ix Landscape architectural design is a complex and multitasked journey that seeks to create
environments that are acclimated to their site and surrounding context, accommodate users’
characteristics and needs, incorporate cultural heritage, embody sustainability, and integrate functional requirements. In addition to all these principal intentions, landscape architectural design also endeavors to forge space as a stage for human activities and enjoyment. Space is the invisible entity in the landscape that people occupy and use whenever they are in the landscape. Th e process of creating space, whether it be in a backyard garden or grand public space, distinguishes landscape architectural design from other environmental and garden design vocations.
Among the numerous devices and techniques employed to create space in the landscape, one of the most important is form. Form is the two- and three-dimensional armature that frames landscape space and gives is organizational structure. Well-conceived form is essential to a landscape design because it is the underlying armature for almost aspects of design. Like an animal skeleton or the steel structure of a building, form aff ects the overall size, proportion, and massing of a landscape architectural design as well as the relationship among individual components.
Th e sense of structure is most pronounced in highly architectonic landscapes that employ orthogonal forms and least evident in designs that emulate natural patterns. Structural form is often established with fundamental geometric shapes like the square, triangle, circle, and their component elements. Forms may also be organic and be derived from naturally occurring objects and shapes. Whatever its source, form is typically seen in the landscape by edges between spaces, elements, and ground materials. Form is further expressed in the third dimension by a building footprint, walls/fences, steps, plant masses, and the contour of the ground plane.
Most important, form is the foundation for space in the landscape. Th e scale, proportion, orientation, use, and meaning of outdoor space are profoundly dependent on the ground plane footprint and its three-dimensional expression, just as architectural volume is decidedly associated with a building’s fl oor plan, associated walls, and ceilings. In essence, how people experience and move through space corresponds to how it is structured. Form likewise establishes the feel and temperament of a landscape. Heroic, poetic, serial, exploratory, and so on are all potential landscape dispositions aff ected by the underlying confi guration. Finally, style is explicitly associated with form as well. Classic, romantic, modern, postmodern, and other styles are each based on a particular set of forms and their arrangement.
Preface
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Although a well-composed organization of forms is necessary for an admired landscape architectural design, it is only one ingredient. By itself, form does not ensure that an eff ective landscape design will be achieved. Adroit form composition in the landscape must be fused with a respect for the site, sensitivity to potential site users, incorporation of sustainable techniques, and an intelligent and creative vision. Further, form must serve as a foundation for three-dimensional spatial volumes. It is easy, especially for novice designers, to become focused only on plan pattern and to forget that the spatial experience is the most engaging quality of the landscape. Finally, form is only an underpinning and must ultimately be expressed with the proper choice of elements and materials. A landscape design with a sound structural framework can be captivating and memorable with the correct palette of materials but a visual misadventure if a poor selection of materials is used. So, a design’s forms must be combined with sound judgment in all phases and deliberations of the design process. In the end, form is simply one of the many tools used to fashion a design, not an end unto itself.
Th is book off ers a written and graphic description of the interrelationship between form and space, two reciprocal entities that each rely on the other for articulation. Th e focus is on the use of form to delineate space in landscape architectural site design, a genre that encompasses such projects types as parks, urban plazas, courtyards, entry spaces, gardens, residential sites, and the like. Site design is the pedestrian scale of landscape architecture where meaning, art, and craft coalesce to forge environments that are directly experienced with all our senses.
Th is text fi rst presents the concepts, typologies, and rudimentary principles of form and space as the foundation of design. Subsequent chapters focus on fundamental form typologies starting with orthogonal shapes, the most architectonic and humanly infl uenced geometry, and progressing to organic forms, the genre of shapes most informed by nature. Individual chapters describe and illustrate the elements, unique characteristics, landscape uses, and design guidelines for each type of form. While an attempt is made to discuss the most commonly employed forms in the landscape, it is by no means meant to recognize and categorize all.
Th e book is intended to provide the core concepts of the most prevalent form typologies with the awareness that all designers are continually seeking and creating new ways to shape the landscape. Th us, this book is meant as a point of departure, not a defi nitive prospectus.
A quick note for the beginning designer about the graphic style used in the illustrations throughout the book. Th e graphics used here have been employed to convey landscape designs in a clear, legible manner. As a consequence, many of the designs can be interpreted as employing a simplistic palette of materials, especially plant materials where, for example, only one tree symbol is applied throughout a design. However, the designs should be understood as being schematic and not being a fi nal design proposal. Th us, most designs, if and when studied more at a larger drawing scale, would in fact use a wider variety of plant species within the established structure for both visual interest and sound sustainable practice.
It is hoped that the reader will be informed by the variety of form and spatial typologies that can be used to structure the landscape. Ultimately though, it is the reader’s own imagination and inspiration that should shepherd a design’s organization. Enjoy.
P r e f a c e
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