n recent years, more and more young Chinese landscape architecture studios have emerged on the international stage, including Z+T Studio, Lab D+H and Atelier Scale. The emergence of these designers reflects the rising status of landscape architecture in China’s rapid urbanization. While independent small design firms are common worldwide, they are a new phenomenon in the Chinese context. This lag owes much to the People’s Republic of China’s design institutes, which first emerged in the early 1960s. Borrowed from the Soviet Union, this model was conceived to carry out large-scale, state-directed tasks in an organized and efficient manner. The individual identity of designers did not exist within this work structure. For students in
