刊首语

20年前，我曾花费当时几乎全部积蓄，买了一部品质和实用俱佳的相机，但不久就在报纸上看到一篇豆腐块大小的文章，说我们所用的胶片相机很快就会被淘汰，一种数字相机将取而代之，这种相机不使用胶片，拍摄也不需要花费任何额外的费用。刚买的相机就面临淘汰，真是令人难以接受。

那时，普通人根本不了解数字技术，计算机在风景园林中的应用也极其有限。1990年代中期以前，中国的风景园林师还延续着几十年不变的工作方式。他们借助胶片相机踏勘现场，由于胶卷和冲洗费用很贵，经常是反复斟酌才能按下相机快门。在工作室，大家趴在图板上，用丁字尺、三角板、针管笔、毛笔和各色颜料，绘图作画。

随后，极个别风景园林师先行一步，接触到电脑，并研究了一些绘图和设计软件。当他们向大家展示用Auto CAD画出的精准的二维图纸、Photoshop强大的图像处理能力、3D MAX建模及实景渲染、GIS分析，以及精美的打印成果时，绝大多数设计师都难以掩饰惊讶和羡慕之情，内心中更充满了学习这些技术的渴望。那时，能借助电脑进行绘图，特别是能建模的设计师，俨然都成了大师。

但很快，计算机在风景园林中迅速普及开来。今天，刚入行的设计师根本无法想象以前的工作方式，因为在风景园林中使用计算机已是习以为常。从信息的采集、分析、处理，到设计、模型、图纸表达、数据传输、远程设计、资源共享、设计交流、汇报与研讨，再到施工控制与管理，任何环节都离不开计算机。短短20年，表面上看，数字技术彻底改变了风景园林师的绘图工具和工作方式，提高了风景园林师的工作效率和设计精度，降低了设计成本，但从深层上看，数字技术带来的是一场设计革命，它改变了风景园林师的设计思维。数字化设计和数字化建造带来了人类数千年建造史上从来没有的结构、形态、语言和工艺。可以说，数字化给我们带来了全新的视觉世界，也带来了全新的生活方式。

今天的风景园林师的设计思维和工作方式是很多人在20年前无法想象的，那么20年后的风景园林又将怎样？或许，设计只是一个数据库，没有蓝图，也无需施工队，整个工程都将用三维打印机在现场打印出来。或许，借助数字地球就能科学、直观、动态地模拟任何规划对于整个地球生态系统的影响……

数字技术的不断发展为风景园林带来无限可能。但我确信，无论何时，风景园林师用眼睛去观察世界、用心灵与土地沟通的方法永远也不会改变。那些使用了几百上千年的思考和推敲设计的方法如徒手草图和实体模型，也并不会就此退出历史舞台。好的设计师，绝不在于他掌握了怎样的技术，更在于他有怎样的头脑。

PREFACE

20 years ago, while I spent most of my savings to buy a practical camera of high quality, I was soon acquainted by a piece of news from a newspaper that the film cameras we used would in no time be replaced by digital cameras which is film-free and with no extra shooting costs. It was sulky to find out that my new camera would be soon eliminated.

Back then, digital technology was stranger to ordinary people, and computers were barely applied in Landscape Architecture. Before the mid 1990s, China's landscape architects were still working in an ancient style. They used film cameras to investigate sites, which was expensive because hundreds of thousands photos will be taken and developed; in the studio, they buried themselves in drawing boards using traditional tools such as T-square, set square, needle pen, writing brush and pigments to draw and map.

Later on, some landscape architects took the first step to engage with computers and developed some sort of drawing and designing software. When they demonstrated the accurate 2d drawings made by Auto CAD, the image processing capabilities of Photoshop, 3D MAX modeling and live-scenery rendering, GIS analysis and exquisite printings, most designers were shocked and admiring, hungering for learning those technologies. It was in an age where any designer who was able to use computer-aided drawing, especially those who can model with software, was regarded as "master".

It didn't take long for computers to popularize in Landscape Architecture. Today, fresh designers have been used to computers and could not even image how the old fashion working pattern was like. Every single design step, from information collecting, analyzing and processing, to designing, modeling, drawing expression,data transmission, remote design, resource sharing, design exchanging, reporting and researching, and construction control and management, is tied up to computers. In just 20 years, digital technology has turned around landscape architects' working pattern and tools, increasing their working efficiency and design accuracy while reducing the design cost. From a deeper point of view, it is an ideological revolution that digital technology has caused among landscape architects. Digital design and digital construction have brought structure, form,language and craft that were unprecedented in thousands of years of human's construction history. So to speak,digitization has created a brand-new visual world and life style to us.

Today, landscape architects' design thinking and working pattern is unimaginable from 20 years ago. So what will Landscape Architecture be like 20 years later? Maybe design will become just a data base. Maybe there will be no blueprints or construction teams, and the whole construction can be "printed" out on site by a 3D printer. Perhaps, with "digital earth's" help, people can simulate any planning's effects on the whole planet's ecosystem scientifically, directly and dynamically…

Infinite possibilities have come with digital technology's continuous development to Landscape Architecture. However, I am convinced that no matter when, the way the landscape architects observe the world with their own eyes, and the method they use to communicate with lands with their hearts, will remain unchanged. Those traditional design thinking and methods such as free-hand drafting and mocking up which was used thousands of years will, as well, continue to stay on the stage of history. A good design is not what technologies he uses, but more how he thinks and sees.