A short landscape architecture report that summarizes the characteristics of Korean traditional landscape design and explores how those characteristics might be adopted in today's landscape architecture and building design. The introduction begins by defining landscape architecture as the art of planning, designing, constructing and managing land by applying knowledge from the humanities and sciences to create beautiful and healthy environments.

It also notes that landscape culture is a distinctive record of its time and place and an expression of a nation's culture as a whole, so each country has its own style. From this perspective, the report rests on the view that traditional landscape design is not simply a matter of preserving old gardens but a cultural asset that can carry over into environmental design today. The first chapter of the body identifies the most distinctive trait of Korean gardens as an attitude of respecting the beautiful natural environment, avoiding artificiality as far as possible, and composing the garden to fit in with nature.

Its explanation that even walls were not forced to be straight or level but were stepped up and down to follow the lie of the land and the shape of the mountains shows well the principle of enjoying nature's beauty as it is. Along with the interpretation that this attitude stems from a sensibility shaped by living close to nature and adapting to its order, it also summarizes the preference for natural-looking trees, the development of rear gardens (huwon) behind buildings rather than in front, and the fact that the center of the yard was always left as an empty space called the madang.

Through these features, the paper shows that Korean traditional landscape design found beauty in leaving space empty and taking away rather than filling it. The second chapter presents three ways of adopting the tradition today: imitating traditional styles while using modern materials and techniques, adapting traditional styles to suit the present, and grasping the principles of spatial composition in traditional landscape design and applying them to today's architecture.

In particular, it argues that the traditional principle of seeking harmony with nature and the surrounding landscape can be actively used in gardens built with eco-friendly techniques, for example when creating streamside spaces attached to buildings. The conclusion stresses again that traditional landscape design adapts to nature without damaging it, and states that modern adoption should be sought with a focus on harmony with the surroundings and nature-friendly techniques.

I am very interested in hanok spaces and often visit hanok villages, and when I walk their alleys I am always struck by the way the walls, the madang and the back garden lead from one to the next. First-time visitors often expect lavish flower beds or neatly trimmed trees and are puzzled to find an empty madang and walls winding along the slope. Each time, I think that precisely because the madang was empty it could host feasts, dry grain and let sunlight and wind in, and reading the passage in this report that describes the madang as a space of emptiness gave that thought solid support.

The sentence about walls rising and falling with the lie of the land also captures the essence so well that I wanted to remember it. Watching visitors walk around the empty madang taking photos, I feel that the space conveys the meaning of emptiness before any explanation does. This material is rather short, however, so if you use it for an assignment I recommend adding real examples. If you visit the rear garden of a nearby palace or an old garden yourself and show, with floor plans and photos, where and how the characteristics described in the text appear, the short paper will become a much richer report.

In the chapter on modern adoption, too, linking each of the three methods to an actual park or building that draws on traditional landscape principles will make the argument more convincing. Looking up the studies listed in the references and summarizing their key concepts in your own words would also be a good place to start.