DOCSLIB.ORG

Site Seeing: Interpreting Site in Landscape Architecture

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Site Seeing: Interpreting Site in Landscape Architecture Site Seeing: Interpreting Site in Landscape Architecture Alex. J. Albans This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of Birmingham City University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Birmingham School of Architecture Faculty of the Arts, Design and Media Birmingham City University August 2015 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the following people for their support and guidance in the preparation of this thesis: Firstly, to my supervisor Prof. Kathryn Moore who has guided and supported me throughout this research project. Prof. Moore’s enthusiasm for the subject continues to be inspirational, as does her dedication, knowledge and kindness. Thanks also to Prof. Richard Coles whose input in the early stages of the thesis was very much valued. Special thanks must also be extended to Dr. Lawrence Green whose timely involvement in this project renewed my confidence and gave me the impetus to keep going. You have all helped me to see things differently, to think more deeply, and to push the limits of what I thought I was capable of. Next, I must also thank each of my interviewees for taking part in this research: for taking time out of their busy schedules to talk to me, and for the enthusiasm with which they each greeted the subject of my research. Heartfelt thanks go to my wife, Allison, for your love, unwavering confidence and on-going support. Thanks too, to Isla for brightening my life when times were tough. To my parents and my brother: thank you – I could not have done this without you. To Helen Albans, Barbara Payman, Claire Clarke and Anthony Searle – you have all helped me along my journey in different ways, and I value you all greatly. Thanks must also be extended to the numerous support staff at BCU, notably Yanyan Wang, Shelly Fray and Beccy Boydell for all of their assistance and guidance over the years. ii ABSTRACT In landscape architecture, sites are commonly portrayed as being the inspiration behind practitioners’ ideas; lending a sense of legitimacy to projects seeking to connect people and place, and strengthening local identity by ‘coming from the site’. In landscape design theory, a site’s history, genius loci (spirit of place) and its physical and cultural contexts are considered to be highly significant shapers of material form in contemporary landscape architecture. Furthermore, professional practice renders the site survey as an exercise in data-gathering and/or as searching for the site’s ‘je ne sais quoi’. Students are encouraged to conduct these investigations neutrally and objectively before any analysis or interpretation. Such conceptions appear to rob novice designers of the confidence in their own decisions because they presume the site must ‘tell’ them what to do. Primarily benefiting students and early-career practitioners, the thesis challenges established ways of understanding and working with sites, as revealed through the embedded knowledge and expertise of experienced designers. It is an investigation into the circumstances and motivations that shape how landscape architects interpret sites and make design decisions, applicable to education and career-development. A pilot study of 109 award-winning landscape schemes and twenty four in-depth interviews demonstrates how sites are interpreted in light of a complex web of factors and ideas, and not simply ‘known’ through surveys or consulting the genius loci. It shows that the ideas, experience and knowledge brought to each landscape project are key to a landscape architect’s creativity. The study also reveals that sites are interpreted collaboratively, and that stakeholders have very different ideas about sites, all of which can impact working relationships and design decisions. Communication and listening are found to be key factors in professional practice. This research acknowledges the professional importance of the genius loci but reframes it as a name for the process of interpretation and decision-making undertaken by practitioners, based on their skills, knowledge and experience. iii CONTENTS Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Contents iv List of figures vii List of appendices viii PART ONE 1 1. Does Site Matter? 2 2. Professional Perspective 10 2.1 Historical perspective 10 2.2 Landscape architecture in context 12 2.3 Educating landscape architects 15 2.3.1 Landscape architecture’s key components 16 2.3.2 Chartership and professional development 29 3. Theorising Site 32 3.1 Terminology 34 3.2 A history of site in landscape architecture 38 3.3 Academic Dimension: Conceptions of site in landscape architecture 45 3.3.1 A way of seeing 46 3.3.2 Geographical, physical site 47 3.3.3 Emptied site 51 3.3.4 Full site 52 3.4 Professional Dimension: Site survey and practice 67 4. Operationalising the Study 77 4.1 Research Journey 77 4.2 Research Questions 90 4.3 Research Methods 93 4.3.1 Research Approach 93 iv 4.3.2 Pilot Study 96 4.3.3 Literature review 100 4.3.4 In-depth interviews 101 4.3.5 Interview analysis 110 PART TWO 115 5. Delving Deep into Site 116 5.1 Pilot Study: a report 116 5.2 Re-forming a Site’s History 121 5.2.1 Understanding a site 122 5.2.2 Connecting people and place 127 5.2.3 Informed and critical decision-making 134 5.2.4 Stakeholders 139 6. A landscape architecture way of seeing 146 6.1 Personal context 149 6.2 Professional context 156 6.3 Site context 163 6.4 Project context 172 6.5 Socio-political context 175 7. Whose site is it anyway? 178 7.1 Stakeholders’ views 179 7.1.1 Diversity in the range of stakeholders 179 7.1.2 How stakeholders influence the interpretation of site 183 7.1.3 Expanding stakeholders’ horizons 187 7.1.4 Negotiating working relationships 188 7.2 Landscape architects’ views 191 7.2.1 Landscape architects’ relationship to other stakeholders 191 7.2.2 What landscape architects bring to a project 193 7.2.3 How stakeholders influence landscape architects’ practice 194 7.2.4 Negotiating working relationships 196 7.3 Good working relationships 198 v 7.3.1 What stakeholders want 198 7.3.2 What landscape architects want 200 7.3.3 Listen and learn 202 PART THREE 207 8. Site-seeing: Contextualising the Findings 208 8.1 What is a site? 211 8.1.1 Materiality of a site 211 8.1.2 Ideas about a site 214 8.1.3 Ideas informing materiality 218 8.2 Interpreting sites 220 8.2.1 Forming and understanding of a site 220 8.2.2 Site survey 222 8.2.3 A landscape architecture way of seeing 225 8.2.4 Stakeholders’ ways of seeing 228 8.3 Communicating site 231 PART FOUR 235 9. Interpreting Site: Conclusions, Recommendations and Limitations 236 9.1 Research Questions 237 9.2 Contribution to Knowledge 246 9.3 Forward Agenda 251 9.4 Limitations 254 References 255 Appendices 270 vi LIST OF FIGURES Chapter 1 1.1 Thesis structure 6 Chapter 2 2.1 Map of International Federation of Landscape Architects delegates 12 Chapter 4 4.1 Example of Primary Generators 99 4.2 Set 1 interviewee details 103 4.3 Set 2 interviewee details 105 4.4 Set 3 interviewee details 107 4.5 Portion of transcript from interview 2D 112 4.6 Interview data pertinent to 2D’s site survey approach 112 4.7 Subjects for study matrices 113 Chapter 9 9.1 Pocket guide to site survey 253 Appendix 1 A1.1 Number and percentage of project by category 273 A1.2 Main concerns of each judging panel 274 A1.3 Percentage of projects influenced by site history 287 A1.4 Number and category of projects influenced by site history 288 A1.5 Percentage of socio-economic projects influenced by site history 288 A1.6 Percentage of well-being projects influenced by site history 289 A1.7 Percentage of site-sensitive projects influenced by site history 290 A1.8 Percentage of restoration projects influenced by site history 291 A1.9 Percentage of other projects influenced by site history 291 A1.10 Percentage of ecological projects influenced by site history 292 A1.11 Percentage of landmark projects influenced by site history 293 A1.12 Percentage of projects with a Resurrected Footprint feature 294 A1.13 Percentage of Resurrected Footprint projects by category 295 vii LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix 1: Pilot Study results 271 Appendix 2: Letter to potential interview candidate 297 Appendix 3: BCU/BIAD ethical statement 299 Appendix 4: Sample interviewee questions by set 301 Appendix 5: DVD of pdf interview transcripts 305 viii PART ONE Part Chapter 1 Does Site Matter? 2 Professional Practice 1 3 Theorising Site Operationalising the study: 4 Journey, Questions and Method 5 Delving Deep into Site 2 6 Results A Landscape Architecture Way of Seeing 7 Whose Site is it Anyway? 3 8 Site Seeing: Contextualising the Findings Interpreting Site: 4 9 Conclusions, Recommendations and Limitations 1 1 Does Site Matter? “For the disciplines and professions concerned with design of the physical environment, site matters.” (Burns and Kahn 2005: viii) Site matters in landscape architecture because it constitutes the principal environment of the discipline. It is variously thought of as the forum in which we operate, the profession’s muse, the material with which we sculpt, or the canvas onto which we paint. The intrinsic value of site to landscape architecture is such that our abilities in “site-reading and editing” were acknowledged by Meyer as “establishing landscape architecture as a discipline separate from architecture, engineering, and horticulture” (2005: 94). In practice, the site benefits from all manner of close inspections: from survey to analysis, through design to construction, the site is at the forefront of the landscape architect’s mind.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Public Health and Landscape:Creating Healthy Places
    Public Health and Landscape Public Health Creating healthy places and Landscape Creating healthy places Landscape Institute Position Statement Landscape Landscape Institute Institute Inspiring great places Inspiring great places Introduction St. Andrew Square, The state of our health services is rarely out of the news. Edinburgh, Gillespies / John Our landscapes have an important role to play in Understandably, there is a huge concern about acute Cooper Photography provision and the treatment of ill health. Much has been improving public health – so let’s invest in them written about the increased incidence of obesity, the persistence of health inequalities and the best ways to care for an ageing population. We believe that much greater priority needs to be given to prevention of ill health in public health and social care. Much of the history of landscape Over the past 50 years, public spending on the NHS has risen from 3.4 per cent to 8.2 per cent of GDP1. If spending continues In April 2013, responsibility for public health moved from architecture can be traced back to the need on the same trajectory for the next 50 years, then by 2062 the UK the NHS in England to local authorities. The Landscape to create places that were beneficial for could be spending up to a fifth of its GDP on the NHS alone2. It is generally accepted that now is the time to think about how much Institute was inspired by this change to look at the people’s health and wellbeing. we spend on health, where we spend it and how it should be paid promotion of public health across the whole of the UK.
    [Show full text]
  • MA in Garden and Landscape History
    MA in Garden and Landscape History Student Handbook 2019-20 history.sas.ac.uk 0 MA in Garden and Landscape History Student Handbook 2019-20 Contents Welcome from the Dean ..............................................................................4 Introduction ...............................................................................................5 Key Sources of Information ..........................................................................5 Key Contacts for Students .........................................................................6 Registry Staff ..........................................................................................6 The Institute of Historical Research (IHR) ......................................................8 Who’s Who in the IHR ...............................................................................8 MA in Garden and Landscape History ........................................................... 10 MA Programme Details............................................................................ 11 Course Timetable 2019–20 ...................................................................... 12 Course Details ....................................................................................... 14 Module 1: Theory and Practice in Garden and Landscape History .................. 14 Module 2: Culture and Politics of Gardens ................................................. 17 Unit Options for Module 2 ........................................................................ 19 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Library of American Landscape History
    Library of American Landscape History BOOKS AND FILMS • FALL/WINTER 2018 lalh.org CONTENTS Introduction 6 NEW Ellen Shipman and the American Garden Judith B. Tankard 7 The Best Planned City in the World: Olmsted, Vaux, and the Buffalo Park System [paperback] Francis R. Kowsky 8 FORTHCOMING Hare & Hare: Landscape Architects and City Planners Carol Grove and Cydney Millstein 9 The Greatest Beach: A History of Cape Cod National Seashore Ethan Carr 10 Robert Royston Reuben Rainey and JC Miller 11 A. E. Bye Thaisa Way 12 BACKLIST Lawrence Halprin Kenneth I. Helphand 13 Warren H. Manning: Landscape Architect and Environmental Planner Edited by Robin Karson, Jane Roy Brown, and Sarah Allaback 14 James Rose Dean Cardasis 15 Ruth Shellhorn Kelly Comras 16 Landscapes of Exclusion: State Parks and Jim Crow in the American South William E. O’Brien 17 Apostle of Taste: Andrew Jackson Downing, 1815–1852 David Schuyler 18 John Nolen: Landscape Architect and City Planner R. Bruce Stephenson 19 Arthur A. Shurcliff: Design, Preservation, and the Creation of the Colonial Williamsburg Landscape Elizabeth Hope Cushing 20 Community by Design: The Olmsted Firm and the Development of Brookline, Massachusetts Keith N. Morgan, Elizabeth Hope Cushing, and Roger G. Reed 21 A Genius for Place: American Landscapes of the Country Place Era Robin Karson 22 A Modern Arcadia: Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and the Plan for Forest Hills Gardens Susan L. Klaus 23 2 Graceland Cemetery: A Design History Christopher Vernon 24 The Native Landscape Reader Edited by Robert E. Grese 25 Mission 66: Modernism and the National Park Dilemma Ethan Carr 26 Fletcher Steele, Landscape Architect: An Account of the Gardenmaker’s Life, 1885–1971 Robin Karson 27 Design in the Little Garden Fletcher Steele 28 Silent City on a Hill: Picturesque Landscapes of Memory and Boston’s Mount Auburn Cemetery Blanche M.
    [Show full text]
  • Lancelot 'Capability' Brown: a Research Impact Review
    RESEARCH REPORT SERIES no. 50-2013 LANCELOT ‘CAPABILITY’ BROWN: A RESEARCH IMPACT REVIEW PREPARED FOR ENGLISH HERITAGE BY THE LANDSCAPE GROUP, UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA Jon Gregory, Sarah Spooner, Tom Williamson Research Report Series 50- 2013 LANCELOT ‘CAPABILITY’ BROWN: A RESEARCH IMPACT REVIEW PREPARED FOR ENGLISH HERITAGE BY THE LANDSCAPE GROUP, UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA Jon Gregory, Sarah Spooner, Tom Williamson © English Heritage ISSN 0246-98002 (Online) The Research Report Series incorporates reports by the expert teams within the Investigation & Analysis Division of the Heritage Protection Department of English Heritage, alongside contributions from other parts of the organisation. It replaces the former Centre for Archaeology Reports Series, the Archaeological Investigation Report Series, the Architectural Investigation Report Series, and the Research Department Report Series. Many of the Research Reports are of an interim nature and serve to make available the results of specialist investigations in advance of full publication. They are not usually subject to external refereeing, and their conclusions may sometimes have to be modified in the light of information not available at the time of the investigation. Where no final project report is available, readers must consult the author before citing these reports in any publication. Opinions expressed in Research Reports are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of English Heritage. Requests for further hard copies, after the initial print run, can be made by emailing: [email protected] or by writing to: English Heritage, Fort Cumberland, Fort Cumberland Road, Eastney, Portsmouth PO4 9LD Please note that a charge will be made to cover printing and postage.
    [Show full text]
  • Ray Desmond's 1990 Bibliography
    RAY DESMOND A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF GARDEN HISTORY SPRING From Garden History 18:1, 1990 (at end!) FOREWORD BY MAVIS BATEY PRESIDENT OF THE GARDEN HISTORY SOCIETY We are happy that, for the 25th anniversary of the Garden History Society, Ray Desmond has agreed to produce this up-to-date bibliography of garden history. Since the first committee meeting, when he was appointed Librarian, he has collected information about garden history and historic gardens and made it available to members through bibliographies in the Society’s Newsletter and Journal and to a wider public in his Bibliography of British Gardens. We are indebted to his scholarship and generosity. Perhaps it is a measure of the success of the Society’s campaigning for the relevance and importance of garden history that of the 150 or so books listed only 55 were available in 1965, when the Society was founded by Peter Hunt, who had just completed his Shell Gardens Book. For the entries in it he had called on a variety of expertise and was inspired with the idea of bringing the participants together to exchange ideas. The contributors’ width of expertise, covering horticulture, landscape architecture, history, literature, art, architecture, botany and dendrology made Peter Hunt realize the need to make a cohesive subject of garden history by forming a society to bring these wide-ranging interests together. Shortly after the publication of the Shell guide, Peter Hunt and Miles Hadfield, who in 1960 had published his influential Gardening in Britain, met by arrangement in the buffet of a London railway station (less appropriate than an historic garden perhaps), and discussed the formation of the Garden History Society.
    [Show full text]
  • Council of Europe European Landscape Convention
    Strasbourg, 23 July 2019 CEP-CDCPP (2019) 6E rev. COUNCIL OF EUROPE EUROPEAN LANDSCAPE CONVENTION 10th COUNCIL OF EUROPE CONFERENCE ON THE EUROPEAN LANDSCAPE CONVENTION Statement of the Conference of the member States of the Council of Europe to the European Landscape Convention on the professional recognition of landscape architects Adopted at the 10th Council of Europe Conference on the European Landscape Convention, in Strasbourg on 7 May 2019 and Reference Report “Professional recognition of landscape architects” prepared in the framework of the Work Programme of the Council of Europe for the implementation of the European Landscape Convention, by Michael Oldham, as Expert of the Council of Europe Document of the Secretariat General of the Council of Europe Directorate of Democratic Participation CEP-CDCPP (2019) 6E rev. Summary The European Landscape Convention and the Recommendation CM/Rec(2008)3 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on the guidelines for the implementation of the European Landscape Convention states on education and training: 1. Education European Landscape Convention “B. … education Each Party undertakes to promote:… c. school and university courses which, in the relevant subject areas, address the values attaching to landscapes and the issues raised by their protection, management and planning.” Recommendation CM/Rec(2008)3 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on the guidelines for the implementation of the European Landscape Convention “D. Education While schools in certain States already offer landscape training, such training should be strengthened so as to develop children’s sensitivity to questions which they are likely to experience when looking at the quality of their surroundings.
    [Show full text]
  • The Arnold Arboretum and the Early Years of Landscape Design Education in America
    The Arnold Arboretum and the Early Years of Landscape Design Education in America Phyllis Andersen It was now gay with carriages in lilac time, and the attendance of students was frequently noted. Every spring and fall, John G. Jack could be seen leading a coterie of teachers and the horticultur- ally inclined from plant to plant. At times in between, Benjamin M.Watson’s horticultural students from the Bussey Institution, or scholars of landscape gardening from Harvard’s Lawrence Scientific School or the Massachusetts Institute for Technology, were observed, notebook in hand, pacing up and down the shrub collection rows or scrutinizing a label on the trunk of a healthy specimen tree. -A scene described by Ida Hay in her 1995 history of the Arnold Arboretum, Science in the Pleasure Ground n July 1, 2002, the thirty-four-year-old Radcliffe t Seminars Program in Landscape Design and Landscape Design History became the Arnold Arboretum’s first formal program in landscape design. However, in the years between the Arboretum’s found- ing in 1872 and the death in 1927 of its first director, Charles Sprague Sargent, the Arboretum was at the cen- ter of efforts to transform the practice of landscape gar- dening into the profession of landscape architecture. The Arnold Arboretum’s initial involvement in the education of landscape designers was spurred by the interests of Sargent himself. To most people outside the Harvard community (and to many within it), Sargent was the Arboretum: it was his perspective, his personal- Holm Lea, the estate of Charles Sargent, m 1900, looking across the pond and Sargent’s edge plantmgs to the main house.
    [Show full text]
  • Landscape Morphology a Comparative Study of Landscape Aesthetics
    LANDSCAPE MORPHOLOGY A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LANDSCAPE AESTHETICS Jiahua Wu A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY VOLUME II DEPARTMENT OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND October, 1992 PART 3 TAO IN LANDSCAPE [157] HEAVEN CHINESE COSMOS MAP [158] 8 HEAVEN, EARTH AND MAN The art of traditional Chinese landscape design is one of the richest landscape design heritage in the world. It is not only a synthesis of the many forms of art such as Shan Shui painting, calligraphy, architecture, sculpture, botany, horticulture, but also a representation of Chinese thoughts. Although landscape painting, Shan Shui theory have achieved a high level of recognition and Chinese landscape design skills are widely known, the theory of Chinese landscape design and its aesthetic base have still not been fully discovered and discussed. The aim of this section is to try to explain the whole activity of Chinese landscape design: its aesthetic and philosophical roots and its methodology. 8.1 THE LAND, THE NATION AND THE CULTURE China is a vast country with 54 nations, almost 1.2 billion population and 9,600,000 square kilometers of land. The huge territory, the varied geomorphologic features and the rich vegetation have created a wide diversity of characteristics in the Chinese landscape. For thousands of years, the country was almost shut off from other parts of the world because of its specific geographical location and social structure. To the north, there is the Mongolian Great Prairie and Siberian Frigid Zone. To [159] the south-east, there is the Pacific Ocean.
    [Show full text]
  • What Is Landscape Architecture About?
    Scientific Journal of Latvia University of Agriculture Landscape Architecture and Art, Volume 7, Number 7 What is landscape architecture about? Karsten Jørgensen, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway What is landscape architecture about? A contextual discipline Landscape architecture is a contextual discipline. John Dixon Hunt in his book: Greater Perfection: When looking at a problem from a landscape the practice of garden theory [4]. Hunt’s statement architecture point of view, there is rarely one single is surely a polemic or provocative contribution, right answer to any question. The answers nevertheless, it is clear that most scholars within the are always depending on several factors, discipline today agree that there is a strong need to which all may change. When a certain factor develop landscape architecture theory further [2]. changes it may influence the answers directly, as During the last two to three decades, well as indirectly, as it may influence the way the this has been a big issue in the academic journals, other factors are considered. especially in JoLA, Landscape Journal and One example: in Studley Royal, near York Landscape and Urban Planning. in England, there is an old monastery ruin of great However, what should a theory of landscape magnitude and importance; the Fountains Abbey. architecture be like, what should it be concerned Thirteen Benedictine monks seeking a simpler life with? It must of course be concerned with the after leaving St.Mary’s Abbey in York founded the development and role of the fundamental concepts Abbey, Britain’s largest monastic ruin, in 1132. and ideas that lie behind the discipline of landscape They later became Cistercian monks.
    [Show full text]
  • Making It Home: the Power of Landscape to Create Good Housing
    Making it home: the power of landscape to create good housing Landscape Institute Position statement Whether the setting is urban or rural, far too many housing developments make Foreword little reference to the landscape in which they are set. The pressure in both the public and private sectors is to maximise use of available space. With a government target of three million new homes in England over the next twenty years, and a Scottish government target of 35,000 homes per year in the next decade, it is understandable but not acceptable that the emphasis is on quantity but not quality, on internal facilities rather than the overall setting. Fortunately, many house builders are increasingly aware that creating successful developments requires that local context, character and culture are part of the planning, design and management process. Provision of housing cannot be separated from current environmental and social challenges including climate change, biodiversity, energy supply, food security, social cohesion and flood risk management. Ensuring that all of us have access to good quality housing demands that we look again at how we plan and design it. Landscape underpins the environmental, social and economic pillars of sustainability. The vision of the Landscape Institute is that all development should be based on a genuine understanding of its landscape context so that these characteristics can create schemes that are desirable for the developer, the user and the neighbouring communities. In 2009 the Landscape Institute published a position statement Green Infrastructure: Connected and multifunctional landscapes which demonstrated how multifunctional landscapes can meet a wide variety of needs.
    [Show full text]
  • Landscape Architecture and the Challenge of Climate Change
    Landscape architecture and the challenge of climate change Landscape Institute Position statement As we confront growing social, political and economic concern over the use of our Foreword natural resources and the development of sustainable communities, there has never been a more important time to highlight the role of landscape architecture. Landscape architects take an holistic approach of the sort needed to create environmentally sustainable places where people want to live and work. The Rt Hon Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said during a recent address to landscape architects “…you bring together the skills, knowledge and passion that we need for the 21st century in the way that engineering shaped the 19th century. We need you in the fight against climate change. You can show people how it can be done. Your Institute has established a record to be proud of – whether greening gardens or greening the 2012 Olympics, from being leaders in the design of cleaner, greener neighbourhoods to pioneers of green energy and green infrastructure projects.” Responding to this challenge, this Position Statement is designed to: — Demonstrate to stakeholders and government the critical and central role that the landscape architecture profession has to play in the delivery of climate change policy objectives. — Inspire clients to adopt an holistic, landscape architecture approach to development which reinforces commercial and public objectives whilst delivering resilience in the face of a changing climate and assisting in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. — Provide guiding principles and case studies of the approaches taken by landscape architects to climate change adaptation and mitigation.
    [Show full text]
  • Garden Design Diploma Course
    GARDEN DESIGN DIPLOMA COURSE ASSIGNMENT ONE INTRODUCTION TUTOR TALK: The Learning Outcomes for this assignment are: • Identify famous Garden Designers, both British and American, who have influenced history and style TUTOR TALK: Professional garden design is something that is inspirational. A worthwhile composition is inevitably simple and invariably unique, being tailored to a specific set of criteria, that in turn is governed by the advantages and limitations of the basic site. Garden design is essentially solving the various logistical problems associated with what you have to work with, where to position such items as pathways, swimming pools, tennis courts, water features, flower beds and which plants would be most suited. Good garden design adds these ingredients to create a style in keeping with the site, the house and your client’s requirements. The whole process of design begins long before you put pen to paper. Your initial job is to find out just what you have and then what you want to achieve based on this initial fact finding. Once this basic analysis is completed, you can then move on to the fun job of preparing the design. However, before we move on to this it is important to look at the historical influences that have taken place over the years to increase your comprehension of how things evolved. Garden Design Diploma Course – Assignment One – Page 1 HISTORICAL GARDEN DESIGN INFLUENCES Gardening styles date back as far as the ancient civilisations of Egypt, Greece and Rome. In this lesson we will discuss the history of garden design and how garden designs of yesteryear influence today.
    [Show full text]