When
I realized that in most cases, landscape architecture is so much limited and
constrained by building architecture, I was very disappointed with the local
landscape industry.
Be
it residential, commercial or industrial landscape, we were merely given the
left over spaces to do planting infill, primarily to comply with authority’s requirements. Tied with extremely limited budget, there is
hardly any design exercise.
The
most promising one could be the resorts and golf courses landscape, however international
resort chains and golf courses usually opt for international landscape
consultants, for that could be their selling point.
You
might be thinking that at least there are some highway and road side planting,
or open spaces and public parks at our disposal. Besides that the chances are getting rare,
our third class maintenance culture is indirectly limiting the planting design
at these areas. Cutting grass is already
a burden to the authorities, what more to maintain the ornamental plants?
When
the global architecture is talking about sustainability, aiming at achieving
low energy or zero carbon architecture, the local landscape industry is keen at
planting foreign high maintenance plants, imported from as far as
Australia. Green wall is never the
choice for our maintenance culture, not to mention that we just could not
afford to maintain such expensive wall.
