mel chin

ULSAN ECO Park


Topography and Calligraphic Organs of ULSAN ECO Park (Korea)
1996
photo-copy document, ink on Asian paper
25 3/8 x 24 3/8 inches


Park as Five Element Body
1996
graphite, marker, and ink on layered canary tracing paper
48 x 21 inches

In Topography and Calligraphic Organs of ULSAN ECO Park (Korea) and Park as Five Element Body, Confucian philosophic interpretations of five-element theory are applied to landscape design. Five-element theory is a system of Chinese holistic thought, which includes medicine. Organs of the body are in constant interaction and are represented as fire, earth, metal, water, and wood, in cycles of creation and destruction. Chin postulates a non-western ecological park as an entity with functioning organs and users as the circulating energy (chi) of the landscape. The drawings were presented as concepts for an ULSAN ECO Park design group in South Korea in 1996.