Simplicity & Complexitiy (1)

“探索自然的复杂性与统一性，简单和复杂之间的转换和平衡，单一元素在外界条件改变下的无穷变化和可能性，以及复杂要素之间单纯的逻辑关系。”张唐景观 理念 www.ztsla.com

My first design studio in U-Mass gave me really a hard time. My professor, a rigorous old gentleman, told me ‘Chinese tend to make things complex and difficult’. I knew what he wanted to say about my design and knew he was right. But when I talked to my other classmates, I used chopstick as an example to demonstrate how Chinese tend to make things simple and easy. Although they nodded through out our conversation, I knew they were not convinced. No America thinks chopstick is simple and easy.

I would not use Chinese classic garden as an example to talk about this issue. To me, at that time, there is nothing simple and easy about it. Since I studied landscape, I never thought about simplicity and complexitiy, and always believed that simple means boring and complex means rich. Actually, I had been proud of myself that I can make some super complicated stuff.

In another studio, when professor Cardasis kept talking about simplicity, I asked him why he was so into simplicity and ignored complexitiy. He said ‘simplicity is something you will never achieve and complexitiy is something you will never avoid’. Due to the hard time in this two design studios, I started to realize that there is a huge difference between simple and boring, between complex and rich.

Before I really pursued simplicity in my design, Ziying and I spent a lot of time to discuss this issue. We went to Dia Beacon Museum, a museum for Dia Art Foundation's renowned collection of minimalist art from the 1960s, to see the root of minimalism design.

I was completely overwhelmed.