Seeing Landscape Through Cross-Cultural Eyes: Embracing a Transcultural Lens Toward Multilingual Design Approaches in the Landscape Studio Shenglin Chang Shcrif^lin Chang is currently Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland's Landscape Architecture Program, and received the C.ELA Award of Recognition in 2004. Professor Chang was awarded a PhD in Knvironmental Planning from University of ("alifornia, Berkeley, an MiA from Coj iiell University, an MS in Civil Engineering and a BS in Horticulture from National Taiwan University. Her research focuses on high-lech (Silicon Valley) landscapes in the Pacific Rim and the transfor- mations of immigrant home identi- ties in the DC-Maryland region. Her book, The (Uohal Silicon Valley Home: Lives and Landscapes xvithin Taiioane.se American Trans-Pacific Culture, is fortlic<jming from Stanford University Press. Abstract: I his article reflects on the value of atltivating transcuUural aivareness in design education. The term "transcultural lens " is derived from the emeiging critical con- cept of transculturality, or the intermingling of one's domestic culture with many other foreigii cultures. 'This concept relates to the melding and mixing of cultural elements expressed by a group of Amnican students in the University of Maryland's Land.scape Architecture Program who worked on the Taiwanese Chi Chi Earthquake Memmial Park Competition, design. Wiien these students examined their own American lens in designing a Taiwanese memimal park, the transformation of this lens allowed them to matiipulate design patterns and languages of their natixie culture (Ameiican) and the newly encoun- tered culture ('Taiwanese) in an innovative yet sensitive way. This generated a new design approach that I am callingAmerican-yet-Taiwane.se; that not only distinguished the unique quality and practices of different cultures, Imt also blended these cultures together in an (evolutionary luay. S ince the 1980s, rapid tech- nological transformations occurring in countries around the world have not only initiated the information age (Castells 1996, 1997, and 1998), but also have fueled a transnational bi-gration (two-way immigration) phenomenon not seen in previous eras (Chang forthcoming; Levitt 2001; Lima 2001: Smitb 1998). These transfor- mations affect tbe nature of 21'''-cen- tury communication and travel and include phenomena sticb as afford- able air transportation, widely acces- sible World Wide Web connections, instant messaging, and IP and wire- less phone service. They have pro- foundly impacted how we perceive our native and foreign cultures, and accelerate the intermixed relation of different cultures. Philosopher Wolfgang Welsch argues that we live in a transcultural context. He states that, "Lifestyles no longer end at the borders of national cultures, but go beyond these. . . . There is no longer anything absolutely foreign. . . . Today, in a culture's internal rela- tions—among its different ways of life—there exists as much foreign- ness as in its external relations with other culttires" {1999, 197-198). Cultural geographer Yi-Fu Tuan adds to the recognition of an emerg- ing transcultural world: "tbe life- path of a buman being moves natiirally from 'bome' to 'world,' from 'hearth' to 'cosmos.'" (1996, 2) Transculturality in Land.scape Design Tbe concept of "transculttiral- ity" articulates more clearly tbe new phenomenon of cultural intermix- ing tbat we are seeing in today's interconnected world (Welsch 1999), The concept assumes perme- able culttiral boiuidarics as opposed to thinking of cultures as isolated islands or enclosed spheres. The term "transcultural lens" is derived from tbe emerging concept of transculturality; wbicb makes a break from previous concepts of multicul- turalism. Welsch points out that tbose traditional concepts of cul- tures—including classic single cul- ture, interculturalism, and multiculturalism—assume that "every culture can be distinguished and remain .separated from otber folks' cultures'* (1999, 195). However, he argues transculturality "sketches a different picture of tbe relation between cultures, not one of isolation and conflict, but one of entanglement, intermixing, and commonness" (205). Tbe concept of transcTilturality is different from that 140 Landscape Journal 24:2-05 Landscape Journal'ii-.t-Qb ISSN 0277-2426 © 2005 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System