L A N D 3 6 2 -
F o r m & E x p r e s s i o n i n G a r
d e n D e s i g n
TYPE OF COURSE: Studio
PROFESSOR: Merlyn Paulson
SCHEDULE: Tuesdays and
Thursdays – 9-11:40am
This
course explores strategies and techniques in garden design, where students focus
on developing personal talents in drawing, illustrating, writing, site
analysis, and design ideation for garden environments.
Students explore creative methods / processes for generating
ideas, form-giving, fundamental visual and verbal expression capabilities of
the profession, and developing learning - oriented solutions.
The studio is conducted as a series of explorations and
experiments aimed at developing individual self-reliance, self-esteem,
successional practice in making analysis and design decisions, recognizing
problems, looking for alternatives, and expressing a chosen solution. Learning
how to acquire problem-solving and landscape (nature and culture) analysis
abilities, including the ability to recognize the need for help / information
and how to go about getting it are primary objectives of the studio.
I. Historical Precedents of Landscape Design
A. Pleasure Gardens
B. Landscape Painting
C. Regional Landscape Vocabulary
II. Important Styles of Garden Design
A. English Country
B. Far Eastern
C. Indigenous / Naturalistic
D. Italian
Renaissance
E. Minimalist
F. Modern - a. classical, b. organic
G.
Moorish
H. Popular Culture
III. The Major Stages of Design
A. Development of
Imagery and Issues
A-1. The Initial Big Idea
B. Programming/Analysis
of Site, Off-site, and User
C. The Big Idea Refined
D.
Organization of Forms and Spaces
E. Expression of Character
IV. The Existing Situation
A. Identification of Form,
Character, and Vocabulary in the Site and Region
B. Landscape and Cultural
Ecology
C. Paths, Nodes, Edges, Districts, and Landmarks
V. The Future Environment
A. Form
B. Space
C.
Character
VI. Projects of the Semester
- Urban
Pleasure Garden – Design analyses and Parti 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,
and 9
- Major
Portfolio Project
Toward success in this course:
· Attend each class from the beginning, have something to show
in pinups, and participate in discussions and field trips...
· Establish an expressive studio space
and work there with others...
· Demonstrate and refine meaningful skills in drawing, painting,
illustration, writing and evaluation...
· Make the most of opportunities for desk crits from
others...
· Explore
creation of the ideal journal, beginning with the theory - "… if not in
journal, it didn't happen"...
· Utilize professor to learn and refine methods...
It is critically important that you conduct work for projects
in the design studios together with your colleagues. Among your greatest
resources are each other and the discussions and interactions between you. It
is my intent to help you to bring to light your ever - increasing capabilities
with drawing, writing, analysis, and design, integrating meaningfully your past
experiences with the needs of learning to become a contributor to the
profession.
Studios are conducted as a series of experiments and
explorations where direct contact between us is valuable to both of us. The
entire experience revolves around the identification and exploration of issues
and ideas and the subsequent establishment and refinement of your responses and
idea.
The amount and quality of learning by you invariably follows
upon your open thoughts, questions and ideas, initiated by you rather than by
me (as in the conventional lecture - study - exam & forget-it approaches to
classes). A design studio (in contrast to a technical course) is at its best
dependent upon establishing your ideas in a tangible form (in journal, on
paper, or on a board), feedback from others and/or me to you, and refinement by
you.
Our studio hours are prime opportunities for assistance from
me. I will make every attempt to help you as much or as little as you wish.
Always feel very free to come by my office to show me your ideas.
Course Grade Assignment
Projects and participation/engagement will account for 100% of
the final grade for the course. Toward participation and engagement, there will
be a deduction of 1/2 letter grade for each non-exempt absence from class
lecture and discussion.
Letter Grade Definitions:
"
A " Submittals are complete and of distinctive professional school
quality.
" A- "
Submittals are complete and would be of distinctive professional school quality
with minor revisions or additions.
" B " Submittals are nearly complete and / or
would be of distinctive professional school quality with moderate revisions or
additions.
" C
" Submittals are moderately complete and / or would be of distinctive
professional school quality with major revisions or additions.
" D " Submittals are not complete and / or
nearly without redeeming qualities.
" F " Submittals are without redeeming qualities.
References
Springer, Lauren.
Undaunted Garden.
Sullivan, Chip.
Garden and Climate.
http://www.denverwater.org/cons_xeriscape/xeriscape/xeriscape_index.html
http://www.botanic.org/LandscapeWaterconservationBasics.pdf
Engel,
David H. Japanese Gardens For Today
Gerster,
Georg. Grand Design. The Knapp Press. Los Angeles. 1988.
Gustafson,
Kathryn. Sculpting the Land. Spacemaker Press. Washington, DC. 1997
Hilderbrand,
Gary. The Miller Garden: Icon of Modernism. Spacemaker Press. Washington, DC.
1998
Jensen,
Jens. Siftings. Johns Hopkins University Press. Baltimore and London. 1990
Mitchell,
William, Charles Moore, and William Turnbull, Jr. The Poetics of Gardens. The
MIT Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts
Process
Architecture. Dan Kiley: In Step With Nature.
Process
Architecture. Hargreaves: Landscape Works.
Process
Architecture. Peter Walker William Johnson.
Rose.
Beverly Pepper: Three Site-Specific Sculptures. Spacemaker Press. Washington,
DC. 1998
Saunders.
Richard Haag: Bloedel Reserve & Gas Works. Princeton Architectural Press.
NYC. 1998
Schwartz,
Martha. Transfiguration of the Commonplace. Spacemaker Press. Washington, DC.
1997
Springer,
Lauren. The Undaunted Garden. Fulcrum Publishing. Golden. 1994
Van
Sweden, James. Gardening With Water. Random House. New York. 1995
Walker,
Peter. Minimalist Gardens. Spacemaker Press. Washington, DC. 1997
Goal of Teaching
The primary goal of teaching is to challenge students to become
fully invested in their professional education through a balanced program of
rigorous academic study, enrichment of physical talents, and creative personal
expression. In their learning, students are asked to explore the overlapping
spheres of the Socratic approach, with free give and take between student and
professor, and the Case Study approach with its precedent, rules of thought and
specified recommendations.
Cultural and natural determinants, both global and local, are
imbedded in the design of every learning experience. Students are encouraged to
learn as much and as fast as they can, rather than simply to fulfill what is
perceived as the standard expectations and requirements of a problem or
project.
Guiding principles for teaching enable every student to explore
the core and boundaries of the profession through analytical problem - solving
sequences for regional scale landscape planning and the synthetic evolutionary
cycles of garden scale landscape design.
One cornerstone of the design studio is recognition and
promotion of creativity as divergent thinking rather than as convergent thinking.
In education, intelligent people are typically thought of as convergers, or
those who most often arrive at the correct (conventional) answer to a problem
or situation. However, creativity is achieved by individuals when they
arrive at unique and possibly idiosyncratic solutions.
The most useful conceptual problem in design studio is one that
asks for many ideas for a place or interpretations of a place's spatial
organization. The creative individual can conclude a spectrum of divergent
responses to such a problem, at least some of which are rarely encountered in
the responses of others.
When intelligent and creative individuals are given a complex
environmental situation and asked to organize it into a functional and
beautiful whole, those peoples' ideas are most often clarifying, direct and in
mulitiple schemes. In contrast, the intelligent and convergent thinker most
often only maintains the situation's complexity within one "answer."
It is a predominantly repetitious physical endeavor to learn
spatial simulation and surface modeling technologies associated with
geographical information systems and three dimensional computer - aided design.
PRINCIPLES OF METHODS
AND PROCESS FOR DESIGN
To a student of design, it
is important to understand that landscape architecture is a creative field;
there are no pre-determined correct answers to problems. Infinite variations in
individual interpretation and application are possible. However, all problems are similar in that
a creative solution is desired. A
creative solution is one that is original, imaginative, fresh, or unusual.
The successful solution to
a landscape problem is due, of course, to a good idea. "How do I get an idea?" It is doubtful that anyone can
truly explain why or how an idea suddenly arises. The relevant question is, "What can I do consciously to
stimulate a creative process and thus have some assurance that a good idea will
come along?" "What sort
of activities can promote the likelihood that a solution to a problem will
present itself?"
I.
‘drawing’
/ illustration is tangible speculation
Educational backgrounds
being as verbal as they are, the student of design often has many questions to
which he/she expects the teacher, as an "authority," to provide
appropriate and "correct" verbal answers. In passing, pause to contrast this behavior, as a commentary
on our educational system, with that of small preschool children as they plunge
gleefully, directly, and quite non-verbally into the joyous art of painting --
with no questions asked about how or what is it supposed to look like. But a
student does have verbal questions, and time and time again the student
discovers - sometimes early, sometimes late - that in design most of the
questions he/she tends to ask verbally of an instructor can best be answered
visually by the student.
Learning this skill of
asking yourself the right questions throughout the design process is a key to
being a good designer. Therefore, a primary goal of your schooling is to
develop the skills with which you evaluate the effectiveness of your own
designs. Draw, collage, construct
the form of your ideas. Examine your creation with attentive eyes. Sooner or later you will see, for
instance, that, for you, what is the "right" proportion and scale can
best be determined by concretely visualizing the idea, through graphic or
constructed means. No amount of talking about the proportion and scale will be
as helpful in achieving the "rightness" that you are seeking.
Learn to manipulate the
visual tools and to rely upon them - upon relationship of form and line and color and light and
shade and so on - using them whenever possible in studying problems, reaching
design judgments by visual means instead of lapsing into habitual, but far less
useful, verbalizations. Note that in the programming/site analysis and
construction phases, when dealing principally with non-designers, is language
ever likely to be a similarly useful medium.
A basic ingredient in
design is sound evaluation - a capacity for reacting appropriately to situations,
present and proposed, with a nicety of balance between what we call
"feeling" and what we call "thinking." The preceding process - COMPREHENSIVE DESIGN AND PLANNING STUDIO -
METHODS AND SEQUENCE - provides a framework for
achieving that balance.
(Graves, Lauer, Paulson, et alii)
THE PLEASURE GARDENS
Introduction and Objectives
The teaching/learning intent of
this sequence of experimental projects is to establish a creative setting for
individual expression. Students will explore and generate new landscape forms
and meanings for nine pleasure gardens in the downtown district of Fort
Collins.
The success of these design
experiments depends upon the clarity with which the solutions embody the
defining principles of the chosen styles of design while expressing the
materials and vocabulary of the regional landscape. Students should acknowledge
in their efforts the following overall objectives:
o To explore the art of garden
design in the context of process, setting, and human values.
o To express an idea through the
media of axonometric drawings or aerial perspective drawings.
o To create form and meaning
through study and application of explicit styles of design.
o To establish elements that
capture and celebrate the relationship of the setting to the vocabulary /
fabric of the regional landscape.
Given
o The proposed location of the
gardens in Fort Collins.
o The above objectives.
o References with regard to
region, styles, and design.
o Knowledge to date of the
setting, university, and world.
Required Elements
Students shall present in review
the following items:
o One or more boards showing form and character sketches of
the neighborhood and region;
o Due each Thursday, one board showing design analysis
drawings of/from precedents and site – experiments w/ form, space, and expression;
o Due each Tuesday, one board showing written theme and
axonometric drawing or aerial perspective drawing.
PORTFOLIO PROJECT - VAIL
STUDIO - METHODS AND SEQUENCE
Research,
analysis and synthesis of river landscape and program
This five-week project will involve ecological restoration of Gore
Creek in the Vail Village. The
overall goal is to provide opportunity for design in a rich cultural and
natural setting.
There will be significant skills and methods components throughout
the project, including: gis, cad, drawing, painting, illustration,
organization, and design research, analysis, and synthesis.
Programming and Analysis
Pages /
topics include:
1. Study Area Visit 8 April
2. Issues and Precedents 10
April
3. Goals and Objectives and
Program 15 April
4. Inventory and Analysis 17
April
3. Issues: It is at this stage of the project that a mutually
beneficial "partnership" is formed between client, landscape
architect (LA), and team. Clearly developed, artistically expressive issues are
useful for informing the client and LA as to their respective perceptions and
intentions for the project.
Exploring the “place” together is a valuable method for ideation and for
initially identifying current and future issues. In addition (1), meaningful
drawing and painting of the “landscape” is extremely useful for understanding
elements and characters. In addition (2), geographic information system (GIS)
applications (includes ArcMap, Spatial Analyst, Google Earth, etc.) provide
desktop overviews and insights into details of natural and cultural forms and
spatial relationships.
Issues, written and imaged items that define and
inform the project, are developed as lists of "problems" and
"needs." Quantitative
problems and needs, such as human-natural resource conflicts, or need for
housing and infrastructure for thirty people, or protection and promotion of
sensitive ecological values, comprise only a portion of the issues. Qualitative
problems and needs, such as lack of human interaction with the landscape, or
need for sun and shade for human comfort, bring the visual, tactile and
form-generating issues of landscape architecture critical to the success of a
project.
Issues help the designer to identify and explore
precedents (not precedence) appropriate to resolving problems and addressing
needs of the project.
Precedents: It is at this stage of the project that research,
exploration and brainstorming are conducted and global and detailed information
is gathered to further define the project. Precedents are acquired in at least
two categories as follows: (1)
metaphorical images of potential forms and meanings; and (2) actual solutions
arrived at in the past by nature or by people addressing similar issues.
Precedents benefit from annotation of at least two
items of information as follows: (1) name and location (what it is); and (2) a
sentence discussing its relevance to this project (why it is a precedent for
this project). This second element is extremely useful toward developing and
writing goals and objectives.
4. Goals and Objectives: Visionary goals and objectives are an
LA’s prose. What is desired is the goal. How will it be achieved is the
objective. Goals and objectives are established in response to issues and, with
good precedents, are often informed by the previously written, 'why it is a
precedent for this project.' It is an extraordinary project that would have
less than two or more than five goals (they are typically very encompassing and
broad in ecological and designerly philosophy).
Sample Goal: To establish,
through effective planning and design, a mutually beneficial relationship
between humans and physical environment. Each goal may have several to many
objectives. Objectives are typically very direct interpretations of the
metaphors and/or places in the precedent landscapes and images.
Sample Objectives:
A. Incorporate regional
landscape vocabulary and pattern.
B. Incorporate specific visual, auditory, and
tactile elements of moving water.
C. Incorporate specific visual and tactile elements
of geology and vegetation.
D. Incorporate indigenous building materials and
forms.
E. Incorporate green technology in design and
construction of structures.
Goals and objectives and precedents combine to
inform and establish the project program.
5. Program:
The project program is comprised of four categories of information as
follows: activities, settings, quantities, and materials.
Activities: Defines the purpose of the landscape
entity ("bird watching" is an appropriate activity). Activities are typically described in a
phrase, e.g. ceremonial landscape or relaxation landscape or educational
landscape.
Setting: Typically is discussed in complete
sentences and paragraphs and describes the form, style, and character of the
landscape encompassing that particular activity. Settings often evolve directly
from the precedents and goals and objectives. Settings may accommodate more
than one activity. It is necessary
to have imagery (drawings and photographs) describing ideas for settings.
Quantity: Provides an estimate of general
quantifiable items for each setting. This item is useful as an indicator of
magnitude of elements and early basis for estimating project costs.
Materials: Useful in defining character and for
predicting cost and typical materials.
6. Inventory: Inventory identifies “what is
there.” Inventory includes on-site
and off-site items with regard to natural and cultural landscape systems, road
and trail infrastructure, and explorations of designerly form with, for
instance, a figure - ground drawing of vegetation and geology.
7. Analysis: Analysis identifies “what difference important
inventory elements make to your program” and vice versa. Analysis drawings are
often made clearer with establishment of homogenous units, or zones,
corresponding to characteristics of the landscape. Such units are then analyzed
individually for ability and appropriateness to accommodate settings (qualities
and quantities) proposed in the program.
Design Development (Synthesis
– the articulation and representation of form and space)
Boards
include:
Theme and Concept 22 April
Functional Diagram and
Schematic 24
April
Sections/Elevations 1 May
Perspectives, including on-site and
off-site views 8 May
Master Plan, including all program
elements and surrounding landscape 15 May
Theme: Theme
is written in descriptive, philosophical, visionary prose about the form,
meaning, and expression of landscape.
Design expression, including monumental and/or intimate form and meaning
are described with landscape terminology.
Concept: The concept is drawn
in descriptive, philosophical visual imagery about the form, meaning, and
expression of landscape. It is
typically a monolithic, three-dimensional drawing of symbols.
Functional Diagram: Amorphous bubbles, arrows, and symbols
exploring/analyzing/describing/ portraying the relationship of activities and
settings to each other and to the landscape. Relationships are described by
symbols that portray visual relationships and tactile relationships. The
relationship of program settings is ordered only by a north arrow. Very loose. Labels and annotations.
Schematics: Masses and voids (figure ground-like, sometimes shown as
shaded surfaces (as opposed to just lines, or just black and white), drawn to scale,
exploring/analyzing/describing/portraying the proposed landscape form and
pattern. Very loose. Labels and annotations.
Sketches, Perspectives,
Sections, Elevations, Images: Multi-dimensional
views exploring/analyzing/ describing/portraying the landscape as it would be.
Character. Imagery. Labels and annotations.
Master Plan: The proposed place, drawn as if seen from overhead,
portrays the results of synthesis. Shadows. Character. Labels and annotations.