Jun Wang is a landscape architect who believes a context-sensitive landscape design can bring beauty and meaning to places and communities. The Ye Lang Valley Design & Build summer studio, which has drawn national attention in China, enlightened his interest in bringing designs into reality and visualizing their positive impact on people’s lives. Throughout his education and professional career, he has been intrigued by the materiality and construction aspects of design and how landscape architecture can solve practical problems in cities in the face of climate change.
Before joining Asakura Robinson, Jun worked for Araiys Design where he assisted in project production and facilitated the advancement of residential and commercial projects. Jun received both his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. In his leisure time he likes participating in active sports such as basketball and biking.
Q&A
What project are you most proud of?
I am most proud of a summer design & build project that I participated in 2016, it’s called the Ye Lang Valley. The site was in the beautiful sculpture park of Gui Zhou, in China. It is a collaboration project between Chinese and American college students, led by Professor Daniel Winterbottom and Chinese sculpture artist Pei lun Song. In this project, we built an art plaza with tree houses, blockhouse, paths, and artistic sculpture for a tourist destination. Besides the social opportunities provided by the public space, the project has generated greater impact than we anticipated. Because of the collaborative and international natures of the project, it has gained local government’s support and national mass media coverage, attracting tourists across the country to the already magnificent sculpture park. It is a successful project that benefits the area both economically and socially. And it is a perfect example of what invested collaboration between government, artist and school can bring to the community.