Yu Wei, chief landscape engineer of the Zhejiang Urban and Rural Planning and Design Institute and a designer with the Design Consortium for the 15th China International Garden Expo.

The 15th China International Garden Expo is the World Expo of the horticulture industry and she will, through distinctive Eastern aesthetics, tell the story of China’s ecological civilization. This is no ordinary garden — it is a green narrative co-authored by the landscape itself and Wenzhou municipal administration, a story about letting the landscape speak, embedding culture in the earth, and giving ancient trees a new life. 

 ◎ World Horticulture, Wenzhou Ensemble

This Garden Expo brings together the world’s finest horticultural art. It is made possible by the unique DNA of Wenzhou: we sent a global invitation to 800,000 overseas Chinese compatriots reaching over 200 chambers of commerce, ultimately creating a magnificent spectacle of 11 international gardens. Among the participants, nine countries — Uzbekistan, Italy, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, Thailand, the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands — established independent gardens, with every garden designed by renowned designers from that country to ensure cultural authenticity. For instance, the Italian Garden is created by the team of the Italian architect Stefano Boeri (a core planner of the Milan Expo). His design creatively reinterprets the classical vocabulary of Mediterranean architecture into symbolic forms — deconstructing classical colonnades into a three-dimensional grid system that integrates with the Wenzhou’s mountainous terrain as a new type of terraced carrier, creating a“ vertical forest” imbued with Italian spirit.

The International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA), participating for the first time, manifests its professional commitment through the“ fragrant ark”. Four flagpoles by the vessel embody sails. When the sea breeze sweeps across, the sails unfurl to display the“ I-F-L-A” emblem, creating a living, breathing professional symbol, enabling visitors to sense the landscape architects’ oath — like the ark — to safeguard Earth’s biodiversity and proclaim a harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature.