Donglin TANG

Week 01

21 January

The Class Introduction

As the beginning of the course, Mr. Wilson introduced the course outlines and we made up our teams for this semester's discussion and team projects. Different from other courses, the presentation of various topics in this class will be completed by students, and each group is responsible for one topic, which means that we need to keep our presentation as accurate as possible, so as not to cause confusion.

What impressed me most was the debate between the two groups in choosing the topic.I think Barry's purpose of encouraging such kind of debate was to make students feel the negotiation and discussion situation we need to meet in practical work. It can be predicted that there will be more similar learning discussions in the following classes, which will lead us to more participation and learning.

Week 02

28 January

Parallel Group Work and Introductions

It's interesting that Mr.Wilson adopted a 'peer introduction' strategy to make our group members know each other and for him to know us.This was effective because we needed to remember the basic information of the team members to introduce.

In addition to introducing each other, we also discussed the development direction of our group project with Barry. After the discussion with Barry, more group discussions were conducted to determine the work plan for the next stage. We initially determined that our presentation will be combined with the specific case of Tung Chung to better introduce our theme to the audience.

Week 03

04 February

Group 1 Sharing and Inside View

'ARE YOU A LANDSCAPE' presented by Orange Group

The first group's presentation is inspiring to us. They introduced the content of landscape architects in the form of knowledge competition to make the presentation more interesting. The questions in the interactive part can guide the audience to think. After listening to this report, our group learned that the form of presentation can be more varied, so that the audience can get a more clear and vivid experience.

EARTHASIA office tour covering detailed introduction

As the first virtual office tour of this semester, I was surprised by the richness of the content introduced by the office manager. This introduction included the company's scale, company structure, main business, representative cases and other aspects, which gave me a specific understanding of eadg. What impressed me most was that the company had a very clear division of labor, such as project management team, design management team, project planning team and special team under project department. They have different divisions of labor and cooperate with each other. I think this kind of clear division of labor and effective cooperation is a very important part of the operation of a large-scale company.

Week 04

11 February

Group 2 Sharing and Inside View

'WHERE DO YOU WORK' presented by Blue Group

Personally, I am very interested in this topic, because "where to work" is the most important choice for a graduate at this stage. So I am glad to see that the report mentioned the situation of various types of Companies in the mainland and Hong Kong with their comparison, which can be used as my reference.In addition, the form of the report itself better reflects that a landscape major graduate can have a lot of work choices, and the choice of work in different stages of career development can continue to adjust according to the direction of interest.

EARTHASIA office tour including more interviews

I appreciate that this session included more interviews with the office members. Through their descriptions, I knew the pace and workload of working here. It seems that the work of landscape designers or project managers really needs strong time management ability, because they often need to participate in several projects at the same time.I think this is the ability that I lack at present. As a student, I am not able to participate in multiple projects at the same time. So it's also the ability that I need to practice more in my future work.

CNY Break

Data Collection Period for Team Project

20 February

First Systematic Group Project Discussion After Preliminary Data Collection

After a preliminary data collection during the Lunar New Year holiday, our group conducted the first systematic group project discussion. According to the previous division of labor, three of our five members introduced the main modes of development and control in Hong Kong, and two introduced the situation in mainland China. Then we discussed the similarities and differences, and we worked out our division of labor and timetable for the next stage. Although there was some confusion that needed to be solved at the beginning of the project, the whole process was smoothly carried forward. As a responsible member of the mainland part information, in the process of preparation, I consulted my friends who were doing relevant work. In addition, my internship experience related to urban planning also gave me some help. Therefore, this process is relatively smooth.

Week 05

25 February

Group 3 Sharing and Mini Quiz 1

'YOU ARE THE BOSS' presented by Purple Group

I like the presentation style of this group. The concise information and interface style can let me grasp the key points at the first time. And my favorite part is the interview videos with the boss of many firms. As a student, I know little about what the boss of the company needs to do. Through the interview video, I can feel that these things are more convincing.

And through the presentation, I realized that capital, as the basis of the company's operation, sometimes can not be guaranteed, so the boss of the company often needs to put capital in the first place when selecting projects and specifying project plans. Another thing that impressed me was that the repeated requirements of customers are the main reason that makes most design companies feel difficult. So I think a good designer is not fully competent for the company manager, interpersonal skills are also important factors to determine whether the company can develop smoothly.

For the open mini quiz, I need to admit that the questions are more difficult than I thought.The options of some questions were not as correct as they seem. I think that's why Barry asked us to discuss, to improve the correctness of our understanding through the opinion sharing.

Week 06

04 March

Our Group’s Presentation and Mini Quiz 2

'DEVELOP OR CONTROL' presented by White Group/Our group

After nearly a month's preparation, we completed the preparation of our group project. We double checked the content the night before the presentation. We are happy that today's report was successfully completed, and glad to hear that Barry gave us some positive comments. I know there are still some shortcomings, and I will try to improve them in other reports in the future.For example, during the preparation work, we did meet some tough things like how to organize so much information and make it clear to our audience, although I think we solved the problem basically , there is still space for improvement. I saw some groups use the video to show the information, that’s a way that we can learn to make our project better.

As for my own experience, I participated positively in every discussion of our group , and I enjoyed the process in which we shared different ideas about our project in different stages . I appreciated that some of my concepts were adopted such as the form of our presentation. That made me feel a sense of achievement.On the whole, I think our team members cooperate well. We not only learned from each other, but also helped each other. This is another important significance of this project besides learning.

Reading Week

Week 08

18 March

Group 5 Sharing and Inside View

'WINNING A PROJECT' presented by Red Group

The presentation of this topic covers a large part of the company's daily work including preparation for bidding and performing project contracts. In my personal working experience, I have met some bidding projects, such as open tendering and negotiation tendering, but my main work is to provide design drawings, so this class let me know more about the process and precautions systematically, such as the contents of the consultation agreement and the other materials required before bidding, which can make me better prepare for the future work.

BLEND office tour

Compared with EARTHASIA, BLEND is a smaller company, but from their sharing, I found that they also have a mature project management system. They have a very clear understanding of their project objectives, competitors and competitive advantages. I think such a company with clear positioning has more advantages in the actual market than a company with extensive bidding. If I want to choose a private landscape company, I will look for one like BLEND.

Week 09

25 March

Group 6 Sharing and Mini Quiz 3

'ORGANISING A PROJECT' presented by Green Group

I really like the scene animation in this group, which is the most understandable way of expression except for the real site visit.They make the three procurement occasions very clear. For example, the Construction Management Procurement requires the construction contractors, designers, project managers, consultants and clients to discuss problems in real time and adjust the schedule and plan if necessary. Successful communication can shorten the completion time of the project. But if there are problems in communication, it will lead to construction stagnation, and even cause huge losses. This phenomenon often occurs in practice, so the choice of procurement is also a matter that needs careful consideration.

Week 10

01 April

Group 7 Sharing and Inside View

'AWARDING A PROJECT' presented by Pink Group

This topic and the last two sharing topics both focus on the process of a project. This group describes in detail the content of tendering and related contracts, and adds some comparative information to help the audience understand better, which is useful. Although I haven't memorized a lot of content at present, I think I can consciously establish this set of knowledge systems about project management in future real projects.

URBIS office tour

The landscape restoration project introduced by URBIS is a good learning chance for me to know about the real landfill project in Hong Kong.I have been to some reclaimed and filled areas in Hong Kong but didn't learn detailed information about the construction progress for such sites. And when I heard them talking about the real threats such as the invasive weed species, the wild boar, the typhoon damages and the red imported fire ants, I realized that in the previous design studios, I thought too little about the real nature situation. In addition, I am curious about how to manage the plant restoration process well in such a filling project that needs to consider so many ecological factors, so as to achieve the ideal ecological construction effect. And how to coordinate the contractors in such a large range of construction. I'm looking forward to the on-site visit next week for more introductions.

Week 11

08 April

Barry presentation and Inside View

'DELIVERING A PROJECT' presented by Barry

In order to let us better understand the work that people of different identities need to do in the process of delivering a project, Barry showed us the video of his role playing, which is very vivid and helpful for us to imagine the scenes of various meetings and negotiations in the actual project development process.According to my own work experience, I also agree that different people, such as project manager and architects, as well as clients and consultants, really need sufficient communication to reduce unnecessary costs and waste of manpower.

URBIS Landfill Project virtual site visit

The site visit is very helpful for me to know what kind of manpower is needed to manage and implement a landfill project. I am very impressed that the plant management system of this project is very detailed and mature. Appropriate labeling systems and regular inspection can make the plant repair process closer to the ideal effect. This kind of mature system can make the cooperation between main contractor and sub contractor more smooth.If I have a chance to get into this kind of project in the future, I will learn more about this.

Week 12

15 April

Tutorial: Job workshop

In this class, Barry gave a tutorial class on the job application. It covers detailed information on the preparation for different stages such as who to contact and what to offer.These details let me know that the job application needs to be very careful. A small problem, such as the mistake at the email title and the careless words in self-introduction, may be the reason for rejection.

At the end of this class, our group finished a coverletter after discussion. In the process of discussion, I found that the order of words with similar meanings in different paragraphs can also cause different reading experiences. Therefore, a good coverletter needs to be carefully considered to make HR have the best impression on the applicant.

For the assignment we are given to write an application letter after class, I think it necessary and helpful to let us apply what we have learned and prepare for the future job applications.

Week 13

22 April

Assignment Review and Course Review

The review of the application letter assignment made me realize that I used too much subjective analysis in my application letter.Another problem is that I didn't put in my understanding of the target company in my letter. By contrast, Ray and Sabrina's example includes more information based on the knowledge of the company's director and company projects, which is where I can improve my letter later.

Week 14

29 April

Team Interviews

As the last class of this semester, we had an interview with Mr. Wilson. Barry asked us what we thought the meaning of peer evaluation was, and we put forward some ideas. Then Barry told us that his main purpose was to see if we can have a correct view and evaluation of ourselves. I think it's really important, because self-evaluation is related to whether we can play a suitable role in teamwork and make the work of the whole team go smoothly. Then we talked about some other questions, including what we thought of our role in the team, and what we thought of the difficulties in the team project. Finally, we raised some ideas about course improvement such as the quiz arrangement and presentation sequence.

In the reflection of the whole class, I realized that I did learn a lot of knowledge that professional landscape designers should know. And the most important thing is the attitude towards work. As Barry said, an important attitude in work is to always keep learning. What we have learned at present may be more advanced in our future work. I hope I can keep this attitude and continue to explore in my future work.