BeingAliveLanguage: Visualizing soil information from a design perspective to enhance multidisciplinary communication

Abstract

Soil forms the foundation for biotic and abiotic activities that shape landscapes over time. Effective communication and understanding of soil profiles, contents, and interactions with other systems such as vegetation and climate are crucial for multidisciplinary research and projects involving soil. A robust, comprehensible, and extendable visualization system is required to enhance communication across diverse disciplines, including landscape architecture, agronomy, and ecology.This paper introduces the BeingAliveLanguage, an innovative, extensible visualization system for soil-centric information within a multidisciplinary communication framework. The system employs a fractal-based visual language to effectively convey vital soil information to professionals in various fields engaged in architecture, landscape design, and urban planning projects. The corresponding software, developed as a plugin for the Rhino-Grasshopper CAD environment, allows users to automatically generate easily understandable soil-centered diagrams using a node-based programming language. Designed to enhance communication in landscape, geoscience, and agriculture-related fields, the system provides critical information to support the design and decision-making process. We showcase the system’s efficacy through two extensions and by utilizing the tool in multiple real-world projects.