Welcome Michael Chu

Michael started work in the Auckland studio today as a Graduate landscape architect.

Michael grew up in Palmerston North in a Chinese family, and took an interest in art and architecture at High School.  Moving to Wellington in 2009, he enrolled in Landscape Architecture at Victoria University and very quickly developed a passion for using design to engage with different cultures and different landscapes. His interests lie in,

“the interpretation of place and identity, particularly the phenomenological experiences of space and how we heighten our cultural and social interactions with our environments through the translation of form and materiality. My passion for drawing and sketching natural and urban environments has helped me to develop a keen eye for detail, to express the intuitive qualities of place as part of the design process. I enjoy the challenge of interpreting a place and always find it a rewarding experience, as each site possesses a unique quality that can be used to inspire a design concept.”

Through study experiences overseas (in Italy, Australia, Japan and China) he has learnt to appreciate different cultures and their unique design aesthetics;

“This has motivated me to apply what I have learnt and experienced to my design approach – developing a process of sketching and testing design ideas whilst on site.”

For his thesis project, Michael went on a two-week trip to Japan and immersed himself in Japanese culture and society.

“My site is located on the slopes of Mount Fuji, which was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2013. The designed interventions are specifically situated in the landscape as markers to choreograph the visitor experience. My thesis also became a record of my experiences – bodily experiences, atmospheric conditions and site geomorphology were captured through sketching spatial qualities. Taking inspiration from Japanese spatial methods used in Japanese garden design, the result is a reciprocal interaction between built form and natural environment.”