opinion

Spectacular landscapes have been created in different parts of Pyongyang which has undergone a sea change year after year, adding to the beautiful scenery of the streets. It awakens public interest in landscape gardening as well.

Shortly ago, The Pyongyang Times reporter Kim Hak Chol interviewed Choe Yong Min, director of the greening art institute under the Greening Guidance Bureau of the Ministry of Urban Management, about greening art which is helpful in beatifying the regional landscape.

Could you tell me about the fact that like architecture, landscape gardening or greening demands a high-degree formative art? 

Greening does not mean simply planting trees and flowers. It is a course of artistic creation to create landscaping elements like greening plants, decorative greening facilities and sidewalks, while meeting the formative artistic and functional requirements according to the landscape gardening methods. It can be claimed to be an artwork which is created by considering various forms of plants and their colours in each season, diverse growth effects of plants, varied mixture of terrain and plants and organic relations between functional spaces.

As there is no art without theme and hero, there is no greening without the content to show and the main landscape and the relations between the principal and the accessory even if many good trees are planted.

Landscape gardening is not only a formative art of greening elements but also a visual art, which is formed in space, time and the flow of people, and the an original art integrating into nature such artistic entities as painting, architecture, sculpture and handicraft and their principles. The main expression of landscape gardening is beauty.

Then, I think improving the level of greening design is one of the major requirements for better landscape gardening. 

You are right. In order to decisively raise the level of greening design, it is important to make an in-depth study of the greening plan that suits the specific features of the object and distribute the components of greening harmoniously.

The components of greening include plants like trees, flowers and turfs, landform which is the foundation for creating green areas, greening facilities, water like lake, artificial fountain and others and sidewalks for a walk and rest. It is not greening to plant many trees. Greening should be done after studying and working out the greening plan scrupulously to suit the characteristic features of the object and producing a design accordingly.

It is important to create greening designs in a formative artistic style to express the characteristic features and individuality of the objects in order to elevate the level of greening design.

Only when the greening designs have their marked individuality, can they satisfy the aesthetic and emotional demands of the people and ensure the diversity of green belts for greening. The landscapes with individuality leave a deep impression on the people and make them feel strong emotion, but those with no individuality fail to attract their interest. 

Therefore, it is essential to select the themes after grasping the characteristic features of the objects well and subordinate the whole landscape to the thematic characters.

In boosting the level of greening design it is also important to consider scientific accuracy and economic effectiveness of greening, while ensuring artistic quality, and improve the informatization level of design.

In future, the greening of the whole country will be elevated to a higher level with the application of greening art.