Place Landscape Architecture Theory

Robert Thayer- Grey World, Green Heart For a true global sustainability movement to occur, ordinary people must make small changes within their local setting every day. Our landscape is the visible and tangible factor regarding our existence on this planet. Yet there is a transparency that exists that prevents us from making changes. We need to open our eyes to the landscape in order to learn from it and improve it. Consistency between emotions, thoughts, and actions should be applied to landscapes. Sustainable landscapes need not develop a style, rather they should be unique to the place and culture. Sustainable landscapes should transform all inner workings of a culture and the communities that function within them. Nature and technology should seek a calm balance within sustainable landscapes. Find joy in working to find solutions to tame technology and accept the fact that not all goals are met--meeting any of them is still an achievement.

----------------------- Designers will benefit from this article by taking the initiative to incorporate small ways of becoming sustainable into the entire design process (design-->build-->inhabitation) as well as making sure to educate those involved. The place is created by how we view and interpret the landscape. When a landscape is opaque, there is a need to make it transparent in order to truly understand how it works. Once that is achieved, we may better cater to it and find a way to balance ourselves and our practices within it. Ultimately, thinking with the intention of developing sustainable landscapes will provide a healthier and more accommodating landscape in the future. ----------------------- Out of the following, what does NOT constitute a sustainable landscape according to Robert Thayer in the excerpt from Grey World, Green Heart? On that has transparency--the ability to see into and understand the inner workings of a landscape. Landscapes that create an illusion of a better world while depriving us of the actual means of achieving it. A visual ecology, in which we are able to assess the conditions affecting us and make cogent environmental decisions. One that interprets the relationship of human beings to their environment in spatial terms. Ultimately, the goal of sustainable landscapes it the transformation of: Crop Production Culture Technology Business Ethics

Place Landscape Architecture Theory

Ten years from now, Sustainable Landscapes will be prevalent in our society. Briefly argue for or against this claim. Sustainable landscapes will not necessarily be prevalent. There will be more attempts to develop them and possibly very successful ones, however the Sustainability movement we are experiencing will not be advanced enough within ten years for our society to consider it the norm. With building designs becoming LEED certified so casually now, within ten years those will be commonplace and societies can begin to focus on the landscape as a whole, rather than one segment of it.

Place Landscape Architecture Theory

John Lyle- Design for Human Ecosystems Humans have been un-intentionally designing ecosystems for thousands of years. The ecosystems we create are different than the previous natural ones but will nonetheless respond to the same forces. Humans must design ecosystems with the proper intent in order to use them sustainably. The self-organizing inner-workings of a landscape can be drawn upon to make a human ecosystem sustainable. Humans are an integral component in a landscape. An ecosystem is the interactions of living things in a non-living environment. Normally, humans, although living, are excluded from this study but should not be. Three concepts organize the shaping of ecosystems: scale, design process, and order. Ecosystems are divided into subsystems. This emphasizes the complexity of them. Design is the intentional change to a landscape and its social patterns. Structure, function, and location define order. Management is necessary to facilitate natural changes and sometimes replace selfregulating ones.

----------------------- A place looks the way it does because humans have altered it over time in order to develop landscapes that are livable. Designers should be able to establish an understanding that humans have, and always will alter the landscape, however one should take into consideration means by which ecosystems can be changed in ways that are both non-detrimental to the natural systems as well as can accommodate human beings sustainably. ----------------------- Those places in which human beings and nature might be brought together after a long period of separation are called compromise areas or human ecosystems. (Either answer accepted) Which of these is NOT a land category according to Eugene Odum: Productive Areas Urban Industrial/Biologically non-vital Areas Unimportant Areas Protective /Natural Areas True or False? It is important to include as subjects of design not only the visible form of the landscape but its inner workings or the systems that motivate and maintain it as well. True.

Place Landscape Architecture Theory

Pierce Lewis- Axioms for Reading the Landscape: Some Guides to the American Scene A cultural landscape is everything we see when we go outdoors. All human landscapes have cultural meaning, no matter how ordinary the landscape. Man-made landscapes are a reflection of its peoples culture. If there is a major change in the look of a landscape, then there is a major cultural change occurring as well. If two locations look different than one another, the cultures probably differ as well. If two places start to look more and more alike, the cultures are merging. The look of a landscape is often changed by imitation. Different cultures have different tastes in landscapes. History matters in trying to decipher contemporary landscapes. Most cultural change happens in bursts, rather than gradually. Culture will make little sense if studied outside of its context. Most cultural landscapes are related to its physical one. Most objects in a landscape dont convey an obvious message.

----------------------- Places look the way they do because people have altered them. Designers should take from this article how landscapes develop with and around a particular culture. The people that live in the landscape change it for better or for worse. It is critical that the designer not only understands the context but the people that will be inhabiting it. ----------------------- If two areas come to be more and more alike, it is assumed that the cultures within them are: Diverging At war Converging Unaware of one another True or False? The look of a landscape is often changed by imitation. True. A designer would like to develop a new park in a small urban community. Briefly name two methods with which the designer can obtain valuable information to develop the park: Study precedents of parks in the area. Study the demographics of the area as well as how the people live and interact among one another.