Built by Mao Ze Dong for political rallies during the Cultural Revolution, Tiananmen Square became infamous after deadly force was unleashed on student protesters in 1989. It has been left unchanged structurally ever since. Recently one of China?EUR??,,????'???s top young architects has proposed a new plan to transform the square. Ma Yansong, an award-winning urban planner, aims to convert the area from a concrete square into a lush green park and forest. Ma believes that the conversion marks a green makeover from the grey concrete symbol of China?EUR??,,????'???s red politics. He also holds that the conversion will heighten awareness about the environment.

Landscape architecture is a new but flourishing field in China. Yu Kongjian, a professor of landscape architecture at Peking University, argues that China’s current approach to urban development, with its emphasis on size and status over originality, is as environmentally reckless as it is visually dull. With farmland and forests disappearing and water running out, Yu told Time magazine last year, cities can’t afford be so wasteful. “China needs a dramatic shift. We’ve misunderstood what it means to be developed. We need to develop a new system, a new vernacular, to express the changing relationship between land and people.

“Landscape architects can’t just be garden artists,” says Yu. So, in 1998, he founded Turenscape, China’s first private landscape-design firm, and set about finding places like the city of Zhongshan, where officials were willing to try something different.

The Guardian of London lists features of Ma?EUR??,,????'???s Tiananmen plan to include ?EUR??,,????'??the vast expanse of paving slabs outside the Forbidden City replaced by trees and grass, lush thickets around the mausoleum containing Mao Zedong?EUR??,,????'???s embalmed body and a verdant entrance to the Great Hall of the People.?EUR??,,????'?? Not aiming to be political or to criticize, Ma?EUR??,,????'???s aim is to bring people to something that can be enjoyed. He describes that ?EUR??,,????'??[Today] Tiananmen is ?EUR??,,????'??? the physical center [of Beijing] but not the real center. No Beijing people go there. The question we posed ourselves was how to make the area more enjoyable if we no longer need it for tanks??EUR??,,????'?? He also believes that the area does not need to be considered sancrosanct, as some would believe. ?EUR??,,????'??Copying Red Square in Moscow, it was originally designed for military parades and giant public rallies. But this function is outdated.?EUR??,,????'??

Ma?EUR??,,????'???s plan, however, is too controversial for some authorities. The mainland Chinese media have been told not to publish images of his green model. Ma himself admits that the idea of turning the plaza into a park makes many people uncomfortable due its painful history. Zhang Lizin, a director at the Beijing urban planning bureau, commented that ?EUR??,,????'??This isn?EUR??,,????'???t just an architectural design problem. We also use this space for national events. In the long term, I think Tiananmen Square will keep its original function.?EUR??,,????'??

As Beijing has become a showroom for the world?EUR??,,????'???s leading architects, the ?EUR??,,????'??green?EUR??,,????'?? trend has not played a large part in the model of Beijing at the Urban Planning Exhibition Center; rather, it is dominated by the color grey. As urban sprawl continues, most of the city?EUR??,,????'???s green belt has been consumed by development. Today, only a few patches of green farmland and forestry remain. Ma argues that a green Tiananmen could symbolize changing priorities. ?EUR??,,????'??I read that Beijing has 2.8 percent of green space, including the lakes. It was much better in the past. It is very bad now.?EUR??,,????'??

Sources: The Guardian (London), Time magazine