Peter Thomas Bowyer
Designer, Builder, Aesthetic Pruner - A Gardener For All Seasons
California Landscape Contractor 712862
The Oakland Garden is a
regional landscape. It shows who we are, what we have been and future
possibilities. It features the things that tie diverse individuals together: the
natural and built environment where we live, work, and play; our city's history
and ecology; and the influence of Japanese immigration and cultural exchange.
The garden reveals many similarities between Oakland and Fukuoka, as well as
some differences between the two cultures.
In the recreation of a far away landscape, and its compression into a
small, enclosed garden, this design borrowed from centuries of "fuzei"
landscaping in Japan.
The garden design also
expresses the concept of native-to-site ecological restoration by using
Japanese analogs of the plants native to Oakland. The state of
California has many unique kinds of vegetation and native gardens are an
important style in Oakland
The hill & pond garden
style shows the fundamental geographic similarity of the two cities.
Each port city lies between a range of hills and a bay. Each is the
gateway into the rich interior farmland, and out to the world beyond.
In the garden tradition of
countries dominated by Christianity, the natural and built environment are
often seen as incompatible. This garden takes inspiration from
"in" and "yo" (yin & yang) balancing the modern industrial port and
Oakland Bay-Bridge with the water, land and plants to celebrate what should be
regarded as a paradise on earth.
The
Oakland Garden's choice of strong natural and build elements poses this
question:
If a modern eco-topia is possible anywhere, might that be here?
Approaching the garden, a panel shows photos of Oakland people and places.
Then you cross over the pond,
representing San Francisco Bay-estuary, on a small model of the new Oakland
span of the Bay Bridge.
The port of is on the
right. It represents the economy of Oakland. Here, a swing hangs
from a five meter tall cargo loading crane. On the colorful playground
surface, a container truck is pictured pulling under the crane. This
modern, industrial dock has Japanese garden precedents dating back to the Heian-era
boating garden.
At the north end of the
pond, marsh plants create a sinuous shoreline, enlarging the apparent
size of the water. To the south, a peninsular marsh directs your
attention back into the center of the garden, while also enlarging the apparent
extent of the water through use of the 3-depths principle (from landscape
painting).
Three Oak trees represent the historic Oak-woodland that gave Oakland its
name. At the time of it's founding, people lived among these trees.
Oakland was regarded as a biblical garden of paradise compared to the
urban industrial city of San Francisco across the bay.
There’s a cultural simile with the popularity of western paradise
gardens in medieval Japan.
The shelter is built in
the First-Bay/Craftsman architectural style popularized in the
Oakland-Berkeley area. This style borrowed a lot from Japanese
architecture, including the ornamental use of timber framing, rafters and roof
profile. The roof's rough planks recall nearby Fort Ross, the first wooden
structure in California grown graceful with age. The Convex-concave rhythm
of boards is similar to tile roofs in Japan.
On the hills at the east end of the garden grow Oakland's Coast Redwood forest. From the garden entry, the far-grove tree arrangement (which includes the Oaks) creates a forced perspective, rendering the illusion of greater width & depth. Two big Redwoods represent the historical "Navigation Trees". Sailors used these to avoid shipwreck on the submerged Blossom Rock in the San Francisco bay.
Exiting over the bridge,
you pass through a gallery field of murals that show views towards
San Francisco, the Golden Gate and Mount Tamalpais--the same spectacular
borrowed scenery that residents of Oakland enjoy. In time the same hedges that
enclose the entire garden will grow around the murals, hiding unwanted views and revealing the distant scenery. The murals
will become like windows.
In the recreation of a distant landscape ("fuzei"), the arrangement of many features around a pond ("kaiyu"), the hill & pond topography ("chisen kaiyu shiki"), the shared architecture, the bonsai far-grove tree arrangement, the painterly use of three depths, the hide & reveal ("miegakure"), the use of distant scenery, and the integration of humanity and nature, the garden relies on principles of Japanese design to recreate the essence of Oakland. This honors the influence of Japanese immigration and cultural exchange.