SONGMING Garden

Songming Garden is located in Jiading, Shanghai, on a site of approximately 3.5 mu.

The owner’s original intention was to create a garden devoted solely to the enjoyment of tea.

The design concept of “Songming Garden” draws its inspiration from the Orchid Pavilion Gathering. Wang Xizhi’s “Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion” depicts a millennium-old springtime festival held beside flowing water—a celebration of landscape beauty and convivial joy through which he meditated on the impermanence of life.

The design does not merely seek to provide a place for tea drinking; rather, it aspires to fashion a literati retreat where emotions are entrusted to mountains and waters. The entire layout unfolds along a single watercourse. A clear stream—now swift, now gentle—becomes both the secret realm for unburdening one’s thoughts and a natural barrier separating the garden from its surroundings. Public green space to the west is screened off by the water, while all outdoor activities within the main garden area are arranged along its banks. Tea pavilions settle lightly at the water’s edge, disposed in an unhurried, meandering manner.

House and water, water and person—mountains are shaped, trees are nurtured; dense woods and tall bamboos are cultivated. Space is not defined by courtyard walls; instead, one finds oneself already within forest and spring, seated beside the winding stream where the wine cups once floated.

The appearance of this garden is not confined to the traditional ideal of “deep courtyards”; it must also reflect upon its role in the contemporary world.