Garden Design Research Articles

Analysis of Application of Low-carbon Concept in Plant Landscape Design of Urban Gardens

Analysis of Application of Low-carbon Concept in Plant Landscape Design of Urban Gardens

Trampling Analysis of Autonomous Mowers: Implications on Garden Designs

Several trials have been carried out by various authors concerning autonomous mowers, which are battery-powered machines. The effects of these machines on turfgrass quality and energy consumption have been thoroughly investigated. However, there are still some aspects that have not been studied. Among these, random trajectory overlapping is one of the most important. To investigate these aspects, two RTK-GPS devices along with the custom-built software used for previous trials has been upgraded in order to precisely calculate how many times the mower drives over the same spot using random trajectories. This parameter, the number of passages in the same position, was hypothesized to explain the autonomous mower’s overlapping and trampling action. The trial has been carried out testing a commercial autonomous mower on three areas with different levels of complexity to assess its performances. The following variables were examined: the percentage of mowed area, the distance travelled, the number of intersections, the number of passages, and the autonomous mower’s work efficiency. The average percentage of area mown (average value for the three areas) was 54.64% after one hour and 80.15% after two hours of work. Percentage of area mown was 15% higher for the area with no obstacles after two hours of work. The number of passages was slightly different among the three garden designs. The garden with no obstacles obtained the highest number of passages with an average of 37 passages. The highest working efficiency was obtained in the garden with an intermediate number of obstacles with a value of 0.40 after two hours of work. The estimated energy consumption resulted 0.31 Wh m−2 after one hour and 0.42 Wh m−2 after two hours of working. These results highlight how the correct settings of cutting time may be crucial to consistently save energy during the long period and may be useful for a complete automation of the maintenance of green areas.

Walking, drawing, designing. Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell’s drawing stick and eighteenth-century landscape gardens


 
 
 
 For the German landscape gardener Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell (1750-1823) walking was a method to design landscapes for visitation and inhabitation, in other words, for both walking and staying. Sckell used an idiosyncratic device, the drawing stick, to draw outlines of pathways, plantings, and water bodies directly into the ground at one-to-one scale while walking. This method of “drawing in nature” while in motion was to enable the designer to respond to his imagination, emotions, and the impressions of the site more freely. Although Sckell’s walking designer exhibited the “natural” gait promoted in the late eighteenth century, its contrived nature mirrored the equally contrived nature of the landscape gardens it helped to design. Nevertheless, walking “with decorum” as what in today’s terms could be called a phenomenological bodily practice, was central to Sckell’s naturalistic garden designs that were to foster imagination and emotional response.
 
 
 

Beyond garden design: A review of outdoor occupation in hospital and residential care settings for people with dementia.

Access to outdoor space is widely recommended for people with dementia. However, there is limited information on the occupations of people with dementia within these spaces. We sought to review the research literature to identify the occupations of people with dementia in outdoor spaces in residential aged care and/or hospitals and report on features that support occupational participation as well as the benefits of occupational participation in these spaces. Scoping review. We searched electronic databases involving health, design, and horticulture literature. Studies were included if they involved people with dementia and considered occupations within gardens or garden-like spaces of hospitals, subacute rehabilitation facilities, or residential aged care. We identified 19 articles meeting the review criteria. Outdoor spaces for people with dementia varied in design and supported a range of occupations with the most common being social occupations, gardening, and physical activities. Quantitative studies suggested that benefits of outdoor occupations for people with dementia were improvements in activity participation, social connection, mood, agitation, light exposure, and sleep. Qualitative studies supported these findings and identified additional perceived benefits such as engagement, maintaining identity, health, and reduced levels of distress. Benefits were also reported for families and staff. Current literature shows that many occupations can be done outside and that these are beneficial for people with dementia. Despite the wide range of benefits, multiple studies reported that outdoor spaces remain under-utilised. More work is required to design spaces for occupational engagement, support access to outdoor spaces, and promote occupational participation.

Jungian Arts-Based Research: What it is, Why do it, and How

Jungian arts-based research (JABR) is opening the therapy room to the whole world. Even more, it is a way of making knowledge using creativity, the imagination, and the unknown psyche or the unconscious, with the wisdom of centuries materialized in art traditions. For here the sandplay is converted into art practice, whether that practice be writing novels or poetry, painting, sculpture, filmmaking, photography, internet games, garden design, music-making or more. Instead of keeping the space sealed off for therapist and patient to be alone, the sandplay of JABR is connected to society, nature, and the cosmos by materializing the psyche in dialogue with art and history. Synchronicities arise and archetypes are summoned into being through art-making that is deliberately poised to invite in the deep psyche. More depth can be generated through Jungian practices such as active imagination and amplification. Indeed, I will figure JABR as a three-stage process consisting of one, preparation with psychic and art matter, two, process inviting in spontaneity and the unknown, and three, reflection using the completed artwork. That artwork works, assumes a place in society independent of the artist. JABR art takes on the valence of Jung’s autonomous psychic image, only here with the material being to exist for centuries, to speak to different cultures, to generate multiple meanings and fixing none. Here JABR unites therapy with knowing and being. It is formational, in gathering what matters in the artist and the work, informational in finding out what is hidden to the conscious psyche, and transformational in offering to the scholar-therapist-artist plus the audience, new ways of being.

Construction of a Landscape Design and Greenery Maintenance Scheduling System Based on Multimodal Intelligent Computing and Deep Neural Networks.

Digitalization brings challenges and new opportunities to the development of landscape gardening, “smart gardening,” which is a product of landscape gardening in response to the development of the digital era. Based on the multimodal intelligent computing method and deep neural network machine learning algorithm, this paper adopts “digital landscape design logic” to analyze and research smart gardens and digital design. The digital landscape design process and methods are discussed based on design logic, design basis, environment analysis, and results presentation, and the greenery maintenance scheduling system is constructed. The paper focuses on the digital implementation of the environmental analysis of the site and uses Rhino software and Grasshopper visual programming language to build parametric logic, establish parametric analysis models, and conduct a comprehensive analysis of the current environment. The main theme of the whole paper is a logical approach to digital landscape design for smart gardens, using digital technology tools from the perspective of smart garden thinking, combining quantitative analysis and qualitative design, and intervening in digital landscape garden planning and design to explore the application of digital technology and tools.

Talking about the Construction Design of Landscape Garden and the Key Points of Greening Maintenance Technology

Talking about the Construction Design of Landscape Garden and the Key Points of Greening Maintenance Technology

Evaluation of water footprint of urban renewal projects. Case study in Seville, Andalusia

This publication presents a methodology for the evaluation of the water footprint of urban renewal projects. The indirect water footprint is obtained by adding together the embodied or virtual water of the materials incorporated in the 12-month project, while the direct footprint is mainly due to the green areas and rainwater collection system over its 40-year life span. The methodology, originally defined for the agricultural sector, is adapted to an urban system that includes gardens and sustainable urban drainage systems. In an innovative way, the present work analyses the amortisation of the indirect water footprint of the construction products by improvements in the city water cycle. The project involves street renewal with water-sensitive criteria, with five green areas, and road and pavement construction. The methodology identifies changes in garden designs, soil drainage, and rainwater-collecting systems in terms of blue, green, and grey water footprints. Five scenarios of a project in Seville, Spain are studied. The indirect water footprint of the project is 2.6 times higher than that in a standard project, but, due to annual savings of 65% in its direct water footprint, the breakeven point is reached in the 10th year.

Discussion on Landscape Planning and Design of Ecological Greenway Garden

Discussion on Landscape Planning and Design of Ecological Greenway Garden

Modularized Information Fusion Design of Urban Garden Landscape in Big Data Background

Traditional information fusion model has the problem of low efficiency in urban landscape design. In addition, using the current method to design urban commercial landscape public facilities, there are problems of large regional space occupation and unsatisfactory design effect. This paper designs a new modular information fusion model for urban landscape design process in view of genetic back propagation. On the basis of preprocessing sensor images, a digital elevation model is created using an ordered numerical sequence. Then, the stereo orthophoto image pair is obtained through the artificial parallax assistance mechanism, and the 3D garden landscape is generated by combining with the ant colony algorithm. The positive feedback mechanism of the ant colony algorithm is used to make the processing process converge continuously, and the optimal 3D garden landscape is finally generated by obtaining stereo orthophoto pairs through the artificial parallax-assisted mechanism. At the same time, the strong robustness and fault tolerance of neural network and parallel processing mechanism are utilized for fast information fusion. The scale and resources of garden design are described by the process dimension and the context dimension, and a modular garden landscape with distinct main body is built. Finally, the initial weight is optimized in the genetic real number coding algorithm, and the appropriate learning factor is selected to train the neural network so as to make the information fusion task. Experimental results show that the above model fusion process has good stability and low energy consumption for information fusion, which can promote the efficient construction of garden landscapes.

Impact of the Classic Chinese Garden Soundscape With Focus on Physiological and Psychological Effects, Tested Through Eye-Tracking, and Subjective Evaluation.

Soundscape has been valued and practiced in classical Chinese garden designs. Some authentic patterns were even mentioned and used in gardening books hundreds of years ago. Though these patterns are well-known, how they work in a classic Chinese garden is still unclear. In this study, we chose one of the most famous soundscapes called Tingyuxuan (Listening to the Sound of Rain Hall) in Zhuozhengyuan (Humble Administrator’s Garden), Suzhou as the object. A video of the Tingyuxuan was captured on a rainy day, along with its sound. Twenty-four participants were asked to view this video twice (once with audio, once muted, in a random order). Eye-movement data and the subjective evaluation of participants were collected. The results showed that the participants’ visual attention is influenced by the sound of rain and helps them identify and observe the main element of the soundscape. Furthermore, participants experienced more positive feelings when viewing the video with the audio on.

Biodiversity conservation in urban gardens – Pets and garden design influence activity of a vulnerable digging mammal

Residential gardens can provide essential opportunities for native wildlife and represent a valuable way of creating new habitats. Bandicoots (marsupial family Peramelidae) are medium-sized digging mammals that play a valuable role in maintaining ecosystem health; retaining these important ecosystem engineers across urban landscapes, including in private gardens, can have enormous conservation benefits. Urbanisation is a significant threat for some bandicoot species, and therefore understanding the factors associated with their activity can help guide urban landscape and garden design. To identify key features associated with the activity of a local endemic bandicoot species, the quenda (Isoodon fusciventer), we carried out a camera trap survey of front and back yards for 65 residential properties in the City of Mandurah, Western Australia. We compared quenda activity with biotic and abiotic factors that could indicate potential predation risk (activity of domestic dogs Canis familiaris and cats Felis catus, and the presence of artificial or natural protective cover), food availability (including deliberate or inadvertent supplementary feeding, provision of water, and diggable surfaces) and garden accessibility (distance to bushland, permeability of boundary fencing, and garden position). Supplementary feeding was strongly associated with quenda activity. Quenda were also more active in back yards, and in gardens where there was greater vegetation cover. Of concern, quenda activity was positively associated with cat activity, which could reflect that straying pet cats are attracted to gardens that harbour wildlife populations, including quenda. Furthermore, almost half of the gardens showed cat activity despite only a small sample of the surveyed residents owning a pet cat. Results of this study can help guide the design of residential gardens to increase useful habitat for these important digging mammals. Vegetation, wood mulch and semi-permeable fencing can provide valuable resources needed to support the persistence of quendas across the rapidly changing urban landscape mosaic, where natural and managed (e.g., gardens and parks) green spaces are becoming less common and more isolated.

Konsep Hidden Layer pada Perancangan Taman Brumbungan Kota Semarang

Hidden layers concept in the design of the Semarang City Brumbungan Park. Brumbungan Park is an open space located on Jalan Pringgading, Central Semarang District, Semarang City. The Location of Brumbungan Park in the previous condition was a vehicle parking area for culinary stalls in the vicinity. In 2016 there was a discourse to restore this park according to its function as a city park and green open space. The Central Java Environmental and Building Arrangement Work Unit in collaboration with the Central Java Regional Indonesian Architects Association held a green open space design competition to produce designs that could be implemented in the park. The Brumbungan park design that is offered tries to answer the problems and issues that occur around the park, as well as being able to accommodate various functions and activities in the park. The methodology used in this study are qualitative method by data inventory, analysis and synthesis then design concept determination and development. The result of the planning is the Hidden Layer of Semarang design concept, which means that even on a small scale, this new garden design is expected to contribute to green open spaces in Semarang, set a precedent, open new discourses, and become a catalyst for the development of parks and open spaces. Physical implementation of the concept, this park will be hidden and surrounded by vegetation (hidden layer) so that the facilities will be enjoyed while in the park.

Do Radishes and Carrots Grow in a Bunch? Students’ Knowledge about the Growth of Food Plants and Their Ideas of a School Garden Design

School gardens can be places of biodiversity and suitable learning environments for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). In particular, vegetable patches where students can make their own experiences in food growing are very apt to connect local acting and global thinking, which is one of the main concerns of ESD. Working in a school garden could be a chance to overcome the lack of perception and knowledge about plants and their life cycles, which is described as “plant blindness”. Concerning the impact of school gardening, studies often investigate teachers’ perspectives only. Therefore, in our study, we focused on students. Participants were mainly fifth and sixth graders in middle and grammar school (mean age 12.3 years, n = 2107). With a paper-pencil test, we investigated their knowledge about the growth of 10 selected crop plants and asked them to rate school garden design elements referring to their importance and suitability for taking over responsibility for nature. In addition, we asked for character traits necessary for a successful school gardener. The results showed that about 40% of the students are convinced that carrots and radishes grow in bunches underground, and nearly 50% thought kohlrabi is growing underground as well. Girls performed better than boys. Increasing age and experience in gardening had a positive effect on the answers. In the students’ opinion, fruit trees, birdhouses, and vegetable patches are the most important elements in school gardens. The liking of nature and patience were highly scored skills for successful school gardening. The influence of experiences in gardening on the answers showed the important role that school gardening could play to gain hands-on knowledge about plant growth and thus offer quality education for every student. This would not only contribute to the reduction of plant blindness but answer the requests of ESD and the goals postulated in the Agenda 2030.

Bacterial but Not Fungal Rhizosphere Community Composition Differ among Perennial Grass Ecotypes under Abiotic Environmental Stress.

ABSTRACTEnvironmental change, especially frequent droughts, is predicted to detrimentally impact the North American perennial grasslands. Consistent dry spells will affect plant communities as well as their associated rhizobiomes, possibly altering the plant host performance under environmental stress. Therefore, there is a need to understand the impact of drought on the rhizobiome, and how the rhizobiome may modulate host performance and ameliorate its response to drought stress. In this study, we analyzed bacterial and fungal communities in the rhizospheres of three ecotypes (dry, mesic, and wet) of dominant prairie grass, Andropogon gerardii. The ecotypes were established in 2010 in a common garden design and grown for a decade under persistent dry conditions at the arid margin of the species’ range in Colby, Kansas. The experiment aimed to answer whether and to what extent do the different ecotypes maintain or recruit distinct rhizobiomes after 10 years in an arid climate. In order to answer this question, we screened the bacterial and fungal rhizobiome profiles of the ecotypes under the arid conditions of western Kansas as a surrogate for future climate environmental stress using 16S rRNA and ITS2 metabarcoding sequencing. Under these conditions, bacterial communities differed compositionally among the A. gerardii ecotypes, whereas the fungal communities did not. The ecotypes were instrumental in driving the differences among bacterial rhizobiomes, as the ecotypes maintained distinct bacterial rhizobiomes even after 10 years at the edge of the host species range. This study will aid us to optimize plant productivity through the use of different ecotypes under future abiotic environmental stress, especially drought.IMPORTANCE In this study, we used a 10-year long reciprocal garden system, and reports that different ecotypes (dry, mesic, and wet) of dominant prairie grass, Andropogon gerardii can maintain or recruit distinct bacterial but not fungal rhizobiomes after 10 years in an arid environment. We used both 16S rRNA and ITS2 amplicons to analyze the bacterial and fungal communities in the rhizospheres of the respective ecotypes. We showed that A. gerardii might regulate the bacterial community to adapt to the arid environment, in which some ecotypes were not adapted to. Our study also suggested a possible tradeoff between the generalist and the specialist bacterial communities in specific environments, which could benefit the plant host. Our study will provide insights into the plant host regulation of the rhizosphere bacterial and fungal communities, especially during frequent drought conditions anticipated in the future.

Beijing Private Gardens: The Third Supplementary Study

As an important category of the classical garden system of China, private gardens in Beijing have a long and prosperous history. Based on the author’s previous studies, this article explores the topic further through textural research of twenty-six important gardens built in Beijing during the Ming (1368‒1644) and Qing (1644‒1911) dynasties, with the aim to extent the former analysis and provide additional information on garden layout and design.

1920~30년대 한국 주택정원 인식과 정원가꾸기 양상

The 1920s and 1930s were when new trends became prominent in Korean housing architecture. This study began with a curiosity about the appearance of residential gardens during the transition period, when housing types were changing. Since gardens are constantly evolving and living spaces, it is not easy to give a clear picture of their evolution. However, through popular magazines and newspaper articles published in the 1920-30s, this study investigated how people perceived the gardens socially and how they engaged in gardening. First, the study of Gyeongseong’s urbanization process revealed that people perceived gardens as a way to give natural beauty to the urban environment. Therefore, the creation of a residential garden was strongly encouraged. Second, the housing improvement movement, which the architects actively discussed during this period, emphasized that a garden is a factor that can help improve the quality of the residential environment in terms of hygiene and landscape aesthetics. Third, since the media provided information on gardening, it was confirmed that the number of people engaged in gardening as a hobby increased. As designers and gardeners who had received a modern education became more active, the concept of "designed gardens" was formed. Lastly, although the houses were divided into various types, the shapes of the gardens did not show a significant difference according to the architecture type. They tended to embrace the time’s ideal garden design and style. Therefore, even in a traditional hanok, Western-style gardens were naturally harmonized into the overall architecture, and exotic plant species could be found. Although the gardens found in media images were limited to those belonging to the homes of the intelligentsia, it can be seen that representativeness was secured, considering the popularity and ripple effect of the media. Therefore, this study contributes to the literature as it confirmed the ideal gardens and gardening methods in the 1920s and 30s.

Application of Regional Culture in Landscape Architecture Design under the Background of Data Fusion

With the rapid development of urban construction, the process of urban regeneration and new urban development is the process of fully integrating regional culture into garden design. From the current point of view, the landscape design of modern urban construction has become a problem that solves the necessity of thinking and detailed discussion. The purpose of this article is to study how to display the special signs of regional culture in the city and ultimately enable the symbiosis of regional culture and the surrounding environment. This article puts forward the importance of regional culture in landscape architectural design under the background of data fusion and how to let regional culture penetrate into landscape architectural design. Based on the algorithm of investigation method and data fusion, it can be learned from the research results of investigation method that human beings have never stopped exploring the regional culture. In today’s globalization, it highlights the characteristics of regional culture and advocates regional design and local culture. The combination of design is very necessary. In the experimental results of the data fusion algorithm, it can be known that when the evidence is the same, even if the weight adjustment is correct, the final conclusion is still close to the actual situation. It can be seen that, based on the data fusion algorithm, we can also know that regional cultural elements are becoming more and more important for landscape architectural design. In the experimental results of this article, in 2019, different age groups have the highest regional culture, which is as high as 38%, which is an increase of 12% over 2018. According to the data of the survey and research, it can be seen that the demand for regional culture for 15–30 years of age is between 30% and 50%, and the demand for regional culture for 50–75 years of age is between 53% and 70%. The demand for this age group is the highest. This shows that only by rationally using urban cultural resources, fully exploring the possibility of regionalization, and expanding the urban culture on the basis of the organic combination of the two can the regional cultural characteristics of the urban landscape be more and gradually clear. The spirit of the city is consolidated, thereby promoting the healthy development of the city. Only by digging the essence of regional culture can we create landscape design works with regional characteristics and significance.

Formative Characteristics of the Soudang (素宇堂) Historic House <italic>Byeoldang</italic> Garden in Uiseong

Background and objective This study aimed to estimate the creation period and creators of Soudang historic house Byeoldang (Annexe) Garden (素宇堂古宅 別堂庭園, Unification as ‘SB Garden’ from now on) located in Uiseong-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do through a literature research and field survey, and establish the construction style and value of the garden through research and analysis of its spatial and visual characteristics and garden design. The findings are as follows. Methods The research method was a combination of literature study, field survey, and comparative review. The architectural history of SB Garden were analyzed through a literature survey, and the spatial configuration of Soudanggotaek and the visual and planting design characteristics of SB Garden were derived through field survey. Also the form and style of SB Garden were identified through comparative studies between Japanese garden style cases, and Japanese gardens created in Korea during the late Joseon and Japanese colonial period. Results It is estimated that SB Garden was built between 1890 and 1920, during the late Joseon Dynasty and the early days of Japanese colonial rule, by Lee Jang-seop (1854–1907) and Lee Hong (1887–1972). Comprehensively considering the form of its small hills, the shape of the pond and the introduction of yarimizu, the presentation of oddly-shaped stones and stone structures (stone settings), the introduction of stone bridges and stone lanterns, the strolling route and stepping stones, and the tree species introduced and their planting methods, the hills of SB Garden are different in form and technique from seokgasan created in Korean traditional gardens. Through the hills, the intention of making a garden is detected, with the motif of “garden of cranes and turtles.” Conclusion The foundation from which SB Garden can be considered a Korean traditional garden is very weak, and this garden is evaluated as a modern garden completed by introducing a Japanese garden style in modern times. Specifically, SB Garden is considered to be a stroll-style garden that enables users to appreciate it by connecting the three gardens with stepping stones and stone bridges, including the garden of cranes and turtles (a sort of pond garden), the tea garden centered on the Byeoldang (Annexe), and the stone garden.

INTEGRATION OF LANDSCAPES IN HEALTHCARE FACILITIES TO HEAL USERS' BODY-MIND HEALTH

The inclusion of nature in healthcare facilities for its restorative healing benefits began earlier in ancient times but was gradually forgotten in the development of the modern hospital. In Malaysia, it is found that most of the public hospital only focused on the built environment while disregarding the green outdoor environment. There is also a dearth of studies on the implementation of healing environment through therapeutic landscape in Malaysia. This study aims to identify the healing landscapes or therapeutic landscapes in healthcare facilities that are able to heal users’ body-mind health, and to investigate the design and construction guidelines of therapeutic gardens in Malaysian healthcare facilities. This study is conducted using the qualitative method through precedent studies and case studies on healthcare facilities integrated with landscape elements as well as the quantitative method by questionnaire survey. The study has proven that patients who spend time in the courtyard garden or therapeutic garden in healthcare facilities have shorter recovery period and experience a reduction in the level of stress and anxiety. In the future, it is also to be advised to have more studies conducted on local courtyard garden in healthcare facilities in order to fulfil the basic principle of healing garden or therapeutic garden that could heal human body-mind health.