Six Friends Garden • Cornell Plantations • Ithaca NY
The Six Friends Garden is a proposal for a contemporary garden to be built at the Cornell Plantations based on
the traditional designs and cultures of East Asia, including China, Japan, and Korea. Within the garden are
six interconnected areas each of which features an identifying element. In East Asian literature and gardening culture,
each of those elements — the Six Friends referred to in the name of the garden — represents an
aspect of the human experience and a virtue to be aspired to.
Pine trees hold tenaciously onto rocky sea coasts and mountain ridges,
and so symbolize the qualities of perseverance and longevity.
Willow trees have flowing branches that suggest gracefulness, and bright-green
spring buds which embody new life and the process of regeneration.
Stones, which are featured in East Asian gardens as symbols of mountains,
represent the wonder and awe we feel toward the natural world.
Bamboo, which sends up many new shoots in spring that grow to their full
height in a few weeks time, has come to represent vigor and vitality.
Lotus plants grow in muddy ponds but lift their exquisite flowers and leaves high above the water
and so have become symbolic of purity and spiritual growth.
Japanese maples, with their obvious progression through the seasons,
have come to represent the essential, natural process of change.
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A SHORT ANIMATED FLY-THROUGH
OF THE PROPOSED SIX FRIENDS GARDEN
Sketchup model by Marc Peter Keane
Video production/editing by Kai Keane
Shakuhachi accompaniment by Keido (Preston Houser) http://keidokyoto.wordpress.com/
PINE COURT
The Pine Court acts as the formal entry to the garden and as a space for gatherings and events. It is surrounded
by a high wall that is covered with darkened wood on the outside and red Japanese plaster
on the inner surface. A slightly bowed bridge marks the transition to the next courtyard.
WILLOW COURT
The Willow Court is an intimate area that allows people to pause, reflect
and anticipate what is to come next in the garden. The courtyard is defined by a
curved brushwood fence made of long bundles of twigs collected in the forest.
STONE WAVE
The Stone wave respresents the flowing motion of the landscape that we normally do not perceive
because it is happening so slowly. This is a contemporary take on the practice of using stones to
represent wild nature that is a common theme in East Asian gardens. The ramed earth wall behind the
Stone Wave will be a painting of a landscape built in layers of soil.
BAMBOO GROVES
Groves of slender bamboo frame the Stone Wave and the teahouse, which also uses bamboo in its
basket-like walls. The teahouse is designed as a contemporary expression of East Asian wooden architecture in
which the revealed structure of the building is its beauty. The building acts as an arbor from which
to view the garden, and a teahouse to enjoy the various forms of East Asian tea.
TEAHOUSE
The teahouse can be used for the enjoyment of both Chinese (L) and Japanese (R) tea gatherings.
LOTUS COURT
The entry to the Lotus Court is a narrow doorway that leads into the quiet courtyard and the sound of water harps.
A group of lotus plants grows from a pool of still water in the center of the courtyard. Hidden beneath the
river pebbles that surround the pool, ceramic vessels echo with the sound of falling water,
creating the harp-like sound that softly reverberates in the space.
MAPLE WALK
The Maple Walk is a quiet path through a grove of Japanese maples with boulder seats from which
one can view the knoll and the collection of azaleas that grow there. This technique of incorporating
an adjoining or distant landscape into a garden — as an integral part
of the garden's design —
has many expressions in East Asian gardens.
