Himalaya College of Engineering

Department of Architecture
Spatial Development and Site Planning

LANDSCAPE DESIGN AND SITE PLANNING

Ar. Yam Rai

 Contents
1. Site Inventory
2. Site analysis
a. Natural factors
b. Man-made and cultural factors
2. Design concepts
3. Design Process
4. Example: Liverpool One
 Site Inventory
• Generally speaking, the site inventory is relatively easy to
do. The designer needs to
(1) look at the site with an open and inquisitive mind,
(2) be well organized (perhaps following an outline of
items that need to be identified), and
(3) be accurate in recording the required information.

• The gathered information should be organized in a

manner that is easily read and understood so it will be a
helpful reference in later design phases.
 Site Inventory Outlines
• As with site measuring, there are a number of potential
sources for the needed site information including
(1) local government offices, (2) online resources, (3) the
clients, and (4) on-site observation.
• Whatever the source, the designer should only collect
information that is directly applicable to the project. It
is of course a waste of time and money to accumulate
data just for the sake of doing so.
• To avoid this, the designer should repeatedly ask: “Do I
need this? How will I use this information? Is it important?
Will this information influence how I design?” If the answer
is yes, then the information should be recorded.
 Site Inventory
A. Site location
1. Identify surrounding land uses and their conditions.
a. Are they residential, commercial, recreational, educational, and so
forth?
b. How well are the adjoining properties maintained?
2. Identify the neighborhood’s character.
a. What is the style, age, and condition of the residential architecture?
b. What is the size, type, and maturity of the vegetation?
c. What is the character of the neighborhood?
• Is it well established, open, wooded, ill-kempt, friendly, estate-like,
and so on?
3. Identify the nature of vehicular circulation in the neighborhood.
a. What type of street is the site located on?
• Is it a through street, one-way, two-way, cul-de-sac, and so on?
b. What is the volume of traffic on the street?
• Does the intensity vary during the day? If so, when?
c. How much noise and headlight glare into the windows is produced by
the traffic on the street?
d. What is the primary direction for arriving at the site?
• Is there more than one approach?
• Which approach is most frequently used?
• Where is the most common “first view” of the site located?
 Site Inventory
4. Identify legal restrictions for new construction in the neighborhood.
a. What building types and structures are allowed, especially detached
buildings such as garages, tool sheds, gazebos, pergolas, and so on?
b. What are the restrictions for heights and floor areas of new structures?
c. What are the setback requirements for structures?
d. What building permits are required for construction?

B. Topography
1. Identify degree of slope steepness at different areas throughout the site
(slope inventory).
2. Identify potential areas of erosion or poor drainage.
3. Identify grade change between inside (finished floor elevation) and outside
grade around the foundation of the house, especially at the doorways.
4. Determine the ease of walking on various areas of the site (this will also
identify relative steepness).
5. Identify the elevation changes between the top and bottom of existing
steps, walls, fences, and so forth.
 Site Inventory
C. Drainage
1. Identify direction(s) of surface water drainage.
a. Does water drain away from the house on all sides?
b. Where does the water flow from the downspouts?
2. Determine wet spots or areas of standing water.
a. Where are they located and for what lengths of time?
3. Identify drainage onto and away from the site.
a. Does any off-site surface water drain onto the site? How much, when,
and where?
b. Where does the water flow to when it leaves the site?

D. Soil
1. Identify soil characteristics (acid, alkaline, sandy, clay, gravel, fertile, and so on).
2. Identify depth of topsoil.
3. Identify depth of soil to bedrock.

E. Vegetation
1. Locate and identify existing plant materials.
2. Where appropriate, identify:
a. plant species.
b. size (caliper [diameter of a tree trunk 4 feet above the ground], spread,
total height, and height to bottom of canopy).
 Site Inventory
c. form.
d. color (flower and foliage).
e. texture.
f. distinguishing features and characteristics.
3. Determine the overall condition, importance, potential use, and clients’
opinion of existing plant materials.

F. Microclimate
1. Identify location of sun at sunrise and sunset at different times of the year
(January, March, June, and September, for example).
2. Identify the vertical angle of the sun above the horizon at different times
of the day and seasons of the year.
3. Determine areas of the site that are mostly sunny or mostly shady during
different times of the day and seasons of the year.
4. Determine areas exposed to and protected from the intense summer afternoon
sun.
5. Identify areas exposed to warming winter sun.
6. Identify prevailing wind direction throughout the year.
7. Determine site areas exposed to or protected from cooling summer breezes.
8. Determine site areas exposed to or protected from cold winter winds.
9. Identify depth of frost in winter months.
 Site Inventory
G. Existing house
1. Identify house type and architectural style.
2. Identify color and texture of facade materials.
3. Identify location of windows and doors.
a. For doors, identify direction of opening and frequency of use.
b. For both doors and windows, identify elevation of bottoms (sills) and
tops (heads).
4. Identify interior room type and location.
a. Identify which rooms are used most often.
5. Locate basement windows and their depth below ground.
6. Locate outside elements such as downspouts, water spigots, electrical outlets,
lights attached to house, electric meter, gas meter, clothes-dryer vent,
and air conditioners.
7. Locate overhangs and note their distance beyond the face of the house
and their heights above the ground.

H. Other existing structures

1. Locate and identify condition and materials of existing walks, terraces,
steps, walls, fences, swimming pools, and so on.
 Site Inventory
I. Utilities
1. Locate utility lines (water, gas, electric, telephone, cable, storm sewer,
septic tank, leach field, etc.).
a. Are there any easements associated with the utility lines?
b. Are there any telephone and electrical junction boxes?
c. Are there any utility shut-off valves?
2. Identify location and height of air conditioner or heat pump.
a. What direction is the intake and exhaust of the air flow?
3. Identify location of pool equipment and associated utility connections.
4. If existing, locate irrigation system.

J. Views
1. Take note of what is seen from all sides of the site looking off-site.
a. Do the views vary during different seasons?
2. Observe views from inside the house looking to the outside.
3. Experience views from off the site looking onto the site (views from the
street as well as from different sides of the site).
a. Where are the best and worst views of the site?
 Site Inventory
K. Spaces and senses
1. Determine the location and extent of outdoor rooms. Identify materials
of the floors, walls, and ceilings of the rooms.
2. Identify the feeling and character of these rooms (open, enclosed, light,
airy, dark, gloomy, cheerful, restful, and so on).
3. Determine pleasant or disturbing sounds (singing birds, traffic noise,
children playing, rustling leaves, and so on).
4. Identify fragrances and odors.

L. Existing site functions and problems

1. Identify how and when different areas of the site are currently used.
2. Determine location for such activities as daily leaving and arriving home,
outside recreation, gardening, and work areas.
3. Determine site maintenance problems (unkempt lawn, worn lawn edges
along walks, worn lawn areas due to intense use, lack of weeding, broken
pavement, and so on).
4. Identify location of snowdrifts in the winter.
Site Inventory
Site Inventory
 Site Analysis
• The site analysis is the second and more difficult phase
of the site study.
• Whereas the site inventory merely collects and
organizes information about the site, the site analysis
evaluates the value and importance of this information.
• The purpose of the site analysis is to determine the
problems and potentials created by the existing site
conditions so that the eventual design solution can be
tailored to meet the specific conditions of the site.
 Site Analysis
• The designer should be aware of the differences in
wording in comparison to the site inventory.
• Notes on the site inventory are simply statements of
fact, whereas the notes on the site analysis are words of
evaluation and action.
• Key words found on the site analysis include should,
need to, limit, allow for, make, save, take advantage of,
screen, and enlarge.
 Site Analysis
Site Inventory
3-foot-wide concrete walk
open view to wooded area
existing terrace is 100 square feet
large sycamore tree is in good condition
back of house and site are exposed to hot
afternoon sun
Site Analysis
too narrow; need to widen to 5 feet and
change to a warmer material
maintain view by framing it on either side
at back of site
should enlarge to at least 200 square feet
should be preserved; remote sitting area
might be placed beneath it
back of house should be shaded by trees or
other means; any outside uses in this area
must also be protected from sun
 Site Analysis
• The site and the purpose for which it will be used- the
two sources of site design- are interrelated.
• It is analyzed for fitness to purpose and in its own right
as a living, changing community of plants and animals.
• In addition to our interest we should also at least
consider the existing occupants.
• Thus, site analysis has two branches-
1. Oriented to our particular purpose
2. Oriented to the site itself
 Site Identity and Change
• Each site is unique in some measure- complexity of its
parts and their patterning.
• Every site has had some time to experience the mutual
adjustment of its elements.
• For eg.- the flow of water has created a drainage
pattern, plant and animal life is linked in an ecology,
shops have arranged themselves in relation to the
resident population.
• Site is composed of many factors- above, below and
on the ground and all these are interrelated. They have
achieved some approximate balance with each other.
 Site Identity and Change
• Analysis also reveals hidden potentialities where a
design can clarify character, build new connections and
develop deeper meanings.
• It is a basis for conservation and also a prelude to
successful revolution.
 Site Type and Characteristics
Brownfields
• Brownfields are properties where the expansion,
redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the
presence or potential presence of hazardous substances,
pollutants, or contaminants.
• Brownfields include properties contaminated with
petroleum, mine-scarred land, and former sites of
methamphetamine laboratories
 Site Type and Characteristics
Urban Infill
• Urban infill is the practice of developing vacant or
underutilized properties within an existing community.
• Infill sites are surrounded by older urban growth and are
usually already serviced by utilities.
 Site Type and Characteristics
Grayfields
• Grayfields are underutilized or abandoned retail and
commercial sites located in urban and suburban areas.
• The sites are often characterized by large commercial
buildings surrounded by parking lots and little or no
vegetation.
 Site Type and Characteristics
Greenfield
• Greenfields are sites that have not been previously
developed or extensively graded.
• Examples include agricultural fields, pastureland, park
lands, and conservation areas.
 Site Type and Characteristics
Floodplains
• Floodplains are the lowlands and relatively flat areas
adjoining inland and coastal waters and other flood-prone
areas, such as offshore islands.
• At a minimum, areas defined as floodplains are subject to
a 1 percent or greater chance of flooding in any given year.
 Site Type and Characteristics
Wetlands
• The Clean Water Act defines wetlands as “areas that are
inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a
frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that
under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of
vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated
conditions.”
• Wetlands found in the United States fall into four general
categories—marshes, swamps, bogs, and fens.
NATURAL FACTORS
 Climate
• We prefer certain ranges and rhythms of these things.
• Natural climates can be erratic and violent; men add
noise and airborne impurities.
• We defend ourselves by physiological adaptation and
with clothing and shelter. But it is also possible to
manipulate the climate by the arrangement and choice
of site.
• The site constraints such as temperature, humidity,
precipitation, sun path are with which the site planner
or designer operates.
 Topography
• Roads and streets should follow the natural landforms
and should be designed around natural drainage ways and
stream buffer zones.
• For example, streets following ridgelines greatly reduces
the amount of clearing and grading required at the site.
• It also affects climate by its influence on air movement, as
well as by its orientation to the sun.
• Wind speed on a top is usually greater than those on a
flat ground, wind is quieter on the lee side of a hill than on
its weather side.
 Topography

Development on a steep terrain

 Vegetation
• Plants are an integral part of most site plans. It
contribute to the aesthetics of a site, to its economic
value, and to how a site functions.
• Native Plants- The value of native plants and the
damage caused by exotics has brought a new awareness
to landscape design.
• Trees bring numerous attributes to the site. Tree
masses can have significant effects on microclimates by
providing cooling shade, acting as filters for dust and
particulates, and buffering undesirable sounds and
sights.
 Hydrology
• The presence of water on the site and the general
pattern of drainage are key concerns of the site analysis.
• Water is often the key feature of the site. The location
of water features and other hydrologically linked
features should be carefully observed and evaluated.
• Waterfront- the presence of a stream or pond- brings
added value, but it also raises concerns for
development.
• The presence of associated wetlands and floodplains
must be preliminary located.
• The analyst should consider storm water drainage on
the site as well as drainage from other sites onto the
subject site.
 Ecology
• It describes the limits and conditions of human
intervention.
• It implies certain values- diversity, approximate
stability, conservation- but these are neither ultimate
nor comprehensive.
• The diverse living species, which capture the energy of
the sun, or prey and are preyed upon, live in close
relation with their immediate setting of water, earth
and air. Self reproducing, evolving organisms interact
with their changing spatial environment and create a
persisting community.
 Soil
• The classification of soil will provide information on
bearing capacity, drainage and agricultural value.
• In US, the soil classes mapped are now regularly used
for planning and have value for site design, where the
designers learn about potential water, sand and gravel
supply, probable drainage, run-off and erosion, about
suitability for foundations and plant cover.
 Site Character
• The local association of plants, persons, and other
animals, all dependent on one another, together with
the surfaces and structures they inhabit, give the site its
essential character.
• There are landscape families that have a common
pattern and a common history: the bushy pasture of
New England, the North American ribbon shopping
street.
MAN-MADE AND CULTURAL FACTORS
 Behaviour
• How human beings are acting is usually, for us, the
more critical aspect of any place.
• This can be described in terms of behavior settings,
bounded in time and space, within which there is some
stable pattern of purposeful human behavior,
interacting with some particular physical setting.
• Both are organized complexities. Normally both
change slowly, but they can shift in unexpected ways if
disturbed.
 Behaviour
• How the ecology and in particular the behavior setting
are working and how they may be modified to our
advantage are the key site questions.
• Watching truck movements or the walk to work,
spotting the local hangout will be more informative
than pages of statistics.
• Preventing the loss of rare habitats or the extinction of
species makes sense in selfish human terms, since
diversity of place and gene may have unknown
potentialities for the future, and we depend for our
survival on the total web of living things.
 Access
• It is the prerequisite to using any space.
• Without the ability to enter or to move within it, to
receive and transmit information or goods, space is of
no value, however vast or rich in resources.
• The economic and cultural level of a city is in some
proportion to the capacity of its circulation. The cost of
that circulation system is the most significant element in
site cost.
 Site Utilities
Water Supply
• The quality and quantity of our water supplies are vital
to our health. Clean water is the most critical utility, a
necessity even in the most primitive settlement.
• While it may make the development of a given site
either feasible, costly or impossible, it rarely imposes
controls on the pattern of the site plan itself.
• Fire hydrants are put along vehicular ways at
intersection and other points, so that all parts of
buildings may be reached by hose lines .
 Site Utilities
Electric Power
• Power is brought in on primary high-voltage lines and
then is stepped down at transformers to enter
secondary low-voltage lines going to the points of use.
• Underground distribution system may be two to four
times as expensive in first cost, but it reduces breaks,
does not interfere with trees, and eliminates the clutter
of poles. However, once break occurs they take longer
time to repair.
• If the overhead system is used, it is possible to string
the secondary lines on the buildings. But it entails a risk
to building repairmen and adventurous children.
 Other Utilities
• Gas lines
• Telephone lines
• Heating system
• Sewage system
Final Site Analysis
DESIGN CONCEPTS
 Design
• It is the search for forms that satisfy a program.
• It deals with particular solutions, while the program is
concerned with general characteristics and desired
outcomes.
• It begins in the programming, and programs are
modified as design progresses.
• A site deals with three elements:
a. the pattern of activity
b. the pattern of circulation
c. the pattern of sensible form that supports them.
 Design
The pattern of activity
• The first, symbolized in the activity diagram, is the
arrangement of the behavior settings, their character,
linkage, density and grain, following the requirements
of the program.
The pattern of circulation
• It is the layout of the movement channels and their
relations to the activity locations.
The pattern of sensible form that supports them
• It centers in human experience of the place: what we
see, hear smell and feel, and what that means to us.
 Design Methods
• Designers develop a preference for a particular way of
structuring their process of design and hold strong
attitudes about appropriate procedure.
• Some prefer to make decisions along the way, moving
deliberately from one step to the next, while others
engage in a free-flowing inquiry in which nothing is
frozen until all aspects seems right.
• Ideally designers should be eclectics.
 Adaptation
• Great majority of environmental designs are adaptations
of solutions previously used. Forms that a model to be
emulated become prototypes.
• Those that are very often used are stereotypes: the cul-
de-sac, the backyard, the tree lined avenue, the
playground, the side walk café etc.
 Modular Division
• When faced with complexity, one reasonable response is
to break the problem into parts.
• By solving each part separately and then combining the
results, we reach a solution to the whole which responds
to all its aspects.
• Traditional method of subdivision is to divide the site into
distinct areas, each small enough to be fashioned without
unreasonable effort.
• Preferably, these will be elements that can be repeated
elsewhere in the plan, and if so we call them modules.
 Division by Aspect
• Consider the design by separate aspects, each of which
involves the entire site.
• Cluster analysis- which groups them by their most
important linkages, and then apply this diagram to the
ground.
• Pattern habits are recognized however its difficult to
break, putting activity aside, the designer tries various road
arrangements, testing general patterns.
• Then, designer works with sensible form of the place:
accentuating topography, trying out spatial prototypes,
playing with images of missing or character or view.
 Optimizing
• The designer begins making plans that optimize some
particular purpose- access, control, fit, sense, cost,
maintenance, or narrower subdivisions of those- while
satisfying other criteria only in some customary or
minimum way.
• Working out plan that would be safest for children or the
cheapest plan.
 Essential Function
• First, they abstract, the “essential” function of an
environment, then develop a form that will best satisfy this
general function, and finally adapt this ideal form to satisfy
the other functions and constraints.
• One criterion leads way to the solution.
• For example, if an area is to be an outdoor market, it is
decided that buying is the essential behavior and thus that,
above all, the environment must make that act inviting.
• The designer considers the character of settings that
invite the buyer, imagines an ideal form with that
character, and then tinkers with it in order to manage the
delivery and protection of goods, the arrival of customers,
the cost, maintenance, and the topography of the site.
DESIGN PROCESS
 The Design Process
• Base/ site plan
• Starts with a base
• Add the site analysis
• Conceptual diagram
• General use areas
• Plant selection
• Final design
• Planting plan
• A guide
 The Design Process
The base plan should consist of:
Accurate house placement-legal document
Accurate lot and house dimensions
Existing hardscape
Any covenants?

How to begin?
Obtain plot/plan from: builder, or county or city property
records.
Determine the scale and decide a scale

Site Analysis
The Design Process

Base map.
The Design Process

Site Inventory &

Analysis
 The Design Process
The concept plan adds creative ideas:
• Defines spaces-address functional areas with general
plant material
• Evolves from shapes developed in the site
analysis/base plan
• Refine and experiment with different concepts or
materials
The Design Process

Functional Diagram
The Design Process

Form Composition
Study
The Design Process

Preliminary
Plan
The Design Process

Master
Plan
The Design Process

Layout Plan
The Design Process

Grading Plan
 The Design Process
• Planting plan communicates exactly what to use, where
it will go, how it should look:
• Drawn to scale
• Labels plants and other components-key/legend
• Provides a material list
• Provides additional notes
The Design Process

Planting Plan
The Design Process

Construction Details
LIVERPOOL ONE
Liverpool One
 Liverpool One
• The park is the green heart of Liverpool One, serving as a
central focus in which people can mix and gather, eat and
drink, or simply orientate themselves along key sightlines
down to the river or into other parts of the site or city. As
such a crucial node, therefore, it was critical to get the feel
of this space just right.
• An understanding of the park’s history and context is
important in establishing its significance.
• ‘Liverpool is blessed with many outstanding parks,
providing a necklace of green public space encircling its
suburbs. But within the city centre itself, due to the sheer
intensity of the maritime-led expansion, few exist.
 Liverpool One
• The point of entry and exit to the park rises up to park
level to form a skylight, while sustainable elements include
the very fact that the development has a green roof in such
a city centre environment.
• This mediates run-off, collects water and slows down the
ultimate percolation into the water system, allowing a
certain filtration.
• It also provides some ambient cooling to the space below,
and creating a green park in the centre of any city can
reduce the heat island effect.
• The close proximity of public transport- the bus station- is
considered another sustainable measure.
 Liverpool One
Area prior to construction
 Liverpool One
Area prior to construction
 Liverpool One
Extracts from Pelli Clarke
Pelli concept analysis
showing some of the
various urban design
studies that informed the
emerging masterplan
 Liverpool One
Various stages of development
 Liverpool One
The final park layout
integrating private,
grand, formal,
informal, terraced,
flat, graded, active and
event spaces in a
single environment
Liverpool One
Liverpool One
 Liverpool One

Chavasse Park is the jewel in Liverpool One's Crown. It's a perfect oasis for a frenetic city
centre, and regularly hosts a spectacular array of events
Liverpool One
Liverpool One
Liverpool One
Liverpool One
Liverpool One
Liverpool One