Space structure features of the Couple’s retreat garden in the context of traditional private gardens of Suzhou

Abstract The article is devoted to the study of the Couple’s retreat garden’s spatial elements. The paper considers the history of the territory formation. One of the most important personalities in the history of the garden is Shen Bincheng. It was he who made the estate in the way we know it today. The garden was created under the influence of the Qing Dynasty culture. However, it is very different from other “classical” gardens of the Suzhou city and the Jiangnan region. The planning structure of the garden has been studied in detail. It consists of three sections: Western garden, central district and Eastern garden. The object under consideration is unique, since the garden part is divided into two zones in it, each of which is not large in the area and the center of each site is a stone mountain. The The Couple’s retreat garden can be more attributed to landscape gardens, which are created for the observation from the outside and are not intended for various kinds of interactivity.