On the creating of integrative water-sound-light landscape in Jiangnan gardens

People's growing needs for comfort and variety of public environments demand more cityscape designs of waterscapes, soundscapes and lightscapes in public spaces. The traditional landscape design of Jiangnan Gardens use water as its heart, combining sound and light to create the whole space theme, and the distribution and movements of the water, the sound, the light present the flowing of the space dimensions and merge the trinity together, structuring the interaction among physical space, visual images and psychological expressions. Landscape combining water, sound and light can penetrate people and through seeing and hearing, conveying and sensing, they perceive the space and picture an idyllic mental state. Our study selected typical Jiangnan Garden landscape cases through literatures reviews and field surveys to discuss the important role of water features in Jiangnan Gardens, and presented concepts and methods of creating integrative water-sound-light landscape, aiming to enlight garden design research and providing theoretical advices for urban public space designing in the future.