold. We were put into them because the client is investing in the architecture and the landscape equally, That is a good position for us to come in. It’s not always our designs are following the direction of the architecture and not always are landscapes sympathetic to the architecture. We feel that landscapes need to stand strong on their own, particularly when we're trying to create a brand experience. It’s something people can bring a point to understanding and memory when they visited the project.

在我看来，人在设计里的体验才是最有意思的地方，因为在设计里体验才能对人们产生持久的影响。我喜欢和我所有的建筑师朋友一起工作！在理解了他们对场地、元素的思考过程后，景观设计师会带入不同角度的想法，摩擦创造出一种积极的能量。这是一种很好的能量，能激发一些很棒的项目。

There's the lasting impact that design can have on them and the experiences they have within it, which is the fun part that we bring to it. I love working with all my architect friends! Taking the thought process of how they might consider a site, the elements they are thinking about… our approach from a different angle to a landscape architect is that merger, which is friction, creates a good energy. With good energy, it can result in hopefully nice cool projects.

▲ 合肥睆投万科天下艺境 ©ASPECT Studios

About local culture and market

Stephen Buckle：我认为有种想法是非常粗鲁的：在进入一个不同文化后，自以为了解并大言不惭地教育当地人他们自己的文化。我可以从这个时代、一些与时俱进的角度来谈论这件关于人、空间和环境的话题。

I think it'd be very rude to come into a culture, think I understand it and then try to teach the local people about their own culture. And I can talk about things that are of our time and of forward-facing things that are about people, place, the environment. 

ASPECT在项目中会触及文化并试图以一种当代的方式表现它。这是一种“萃取”，也是引导设计的过程，而不是直接表现具象的事物。我认为这种过程对这个时代很重要，我们不应该单纯地复制过去的东西，而应该做这个时代的设计。ASPECT的项目展现的就是这个时代的作品，而不是反复地回顾过去、找寻已有的答案。我想强调的是，对于过去，我们可以回顾、学习、适应、提取、连接、尊重它，但同时也要关注未来。

We touch on culture in our projects, and we try to represent it, but in a contemporary way. It's an extraction. It's a guide during the design process. It's not literal. But I think that's important to be of our time. We shouldn't be replicating stuff of the past. We should be doing designs that of our time. I'm representing these years, not looking back to the past for all of our answers. we can look back and learn, adapt, morph and use in a way that allows us to have some connection to the past, respect to the past, but be forward focused.

▲ 上海传统弄堂 ©ASPECT Studios

我们在新天地做了一个项目，就在马当路上，周围有一个老社区。在景观设计部分，我们试图捕捉上海的传统街道氛围，并以现代的方式展现它。其中涉及的是尊重和反映过去的生活、传统材料、颜色等，并试图创造性地让它更具时代先进性。 

There are projects we’re doing one in Xintiandi, down the road to Madang Lu. It is within the existing community. The landscape there is trying to respond and reflect to traditional backstreets of Shanghai and to use that in a contemporary way. It's about respecting and reflecting the past, traditional materials, colors or even ideas and trying to reposition it in a creative way to be more forward thinking now.

▲ 上海旭辉The Roof - 南侧建筑剖面 ©ASPECT Studios

▲ 上海旭辉The Roof - Sky Garden ©ASPECT Studios

我们做过很多混合功能的商业项目。在高密度城市市区中，综合体商业开发的价值至关重要，政府也正往这类型项目进行资金倾斜。所以需要找到一个平衡，权衡好环境、城市地区的社会需求，同时考虑开发商的投资。我们就是这样通过项目去定位自己并同时在设计中权衡各方需求。

There's a lot of projects that we've done, where it's a mixed use commercial project. The value of mixed use commercial developments in tense urban areas is essential. The government are funding those types of projects. So you need to be at a balance both the environmental needs and the social needs of an urban area while capitalizing on the investment of the developer. That's kind of where we see ourselves, as coming in this.

▲ 上海旭辉The Roof - Living Architecture内庭院 ©ASPECT Studios

▲ 上海旭辉The Roof - Living Architecture临街 ©ASPECT Studios

我认为设计行业有一个非常明显的陷阱, 就是“所想即所见”——不受历史、环境或是文化主题、元素启发而设计。对于设计行业来说，落入这个陷进比想象中更容易。

I think there's a trap that the design industry has allowed itself to fall into, and that is, the literal representation, rather than being inspired or suggested or guided by a motif or an element, whether or not that's historical , environmental or cultural. It's quite easy for the design industry to turn that into a very literal representation. 

但这不仅仅在中国存在，全球其他地方也是一样。只有当我们和个别客户、合作方、建筑师合作时，才有机会建立一种能量场，并向好的方向发展。幸运的是，只要有一个项目让人们开始有不同的认知，那下个项目就会向前个项目好的方向学习、借鉴，这是一个发展和成长的过程。

But it is not just China, it’s happened globally. It's only when we get the opportunity to work with certain clients and collaborators and architects, where we can create an energy and goes in a certain direction. Often, one project will start to get people to think differently, and then the next we learn from it. This is the process in a development and the growth. 

▲ 上海旭辉The Roof – Sky Deck ©恒基旭辉

没有任何一个想法是完全独立的新思想，一切都是建立在过去的影响之上的，包括过去的视觉构成、传统的和非传统的事物。但是这个过程需要不断地累积才能形成力量，被客户和市场所接受，这就是为什么我们做的项目本身都要独一无二。我们从历史和文化中汲取灵感和反思，并将它置于未来环境中思考并定位。无论如何，我们都要尝试，虽然这也很挑战我的团队。我们要求每个项目都要有自己的故事，有自己的表达方式。

No idea is uniquely singular to itself as the new idea. Everything is a building upon past influences, past visual compositions, traditional and nontraditional. But it needs momentum and needs to be embraced by the people that are investing in it. So that's why everything that we try to do is at least stands unique to itself. We will draw inspiration and reflection of the past and culture. We will try to position it for the future. Above all, we try, and it kills my design team. Everything we strive to be unique. Each project has its own story to tell, has its own expression.

▲ 万科西九广场 ©ASPECT Studios

Landscape designer perspective view of technology today

Stephen Buckle：我们有一些项目也在关注技术的发展，但是这是一个有双面性的话题。首先，一些智慧城市的倡议是非常有意义的，他们很好地顺应和捕捉了具有前瞻性的、可持续的未来需求。虽然这有时会成为市场营销华而不实的漩涡，还可能会给项目价值带来损害。但是另一方面，我又认为有必要创造不需要依靠技术的体验和环境。

Yes, we got some projects that are looking at that and I think there's two factors. One, some of the smart city initiatives are great. Having a good way of really capturing a forward-focused, sustainable look into the future. Sometimes that gets wrapped up in a big marketing spin, which is kind of to the detriment of the value that they could bring to projects, the different systems and so on. But I do think at the same time saying that, there is a need to ‘un-smart cities’ to create experiences and environments that you don't have to rely on digital technology to exist.

谁都经历过当微信坏了不能登录时的绝望。因为这样我们无法付钱，无法去任何地方，无法登录滴滴……一切都崩溃了。对我来说，这很好地说明了对科技依赖的我们是多么地脆弱。

You know, I know the feeling of despair I get when my WeChat breaks and I can't log on, because I can't pay for anything, and I can't go anywhere and I can't get my Didi and everything falls apart. Now I think for me, that's just a great representation of how fragile our reliance on technology is. 

▲ 武汉金地中法仟佰汇 ©ASPECT Studios

回想一下我出生的年代，没有手机、没有数字技术，没有CAD，没有互联网。我的童年就是爬树，满身是泥，体验各种生活，比如在树林里走小路，在森林里用小树枝搭东西。那是我的童年，我小时候的经历对我今天的生活有很大的影响。所以，从我的青年时代到我的成长历程，到我所去过的地方、见过的事物，所有这些不同的经历造就了今天的我，现在的我。

Now, if you mirror that back to I was born in an era they weren't mobile phones. There wasn't this digital technology, there wasn't CAD, there wasn't the Internet. My youth was climbing trees, getting muddy and experiencing things like woodland trails and building stuff out of twigs in the forest. That was my childhood. That foundation of my youth is the influence on my life today. From the youth and growing up to the places I've been the things I've seen. All of these different experiences created this thing today, which is me. 

▲ 武汉金地中法仟佰汇 ©ASPECT Studios

对于大部分的年轻一辈，他们不会有我说的那样的经历，不会与野生动物和大自然有任何物理上或者情感上的接触和联系，他们甚至害怕虫子和昆虫。“环境”或“生态系统”这些词，对他们来说会意味着什么？生态系统是一个循环，涉及生物、太阳、大海、月亮、雨水系统、以及植物和野生动物，而我们又是野生动物的一部分。但是，如果我们不了解自然系统和它的重要性、不尽早向下一代传递这些观念，他们将如何应对全球更大的危机，包括环境危机和能源危机？

The generations of today that are being born, they won't have these experiences, they won't have this ability to be physically and emotionally in touch with wildlife and nature. They will be afraid of bugs and insects. What does that actually mean as an environment or an ecosystem that when we look at the word? So ecosystem is a cycle, is a system that involves both living things, breathing things, the sun, the sea, the moon, the rain systems, as well as the plants and the wildlife. We are part of the wildlife. Now our choices that we make, if we don't have an understanding of nature and natural systems and the importance of them, and we don't install that in our younger generations from an early age, how are they going to respond to the globe with a bigger crisis in the world, which is the environmental and the energy crisis?

▲ 合肥万科“城市之光”商业地块 ©ASPECT Studios

在我的作品和职业生涯中，关注的一直是景观里的人文和社会性。但在推动生物多样性和可持续发展的生态系统方面，这个行业中有一些了不起的“守护者”。比如AECOM的Lee Parks，简直就是“可持续设计和生态平衡之神”！我十分尊重这些人所做的工作，并努力使自己完成一些相同的目标。 

A lot of my work and career focus on the people side of landscape architecture and social side, but I think there is some amazing custodians in the industry that really drive home a lot of the biodiversity- and sustainability-driven ecosystem creating the landscapes. Just to name a few… Lee Parks in AECOM, a God of sustainable design and ecologically balanced solutions! I've got a lot of respect for the work that they do. It strives myself to achieve some.

ASPECT背后最关键的驱动力是“打造具有幸福感的空间”，并在其文化和环境需求中取得平衡。

The most critical driver behind ASPECT Studios is simply creating places where people want to be and balancing that with the environmental needs of the site of culture.

To young design generation 

Stephen Buckle：我认为比电脑技术、能力等硬技能更重要的是对设计由衷的欣赏和热爱，这并不容易。设计这个行业并不是一个只有美好的梦幻仙境、创造环绕城市的绿地和美好环境就够了的。实际上这是一项艰巨的工作，整个设计行业都是这样，不仅仅是景观设计。

S : I think there are more important things than skills, technology, abilities and modeling and doing all of the production, gives an appreciation of character. It's not easy. It's not like the dream environment where you come in, you have some nice beautiful ideas to create these tapestry of green, circles around the city and create a lovely environment. It's hard bloody work. It's across the whole design and it's not just landscape, but within the whole industry. 

▲ 工作室Workshop ©ASPECT Studios

如果你对设计没有热情，那就放弃吧。如果你不关心设计，对你的工作在环境和社会上可能造成的影响也没有激情的话，那放弃吧，去做点别的事情。因为你的时间会消耗得很不值得，你应该去做你喜欢并热爱的事情，否则你工作的最终也不会给别人带来任何价值。

If you're not passionate, give up. If you don't care, if you're not passionate about the work, the impact your work and can have on the environment or society, give up! Going to do something else. Because you are not worth your time. Go doing something that you'll enjoy your passionate about, because otherwise the end result of your work aren't going to bring any value to anybody else.

至于进入这个行业的理由，或者如果你思考过为什么会选择景观的话，其实可以归结为对设计的热爱和性格方面的原因。

It does come down to passion and characteristics, if you hold your reasoning for getting into the industry, or the thought process you've gone through to why do you choose landscape.

▲ 工作室Workshop ©ASPECT Studios

所以我希望，当学生们毕业之后，不把重点放在电脑技能上，而是放在自己的想法、自己的存在，以及为什么要从事这个行业的热情上，让它成为你的动力。努力加上永不放弃，你会成功的。 

So hopefully, when students are coming out they don't focus on technical skills. Focus on your own consciousness and in your own being and your own passion, for why you are in the industry and let that be your driver. Combine that with hard work and never giving up. And you will succeed.