Landscape architecture essay for MARCH 26

LAA • 5235

Professor Juan Antonio Bueno

Florida International University School of Architecture

Theory of Landscape Architecture

Simon Swaffield, editor. 2002 Theory in Landscape Architecture Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvannia Press

LAA • 5235

book 2

module 6

SIMON SWAFFIELD pages ix, 1, 7

ELIZABETH MEYER page 21

GARRETT ECKBO page 9

J B JACKSON page 11

JAMES CORNER pages 19, 20

LAWRENCE HALPRIN page 43

module 6

HIDEO SASAKI page 35

RANDOLPH HESTER pages 49

STEVEN KROG page 57

LYNCH & HACK pages 37, 57

IAN MCHARG page 38

SIMON SWAFFIELD

Preface pages xi, 1, 7

particular topics to consider

Are you instrumental, interpretive, or critical in your approach

to the design process?

Should landscape architecture be idealist or situational?

As your read the book, consider how theory changed

from the first to the second half of the twentieth century.

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2

3

GARRETT ECKBO

Landscape for Living page 9

particular topics to consider

On which side of the “formal:informal dichotomy”

should landscape architecture fit?

Should a theory of landscape architecture

be artistic or practical?

How has our understanding of the the landscape

changed since 1950?

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J B JACKSON

How to Study Landscape page 11

particular topics to consider

Is our current concept of space different

than the one that Jackson describes four decades ago?

What do you remember from the landscape of your childhood?

Why is it memorable?

How has our concept of dwelling changed

in the twentieth-first century?

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JAMES CORNER

Origins of Theory, Theory in Crisis pages 19, 20

particular topics to consider

Is the practice of landscape architecture a craft?

Or an existential stance?

Has the modern separation between techne and poiesis

continued in the twentieth-first century?

Should design “reconcile the historical with the contemporary,

the eternal with the momment, the universal with the specific”?

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ELIZABETH MEYER

Situating Modern Landscape Archtiecture page 21

particular topics to consider

Is “bridging, mediating, reconciling”

a feminist or humanist theory of practice?

Do we still overly emphasize the visual

in landscape architectural design?

What is a vitalist landscape?

Are nature and culture binary categories?

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HIDEO SASAKI

Design Process page 35

particular topics to consider

How did landscape design theories change

from the 1930-1950s to the 1960-1970s?

Is the linear research–analysis–synthesis process

the only critical approach to design?

According to Sasaki, what distinguishes

a designer from a technician? Do you agree?

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3

LYNCH & HACK

The Art of Site Planning page 37

particular topics to consider

Should the design process be looped and cyclical?

If so, how?

Does the physical environment determine,

or not, the quality of our lives?

What has replaced the constructivist and expressionist forms

of the 1960s and 1970s today?

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IAN MCHARG

An Ecological Method page 38

particular topics to consider

Does ecology emancipates or subjugate

landsape architecture? Regional planning?

Is the ecological method the sine qua non

of landscape architecture? Regional planning?

Is climate–geology–topography–hydrology–flora–fauna

a correct approach to the analysis of the site and its region?

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LAWRENCE HALPRIN

The RSVP Cyples page 43

particular topics to consider

Should design be goal-oriented or process-oriented ?

Is the incorporation of participation, feedback, and

communications a valid approach to design?

Is design a score?

Is improvisation valid in design? If so, when?

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RANDOLPH HESTER

Community Design page 49

particular topics to consider

Do community policies ensure good design?

Is the designer responsible to the client

or to the community?

Should design decisions be made for people, with people,

or by the people? When is a no-design solution appropriate?

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LYNCH & HACK

Site Design page 57

particular topics to consider

Is design the search for forms or for concepts

that satisfy the program?

Is the design process a search for metaphors? If so, for what?

Can design ever be objective?

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STEVEN KROG

Creative Risk Taking page 58

particular topics to consider

Does the design process produce insight?

Should metaphor be eliminated from landscape design?

Is there a relationship between doubt and creativity?

If so, what? Can you doubt your own doubt?

Is the role landscape architecture to be a service to society

or a commentary on society?

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