Landscape Architect · UK + China

Ecology first.
Form follows.

My exploration of design began with water. Its pull drew me outward — first to the wider ecology around it, then to form itself. Good design, I've come to believe, should feel like nature growing: arrived at, not forced.

My exploration of design began with water. Its pull drew me outward — first to the wider ecology around it, then to form itself. Good design, I've come to believe, should feel like nature growing: arrived at, not forced.

Along the way, new technology has kept that same curiosity alive — I've always believed it pushes design's edges outward, the way water keeps spreading. Grasshopper and ComfyUI took up most of that curiosity for years; now it's vibe coding. Tools and mediums change. Reading the land, and working with what it gives you, does not.

Projects 7 Projects
Region UK + China
Years 2019–2025

Selected Work

[ 01 / Projects ]

How I Work

[ 02 / Method ]

My design starts with reading: first the brief, then the site. From there, I watch a landscape project come together from nothing.

Act I · Research
01

Preparation

I read through the brief, work through the relevant policies and master plans, and study comparable cases for what matters. The aim is to pin down what the project is really asking for, where the design targets should sit, and whether anything in the requirements doesn't hold up or comply. This is also where I decide what the site survey should focus on, and what can stay secondary.

ExcelCase Studies
02

Site Survey

On site, I record first-hand data like hydrology, soil, habitat and microclimate, along with how people actually use the place, taking hand-drawn notes as I go. Back at the desk, I fill in fuller datasets from government sources (hydrology, sunlight, wind) and run them through Grasshopper to process and visualize. For messier inputs like human activity, I use AI to help sort and summarize. I try to quantify even the fuzzy, more emotional data, then pull it all into an evaluation matrix for analysis.

ProcreateGrasshopperExcelAI / LLM
Act II · Design
03

Concept & Scheme

I work through spatial and ecological strategies across different scales, mostly by hand. Drawing is how I think at this stage, not just how I present. I'm not trying to produce a finished, buildable scheme here. The point is to read the space and get the thinking clear.

Procreate
04

Design Development

I bring secondary survey or map data into Rhino, overlay the hand drawings, and gradually turn the sketched scheme into CAD-ready drawings, building out the model as I go. I lean heavily on parametric design to speed this up, and push the work forward using the weights from the earlier analysis, so the quantified data gives the design real evidence to stand on (evidence-driven design).

RhinoGrasshopperAutoCAD
Act III · Presentation
05

Design Representation

My main path takes the Rhino model into Lumion for renders, then repaints them through ComfyUI for a photoreal look. The other route exports line work from Rhino and builds it up in Illustrator or Photoshop for a line-art illustration style. After that it's Rhino to CAD for the construction drawings.

LumionComfyUI / SDIllustratorPhotoshopAutoCAD
06

Design Presentation

It usually comes together as a deck, with both renders and construction drawings. When it helps, I cut a short video in Premiere to walk through the design and tell the whole story.

PowerPointPremiere

About

[ 03 / Profile ]
Hongyu Ren

Hongyu Ren. Landscape architect, photographer. Master of Landscape Architecture, University of Manchester; a dual bachelor's in Aquatic Science and Landscape Gardening, Huazhong Agricultural University. When it comes to design, rather than imagining in advance what a site 'should' become, I focus on listening to the site's own ecology, and I've long argued for using algorithms and parametric design to push the edges of what design can do.

Outside of work, I shoot photos, write, have acted in and written for the theatre, have played fingerstyle guitar for eight years, and have lately fallen for skiing... If there's a chance to work together, or you'd just like to make a friend, reach out anytime.

Expertise

  • · Ecological Restoration
  • · Public Space Design
  • · Rewilding & Habitat
  • · Master Planning
  • · Water-Sensitive & SUDS Design
  • · Planting & Aquatic Ecology
  • · Computational Design (Grasshopper)
  • · AI-Integrated Rendering Workflow

Tools

  • · Rhino + Grasshopper
  • · AutoCAD
  • · Lumion
  • · ComfyUI / Stable Diffusion
  • · ArcGIS
  • · Adobe Creative Suite (PS / AI / Pr)
  • · Python
  • · Procreate