Cicada Landscape Architects

In the context of the monotony of the modern Asian city, it might be suggested that landscape design represents a unique opportunity to provide an escape from a depressing reality. 

Cicada Landscape Architects ­– acknowledged as one of Asia’s most influential landscape architects – have pioneered the transition of Asian landscape design from a purely decorative post-colonial backdrop to a much-needed response to the 21st century. 

Cicada’s Singapore projects were acclaimed as the prototypes for a new approach in a rapidly urbanising environment, and their work quickly became the benchmark for landscape design throughout Asia. 

Many of their most notable designs have been realised in China... in the sprawling megacities of Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou and Chongqing. Cicada set about restoring traditional Chinese sensibility to a culture that had been torn apart in the 20th century, whilst implementing the theories and processes of modern landscape architecture to create a contemporary Chinese landscape. 

“Landscape is meaningless without people participating in it. The role of a landscape architect in the city is to reach out to another human being, to reveal the processes of nature and ecology. The connection must be engaging… poetic and personal.” 

This monograph is presented in a panoramic landscape format. It features every significant Cicada project to date, including such seminal designs as Xintiandi in Shanghai, the Singapore Management University, Alila Villas Uluwatu, the Riverside Garden in Shanghai, Sanya InterContinental, and the Bamboo Garden in Nanjing.

Written and photographed by Patrick Bingham-Hall

Dimensions: 220 x 270mm (Landscape) Hardback with slipcover

Extent: 200pp

Date of publication: 2014

ISBN: 978-981-4428-02-6