In August 2025, Xiaoru completed an independent virtual garden design project using Minecraft. Developed over approximately 1 month, the project explored the spatial organization, architectural forms, and landscape elements associated with traditional Chinese gardens.

The project originated from Xiaoru’s personal interest in Chinese classical gardens, traditional architecture, and digital environments. Previous visits to Suzhou provided opportunities to observe several historical gardens, including the Humble Administrator’s Garden (拙政园), Lingering Garden (留园), and Master of the Nets Garden (网师园).

These visits contributed to an interest in how gardens organize buildings, water, vegetation, and circulation within relatively limited spaces. They also raised questions about the experience of visiting historical gardens, particularly where large numbers of visitors, restricted areas, or fixed circulation routes affect how spaces can be observed.

Xiaoru subsequently explored the possibility of designing a virtual garden that could be visited without the physical constraints of a real site. Minecraft was selected as the working environment because it allows landscapes and buildings to be constructed, modified, and explored from different positions.

The project was not intended to reproduce a particular historical garden. Instead, it involved creating an original environment informed by observations of existing gardens and selected principles of traditional Chinese garden design.

Design References and Approach

One of the project’s principal references was Yuan Ye (园冶), a Chinese treatise on garden design written by Ji Cheng during the Ming dynasty.

The text discusses various aspects of garden-making, including site selection, spatial arrangement, architectural elements, and relationships between constructed features and natural landscapes.

Xiaoru used ideas from traditional garden-making as references for the virtual environment rather than attempting a systematic reconstruction of historical techniques.

The design also drew on observations from visits to Suzhou gardens and selected elements of traditional Chinese architectural and landscape design.

Unlike an earlier experiment involving mountainous terrain, this garden was developed on a relatively flat site. The terrain allowed greater flexibility in arranging buildings, courtyards, and water features without relying extensively on changes in elevation.

The design therefore placed more emphasis on the relationships between individual spaces, the positioning of buildings, and the use of partial visual obstruction to organize views.

Rather than presenting the entire garden from a single position, the arrangement allows different scenes to become visible as the viewer moves between buildings, paths, and landscape areas.

Spatial Organization and Architecture

The virtual garden contains a combination of traditional-style buildings, courtyards, covered spaces, and smaller architectural features.

White walls, dark tiled roofs, timber-style structural elements, and decorative openings were used to establish a relatively consistent architectural appearance.

Buildings were arranged around the garden’s water features and planted areas, creating a series of spaces with different degrees of enclosure.

Some buildings face open water, while others are positioned behind vegetation, walls, or rockeries. These arrangements create differences between relatively open views and more enclosed garden spaces.

The use of walls, doorways, and architectural openings was also considered in relation to how visitors might experience the garden while moving through it.

Several interiors were furnished with traditional-style furniture, decorative panels, paintings, and other objects. These details were included to develop the appearance of the architectural spaces beyond their exterior forms.

The project did not involve a measured reconstruction of historical buildings. Architectural elements were adapted to Minecraft’s block-based construction system, with proportions and details adjusted according to the limitations of the platform.

Water Features and Landscape Composition

Water forms a major component of the garden’s landscape organization.

A relatively large pond occupies part of the central garden area, with buildings, planted banks, stone features, and viewing spaces arranged around it.

The pond was designed with an irregular shoreline rather than a simple rectangular boundary. Changes in the shape of the bank, together with rocks and aquatic vegetation, were used to establish different relationships between land and water.

Several architectural spaces provide views across the pond. Other areas bring visitors closer to the water through paths, small structures, and changes in the surrounding landscape.

Rockeries and stone arrangements were incorporated along portions of the shoreline and within smaller garden spaces.

Vegetation was also used to distinguish different parts of the garden. Trees, bamboo, flowering plants, and aquatic plants contribute to the composition of views and the separation of adjacent areas.

Some spaces include combinations of planting and stone features that partially obscure nearby buildings, while other areas provide more open views across the water.

These elements were developed as part of an exploratory design process rather than through a formal landscape engineering or ecological planning study.

Views and Visitor Experience

An important consideration during the design process was how the garden would appear from different viewing positions.

Minecraft allows users to move freely through the environment, making it possible to examine the same scene from different angles and distances.

Xiaoru used this characteristic to experiment with relationships between enclosed architectural spaces and the surrounding landscape.

For example, views from interior rooms and covered structures frame portions of the garden through openings, windows, or doorways. These views differ from those experienced along the shoreline or in more open landscape areas.

The positioning of buildings, vegetation, and rockeries also creates areas where parts of the garden are concealed until the viewer approaches them.

This approach was informed by observations of traditional garden spaces, where movement and changes in viewing position can influence how architectural and landscape elements are perceived.

Although the virtual environment allows flexible exploration, the project did not include a formal study of visitor behavior or user experience.

Production and Visual Documentation

The garden was constructed in Minecraft during August 2025.

Development involved building architectural structures, arranging terrain and water features, placing vegetation, and adding interior details.

The completed environment includes multiple outdoor and indoor spaces, ranging from lakeside views and planted courtyards to rooms with decorative furniture and framed views of the landscape.

Screenshots were produced to document the architecture, water features, vegetation, and spatial compositions.

A video showing the garden was also published on YouTube, providing an additional record of the virtual environment.

The project was completed as an independent creative work and was not developed as a professional landscape architecture commission or a formally evaluated academic research project.