2022 Landscape Architecture Thesis Prize: Liwei Shen’s “The Echoes of Sky River – Two Pre-modern and Modern Atmospheric Assemblages”

by Liwei Shen (MLA I ’22) — Recipient of the Landscape Architecture Thesis Prize.

The sky river in northwestern China, a weather-modification system currently under construction, builds a link between distant places geographically, culturally, and temporarily, indicating a single, interconnected atmospheric environment. This thesis discovers the formal and functional similarity between pre-modern landscapes for the weather and modern weather modification technologies in two sites with different cultural expressions. It proposes that the role of landscape architecture is to use hybrid spatial coexistence for cultural conservation and territorial connection to evoke a distant empathy and construct a techno-cultural alliance.

The thesis seeks to bridge the gap between two distinct landscape discourses: the scientific reaction to climate change globally, and the cultural sense of weather locally. It sees the role of the landscape architect extending to both extremes of scale: While exploring the dynamics of the atmosphere and extending the territory of hydrology, it simultaneously consolidates faith-based, productive, and technological alliances of interest in the community and residential scales to enable Indigenous and vulnerable communities to develop resilience in response to climate change.

map of the world showing the global sky river in shades of blue, purple and turquoise — Global Sky river, sky watersheds and white water resources. Data source from: Guangqian Wang Team, Tsinghua University.

graphic showing a series of purple forms of different shapes — Four applied weather manipulation techniques in China.

115 copy — Applied weather manipulation techniques in China.

graph with cloud-like visualization in background — Smoke Stove

Graph diagram acoustic effect. — Acoustic Agglomeration

blue, turquoise, purple and pink abstract map — The technological and religious activity’s influence on precipitation in North China and Northwest China.

map highlighting certain features in purple, dark blue and lighth green — The proposed weather modification and water quality supervision infrastructure, integrating pre-modern landscape for weather in Yugur nomadic region.

visualization of geometric white clouds on dark purple background — The proposed cloud landscape in Yugur nomadic region.

map with white forms in center surrounded byh light and dark blue color — The proposed weather modification and water quality supervision infrastructure, integrating pre-modern landscape for weather in Yaoshan agricultural region.

aerial view of green and blue landscape — The proposed weather modification and water quality supervision infrastructure, integrating pre-modern landscape for weather in Yugur nomadic region.

visualization of white vehicle with satellite-looking form at top; background of aerial map with green turquoise and purple forms — The proposed weather modification and water quality supervision infrastructure in Yaoshan agricultural region.

dark purple abstract visualization with white cloud-like form at top of image — The proposed cloud landscape in Yaoshan agricultural region.

visualization of green mountain side with grey stone pathways and big columns of smoke in the background — The cloud landscape in the Yugur transitional festival.

collage of four graphics showing blue curved forms — The cloud landscape in the Yaoshan rain praying ritual.

Section drawing. — The proposed cloud landscape section in Yugur Nomadic Region.

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