South Gate Garden by North West Landscape Studio and ATA Architects & Planners, has been shortlisted in the 2019 WAF, Landscape Urban Category. This year’s 534 shortlists in 33 categories includes projects from 70 countries.  All shortlisted architects will go on to compete at the festival in Amsterdam in December.

The design work were performed by a volunteer team consisting of professional landscape architects, both faculty members and graduate students from the Department of Landscape Architecture. They were fully engaged in the project, working within an extremely stringent construction budget.

Please check South Gate Garden for more information.

On November 24th, the 2018 Traveling Fellowship Award Ceremony was held at Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhang, China.  The topic of this year is The Changing and Evolvement of Hometown.  Students were encouraged to return to their family’s hometowns, documenting the stories of their parents and grandparents, reviewing and investigating the changes of physical environment associated with urbanization and industrialization.

13 students gave presentations on their travel reports, and received comprehensive critiques from reviewers consisting of professors and practitioners.

Guest Reviewers of this year

ATA: Mei Sheng

AECOM: Qindong Liang

Xi ' an University of Architecture and technology: Hui Liu, Ludi Dong, Yi Wu

Peking University: Dihua Li, Lu Lu

Huazhong Agricultural University: Yan Du, Renqiang Qin, Haiyan Xia

Hunan Agricultural University: Chen Zhou

Aoya: Haipe Tang

On May 8th, 2018, the office of Northwest LA Studio office was officially opened in Xi An, China.

The Northwest LA Studio was founded in 2014 by Dr. Hui Liu, leader of Landscape Architecture Department of Xi\`an University of Architecture and Technology (XAUAT), and Ms. Mei Sheng, Principal of ATA Architects & Planners.  Being a research-based design office, the Studio is supported by Northwest Landscape Institute in XAUAT, and ATA, the professional design firm.  Since then, the Studio has been working on eight projects Xi An and its surrounding areas.

The Studio is to bridge the gap between research and practice by establishing a collaborative team of designers, professors, graduate assistants, doctoral students and researchers.  Research findings are applied and tested in projects, and professional standards and careful management are ensured in each project.

Our Mission: Design for the Northwest of China.

Our ideas and approaches are deeply rooted from local culture, tradition and vernacular landscape.  We focus on the quality of design and the sustainability of the environment, and provide professional training and opportunities to young graduates and practitioners.

Key Project Types

• Culture and history sensitive landscape construction and restoration
• Ecological system planning and design in arid and semi-arid areas
• Low Impact Developments and Green Urban System in Northwestern China.

At the night of the opening, the studio founders, office members and graduate students shared their experiences of professional growth.  Joy and excitements mixed with wine, cake, and candle lights.  The challenges and difficulties became stepping stones to future success.

Northwest Studio WeChat Account Code.

On December 3, 2017, the Award Ceremony of ATA Traveling Fellowship was held at Xi‘an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi An, China.  10 students from three universities gave presentations of their travel experiences and shared their stories in the summer.

Please click Here for the full list of 2017’s Traveling Fellowship Recipients.

This project is part of Xixi Residential Development in Hangzhou. The goal of this project is to create a contemporary living environment that reflects local culture and lifestyle.  Starting from 2008, the design and construction were phased and implemented in the next five years.  ATA was responsible for the schematic design of the overall project and construction documents for five major areas, Sui Garden, Jin Garden, Lu Garden, Clubhouse and Public Green Spaces of this development.  Jin Garden is the outdoor common space of the high-rise condominium.

Please click here for more project information.

We haved moved!

ATA Beijing new address:  85 Tonglinge Road, 2nd Floor, Xicheng Qu, Beijing, China 100031

Chinese Landscape Architecture Magazine published the article in the 2nd Issue of 2017:

Design with Life—Issues and Solutions on Multi-family Residential Landscape Design.

Author: Mei Sheng

With the progress of urbanization in China, a large number of residential communities had been developed over the last two decades, and deeply influenced the profession of landscape architecture in this country. With the coming of tremendous opportunities, problems also raised from fast developments. The following issues can be found in many places: overstressing the short term visual effects in design, and overlooking the demands from residences and users. They do not only turn the landscape design into a quick solution that has limited sustainability over time, but also make negative impacts on the environment and community life for the future. With this in mind, this article discusses the above issues, and provides two multi-family design case studies on how to make the landscape grow and interact with time, nature and human activities.

Check ATA's Blog for more information of this publication in Chinese.

Mr. Juan P. Caceres, ATA’s Senior Landscape Architect and Principal of Santiago Office, lately takes a new responsibility as the vice-president of International Federation of Landscape Architects, Chilean Chapter (ICHAP-IFLA).  He is going to achieve three main goals in his term: (1) to get access to ICHAP resources in terms of visibility. He had signed an open letter addressed to the Santiago governor and other authorities to underscore the value of public spaces as an asset pointing out the risks involved by recent projects on public transportation; (2) to access a broader connection network internationally, and (3) to improve the quality of landscape architects’ work conditions in Chile.

Over the last 20 years, Mr. Caceres has worked on different types of projects in the United States and Chile. Since 2011, he has been actively involved in projects in China as chief designer, and tutoring and training young professionals in ATA Beijing office.

The mission of International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) is to promote the landscape architecture profession within a collaborative partnership of the allied built-environment professions, demanding the highest standards of education, training, research and professional practice, and providing leadership and stewardship in all matters.

More Sources: http://iflaonline.org/

The two projects, Xiyuan Residential Master Plan and the Landscape Design for Sui Yuan, Xixi Village were both nominated as finalists for the 2014 Real Estate Design, China Awards.  73 finalists were selected from 284 submissions in 20 different categories through a public polling, and 21 professional jurors.  A final presentation will be held on March 29th, 2015 in Shanghai where the winners will be selected.

Xiyuan Residential Design

Xixi Village Landscape Design

ATA 2014 Xmas Party & Chamber Music Concert was held in the Chapter Restaurant, Conrad Hotel, Beijing.  To celebrate our 10th Christmas Party in Beijing, we invited the Sunshine String Quartet to perform selected music of Bach, Mozart, and Joe Hisaishi.  Our guests and staff of Beijing office spent a joyful night together.