Landscape Architecture Practice Research Articles

Landscape architecture as democratic practice: learning from participatory methods and motivations in community-engaged design

To guide and advance participatory and democratic landscape architecture practice, this study investigates the participatory methods and motivations of community-engaged design (CED) practice aligned with the principles of democratic professionalism (DP). A content analysis of semi-structured interviews with 17 experienced scholar-professionals in landscape architecture and related professions whose praxis is rooted in participatory principles (1) identified a toolbox of essential task-sharing methods and strategies based on typical landscape architecture project stages (site analysis/data collection, planning and design, and implementation and post-implementation), and two key themes—relationship-building and communication, and (2) found the principal motivations driving democratic design practices to be empowerment and advocacy, community engagement ethics, and democratising professional paradigm. Task-sharing approaches identified in landscape architecture practice exemplify how DP values can be embedded in all phases of a CED project. This study also affirms the position that landscape architecture as a profession has the potential to advance DP.

Research on the Application of Three-Dimensional Virtual Reality Technology in Landscape Architecture Design

This study investigates the depth of and engaging experiences for designers and users could transform conventional landscape architecture design approaches through the use of 3D virtual reality technology. Research assesses the advantages and difficulties of using 3D virtual reality (VR) into landscape architectural practice by means of an extensive analysis of the body of current literature and case studies. The study looks into how 3D virtual reality (VR) technology affects the ideation, imagining, collaboration, and presentation phases of the architecture and landscape process of design. It examines how virtual reality simulations can improve communication among design teams, facilitate client engagement, and enhance decision-making processes. The study also looks at the practical and technical aspects of using 3D virtual reality technologies in landscaping design firms, including hardware requirements, software compatibility, and training requirements. In the end, the research's findings deepen our understanding of how 3D virtual reality technology might revolutionize landscape architecture, practice, and spur creative thinking in design processes.

An Exploration of the Extent of Monitoring and Evaluation of Sustainable Construction in Kenya: A Landscape Architecture Perspective

The practice of landscape architecture in Kenya is growing alongside the country’s construction industry, which is currently experiencing exponential growth in tandem with construction trends globally. With the growth in the industry, there has been significant growth in the economy, high consumption of natural resources, a 50% increased contribution to the world’s landfill waste, and pollution of the adjacent environment. These have given rise to high pressure to adopt environmentally sensitive approaches in the construction industry to achieve competitive advantage. It is therefore crucial to address the need for sustainability measures for landscape architecture projects to increase knowledge and awareness, create incentives geared toward supporting sustainable practices, and leverage legal instruments and policies. The aim of this study was to identify the barriers to the adoption of and improvement in the monitoring and evaluation of sustainable practices in landscape architecture in Kenya that prevent the industry from achieving sustainability. The objective of this research was to critically analyze the many challenges and barriers to the achievement of sustainability in the Kenyan construction industry with a focus on landscape architecture practices. It also examined the overall extent of the adoption, monitoring, and evaluation of sustainability, and possible solutions were proposed for the management of and reduction in said barriers. The study was carried out through extensive research of secondary data sources on the average level of knowledge and technical know-how of sustainable construction, the level of perception of compliance, the average cost of construction vis à vis sustainable construction, and the level of sustainability in the construction sector in Kenya. The collected data were analyzed empirically and, through the use of descriptive statistics and findings, the data were discussed. The preliminary findings from this study indicate that there is an overall poor attitude toward M&E of sustainability in Kenya, indicating the need to further improve processes.

Definition of the Green Infrastructure Vegetation System: An Approach to the City of Castelo Branco

This paper analyses the vegetation system as a matter of design and configuration of the urban green infrastructure of Castelo Banco, Portugal, taking into account the current environmental challenges—air quality, biodiversity and the climate crisis. Being one of the components of nature-based solutions, it explores among its multiple functions those of ecological and cultural order. Furthermore, it deals with integrating the knowledge of phytosociological science into the projectual practice of landscape architecture. Specifically, it explores the choice of the most appropriate vegetation system to be used in order to meet the future needs of this city.

Against the Anthropocene

Against the Anthropocene: Visual Culture and the Environment Today T. J. Demos. Sternberg Press, 2017. ![Figure][1]</img> Environmental protection has occupied an important place in landscape architecture practice and research since its professional formation in the late 18th and early 19th

The evolution and impacts of ‘complexity notions’ in landscape architecture

Complexity notions, i.e. ideas or methods that incorporate concepts and rationales from complexity science as analogies or models, frequently appear in landscape architectural discourses. However, debates have arisen about the legitimacy and relevance of complexity notions in landscape architecture. Are complexity notions an ephemeral fashion or derived from the inherent needs of landscape architecture research and practice? What role do complexity notions play in the development of landscape architecture? To answer these questions, we conducted a three-phase review of the complexity notions in landscape architectural theories and practices since early 20th century. We concluded that complexity notions in landscape architecture are a long-standing and increasingly significant subject rather than a passing fad. Complexity notions serve as an exploratory system rather than tyrannical dogma. Addressing the increasing complexity of landscapes and inspired by up-to-date complexity theories, incorporating adaptive learning processes is becoming a new paradigm in landscape research and practice.

Analyze the usage of urban greenways through social media images and computer vision

Urban greenway is an emerging form of urban landscape offering multifaceted benefits to public health, economy, and ecology. However, the usage and user experiences of greenways are often challenging to measure because it is costly to survey such large areas. Based on the online postings from Instagram in 2017, this paper used Computer Vision (CV) technology to analyze and compare how the general public uses two typical greenway parks, The High Line in New York City and the Atlanta Beltline in Atlanta. Face and object detection analysis were conducted to infer user composition, activities, and key experiences. We presented the temporal patterns of Instagram postings as well as the group gatherings, smiling, and representative objects detected from photos. Our results have shown high user engagement levels for both parks while teens are significantly underrepresented. The High Line had more group activities and was more active during weekdays than the Atlanta Beltline. Stronger sense of escape and physical activities can be found in Atlanta Beltline. In summary, social media images like Instagram can provide strong empirical evidence for urban greenway usage when combined with artificial intelligence technologies, which can support the future practice of landscape architecture and urban design.

Policy Brief

Rob Kuper Rob Kuper is a licensed landscape architect in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and an associate professor of landscape architecture at Temple University. He Received a BS in Environmental Design and an MLA from Auburn University. Past research interests generally involved the perception of landscapes, specifically with regard to time. His current and future research focuses on greenhouse gas emissions related to landscape architectural teaching and practice.

A Qualitative Study of Practitioner Perspectives on Landscape Architecture and Equity

This paper describes an interpretive, exploratory qualitative study that sought to understand practitioner perspectives on challenges to and opportunities for advancing equity through landscape architecture. We defined equity broadly as “fair and just access to opportunities and resources.” A purposeful nonrandom sample of public practice designers aswell as designers in private and nonprofit practice who worked on public projects was followed by a snowball sample.We conducted 25interviews in total. As we planned for our member check in May 2020, George Floyd, an unarmed black man, was murdered by Minneapolis PoliceOfficerDerek Chauvin, prompting racial justice and police reform protests in the Twin Cities and around theworld.We used themember check survey as an opportunity to reviewthemesidentifiedin the interviews and to ask how participants thought their interview responses might have shifted as a result of experiencing these events. Participants identified the lack of diversity in landscape architectural education and practice as a barrier. They observed that one’s professional power (e.g., status as a firmleader vs. junior staffmember)was significant to one’s ability to advocate for equity through practice. Public engagement and community planning processes were seen as opportunities for landscape architects to address the unequal distribution of positive and negative impacts of environmental design. Respondents suggested that there was a need to educate design decision-makers about what equity is and how equity-driven design projects might be implemented. Respondents noted the role that community organizations played in educating designers about equity issues. Our next steps are to create a survey based on our findings, to use that survey to hear froma broader range of practitioners in the State of Minnesota, and to share this research with ASLA-MN members who are organizing equity-advocacy networks.

Understanding Landscape Architecture Industry Needs: A Preliminary Review of Graduates Communication Proficiency Model (CPM)

Communication is a fundamental part of the working environment that comprises interpersonal relations and communication between groups and individuals and other social interactions within the active community. Communication and soft skills have become an important issue due to the lack of study and development, especially in the Landscape Architectural practice. It can be seen that the lack of communication and soft skills by current graduates has affected employability leading to a large quantity of unemployment and lack of advancement within the landscape industry. Hence, to keep up with the current trends of what employers seek within these landscape architecture graduates, it is believed that a paradigm shift in the training of students must take into account the development of Communication Skills within the curriculum to help aid the development of graduate employability skills. A method of assessing communication skills is also required to rate a Landscape Architect’s level of communication competence to further enhance the graduates’ career in the industry.&#x0D; Keywords: Soft Skill, Communication Skill, Landscape Architecture, Employability Skills

Performance Evaluation: Identifying Barriers and Enablers for Landscape Architecture Practice

Performance evaluation is crucial for environmental design and sustainable development, especially so for architecture and landscape architecture. However, such performance evaluations remain rare in practice. It is argued that the concerns over potential negative evaluations and a lack of funding are the two main barriers preventing the undertaking of performance evaluations. This research investigated how these two barriers were overcome in practice by studying 41 evaluation cases in the New Zealand landscape architecture field, as well as several international and architectural case studies for comparison. A range of enablers for performance evaluation practices were identified by this research, including funding sources and models that were not documented by existing literature, as well as two strategies for handling the risks of negative evaluation. All of the identified enablers share the same underlying logic—the benefits and costs of an evaluation should be well-regulated by certain mechanisms to keep the benefits of an evaluation greater than, or at least balanced with, the costs, for all the parties involved in the evaluation.

Productive Friction Between Practice and the Academy: Why Can’t We Be Friends?

This essay examines the various machinations and relationships between landscape architectural practice and landscape architectural academia. Through the lens of productive friction and the philosophical framework of radical hope; I unpack various examples of disruptors and innovation with the aim of opening up a discussion around our urgent need for transformation.

Learning to Design with Stakeholders: Participatory, Collaborative, and Transdisciplinary Design in Postgraduate Landscape Architecture Education in Europe

Over the last few decades, interaction and collaboration with stakeholders and communities in the design and development of our environment have become integral parts of landscape architecture practice. This article explores the position of this kind of designing in postgraduate landscape architecture education in Europe. An analysis of the international master’s curricula in landscape architecture of 29 universities across Europe shows there is some attention paid to participatory, collaborative, and transdisciplinary design in several, but not all programs. However, participatory, collaborative, and transdisciplinary design is an important topic in the current discourse amongst landscape architecture scholars. This may indicate an increase in attention to the topic in European landscape architecture education curricula in the (near) future.

Designing Aesthetic Experiences for the Cultural Sustainability of Ecological Health

Ensuring human wellbeing and promoting ecological health are two central objectives in contemporary landscape architecture practice and adaption to climate change. Cognitive sciences recognize that affect and emotion play a critical role in human decision-making. This article describes how aesthetic experiences could affect decisions that support or undermine ecological health. While the wellbeing benefits of pleasant landscape experiences have been demonstrated empirically, aesthetic experiences may or may not promote ecological health. The question of how to better align the two remains under debate and investigation. Building on the concept of cultural sustainability, this article elucidates how aesthetic experiences can be used in design tactics to encourage societal acceptance for highly functioning ecosystems that otherwise may be destroyed or resisted for their unappealing or unfamiliar appearance. With examples from China and the United States, this article illuminates how fine-scale, immediately noticeable landscape characteristics, such as “cues to care,” can change perceptual and affective responses to promote ecological health. This article invites readers to reflect on what role aesthetic experiences may play in conserving, restoring, and creating ecologically sound landscapes as we face new challenges in the urban era of climate change, and how design can help construct aesthetic experiences with immediately noticeable landscape characteristics.

From Social Spaces to Training Fields: Evolution of Design Theory of the Children’s Public Sphere in Hungary in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

ABSTRACT The first half of the twentieth century brought turbulent changes into the political and social scene of Hungary. Within a few decades the country shifted from being a partner in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, to the short-lived Hungarian – and later Soviet – Republic and ultimately to the independent Kingdom of Hungary. These changes strongly affected the ideologies of all fields of life, including landscape architectural and educational theory and practice. This paper discusses evolving Hungarian ideas about designing places for children in the international context of education, by following the changing concepts of play spaces, from designing for physical education and health, to the idea of training soldiers for an approaching war. By tracing the intricate links between these and the history of Hungary in the early twentieth century, the paper argues that the interwoven nature of design theory and the socio-political context of children’s spaces is key in understanding their development.

Evidence-Based Landscape Architecture for Human Health and Well-Being

More than 80% of the people in the USA and Canada live in cities. Urban development replaces natural environments with built environments resulting in limited access to outdoor environments which are critical to human health and well-being. In addition, many urban open spaces are unused because of poor design. This paper describes case studies where traditional landscape architectural design approaches would have compromised design success, while evidence-based landscape architecture (EBLA) resulted in a successful product. Examples range from school-yard design that provides safe levels of solar radiation for children, to neighborhood parks and sidewalks that encourage people to walk and enjoy nearby nature. Common characteristics for integrating EBLA into private, public, and academic landscape architecture practice are outlined along with a discussion of some of the opportunities and barriers to implementation.

Picturing Thickness: The Creative Process of Imaging Sequencing

This visual essay is structured as a sequence of imagetexts, which through the bringing together of images and words opens up insights into the Danish landscape Farum Midtpunkt. This we argue, pushes imaging towards new conceptions as a research method embedded in the specificity of place and its change over time. Strung together, the sequence of imagetexts create a thick description bringing together past and present intentions, impressions and reflections in and on the site through a gathering and rendering – or (re)presenting – of Farum’s landscape. This approach is inspired by the picturing of duration, visual-descriptive walks, and projective imagery as a contributor to emergent realities. We thus work towards establishing the imagetext sequence as a methodology of picturing thickness which bridges historical and experiential perceptions providing a new approach to fieldwork in landscape architectural research and practice.

ECOLOGICAL OR NATURALISTIC:A BRIEF REVIEW AND SEVERAL THOUGHTS ON CONTEMPORARY PLANTING DESIGN

<i>Nature</i> is a cultural construct, and a symbolic form to our cultural landscape. It plays a critical role in the profession of Landscape Architecture, shaping both the practice in the constructed environment as well as the conception of landscape in Pedagogy. This article evaluates contemporary landscape architecture practice in the U.S. through the lens of planting design and ecological design approaches. This retrospect situates selected individuals and their practices in the field of landscape architecture in the past two decades, in parallel with the evolving ecological understanding. These individuals and their works demonstrate the changes in planting design and ecological thinking in the professional practice, and most importantly how these changes contribute to current ecological design methodologies, landscape aesthetics, and public perception of landscape. In addition, the article aims to illustrate a shifting conception of <i>Nature</i> over time and in different cultural context, in which different conceptions of Nature facilitate various approaches to addressing environmental issues. By situating in such context, the article hopes to provide a critical view of contemporary American landscape architecture practice and the current ecological agenda, in order to enable discussions regarding the professional practice in the future.

A new landscape architecture : The living fences experience in Buenos Aires

The Breathe/Respirar Project (BRP) explores opportunities to improve air quality in schoolyards using living fences, and to facilitate the multiple social and environmental co-benefits that can result from greening existing urban infrastructures, which include opportunities for environmental education and reconnecting people with nature. This exploration takes place through a series of experiments in Urban Living Labs set in schoolyards of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The experiments involve (1) engaging the school community (teachers, schoolchildren, parents, other stakeholders) to co-create the experiment; (2) designing and implementing interventions in ‘the schoolyard as landscape’; (3) including activities that enhance co-benefits; (4) monitoring integrated effects; and (5) collectively analysing outcomes. The essay discusses preliminary findings from a pilot project’s early set up. With effectiveness outcomes still in process, we focus on implications for further project implementation and wider lessons learned to inform the practice of landscape architecture in the context of interdisciplinary socio-environmental projects. These speak to a framework of three premises (making environmental commitment a central pillar; using multidisciplinary approaches for multifunctional landscapes; and communicating strong messages through landscapes themselves and complementary activities). We suggest the current relevance of this professional ethos as landscape architecture seeks to play a bigger role in meeting environmental challenges.

Mapping Landscape Spaces

Landscape design focuses on the construction and articulation of outdoor space and results in landscape architectonic compositions. In order to communicate about three-dimensional forms and functions, vocabulary, representations, and tools (in terms of spatial-visual characteristics) are of fundamental importance for landscape architects to describe, interpret, and manipulate landscape spaces. While combining design vocabulary and landscape indicators, qualitative and quantitative mapping approaches, visual representation and interpretation methods, this research aims to provide a framework for describing, understanding, and communicating about spatial-visual characteristics in landscape design. A pilot study is used to explore the potential of specific mapping approaches, such as compartment analysis, 3D landscapes, grid-cell analysis, landscape metrics, visibility analysis, and eye-tracking analysis, which are employed to address spatial-visual phenomena like sequence, orientation, continuity, and complexity. Hypothetical design experiments are conducted to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of spatial-visual mapping in the design process. Interviews with designers are carried out to reflect on techniques for mapping spatial-visual characteristics in the daily practice of landscape architecture. This research opens a way in which to apply visual landscape research in the process of landscape design and supports the development of multidisciplinary approaches. By expanding the spatial-visual mapping toolbox, designers can engage in issues of landscape development, transformation, and preservation while providing realistic and instrumental clues for interventions in urban landscapes.