Module 3

WEEK 9

LECTURE: INTRO TO LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

Landscape Architecture
- design of outdoor and public spaces to achieve environmental, socio behavioral,
aesthetic outcomes
- systematic investigation of existing social, ecological, and geological conditions and
processes in the landscape
- design of interventions that will produce

COMPONENTS OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

1. Softscape
- pertains to plants specified to site to enhance the environment and human activity

Purpose of plantscape
1. aesthetics
2. help native ecosystems and work
- bioengineering agents for soil retention and restoration.
2. Hardscape
- Waterscape
- Lightscape
- Site furniture
3. Irrigation and Drainage

MAJOR FUNCTIONS OF PLANT MATERIALS

1. Aesthetics - color, scale, texture, and rhythm

2. Environmental modification - outdoor spaces that do not fall w/in

the physical rage of human comfort
will not be used.

3. Screening - can provide privacy, mark boundaries,

discourage intruders, or block
unpleasant views.

4. Circulation control - can control and direct the movements

of people, animals, or vehicles.
 5. Production

6. Bioengineering and other forms of

Structural Mitigation

Bioremediation
- process of using living organisms to deal with hazardous materials or contaminants in
order to eliminate them from the environment
- power of plants to clean up the environment

sunflowers were planted around the Chernobyl region to remove some of the radioactive
isotopes released by a nuclear plant meltdown. This use of plants to clean up contaminated
areas is called phytoremediation

Design Criteria in Plant Selection

- major functions of plant materials
- cost
- hardiness
- safety considerations
- maintenance considerations

Safety considerations in selecting plants

- poisonous plants
- litter-inducing plants
- weak-branched plants
- plants with drooping branches
- plants with shallow roots
- thorny plants
- plants that attract insects

MAINTENANCE CONSIDERATIONS
- Proximity to Mechanical activity
- Placement of Plantings
- Diversity of Plant communities
- Disease and Insect Resistance
- Proximity of Plants
- Long-term Maintenance costs

Designing Garden Floor

The garden floor serves three purposes in design:
- foreground for viewing a composition
- decorated surface that emphasizes the form
- axis or path of circulation
 - materials available to cover the ground: stone, wood, grass, gravel, groundcovers
- choices of pattern, texture and material are determined by the function of the garden

Examples
- carpet bedding is the practice of forming beds of low-growing foliage plants, all of an
even height in patterns that resemble carpet booth in the intricacy of their design and in
the uniformity of the surface
- Designs can vary from geometrical forms to images and lettered inscriptions
- Carpet bedding can be used as focal point

Parterre - “On or along the ground”

- Flat terrace, usually adjacent or near a building
- Foliage patterns created from plants,flowers or gravel
- It emphasizes the ground plane or serves as a picture for
viewing, especially from above
- Lawn is covered in grass, usually mown it creates a green
ground plane whose shape and design complements or
contrasts with other features
- Can be pathway, reinforce geometry, provide transition, and
indicate the hierarchical position of a space

Tapis Vert - Green cloth

- Swath of lawn, rectilinear, to strengthen
- Visual axis or focus attention on an object
- Defines edge, serve as a form of contrast between smooth
- Texture of plane and the surrounding plant materials

Pathways - Ornamental, compositional, and functional component of a

garden
- straight , wide, rectilinear- gives control and orderly pattern
- Curved, meandering- suggests mystery, discovery or
contemplation

Terrace - Raised level of earth, sometimes retained by stone or concrete

Principles of Landscaping
Principles of Landscaping

- Created by increasing the dominance

Simplicity of certain elements elements and
- the subordination of minor elements.
- A landscaping can also emphasize
hierarchy, public and private"
- space,and architectural form."
 - It refers to the actual size of an object
or its size relative
- to another object.
- Proportion exists the moment two
objects are put together.
- ABSOLUTE PROPORTION- the size
or scale of an object.
- RELATIVE PROPORTION- an objects
perceived size in
- relationship to another object in space

Rhythm - It is a patterned repetition of a design

principle at regular or irregular
intervals.
- It creates a sequence of movement or
pattern."
- Rhythm of form,color,or texture
intensifies the landscape composition

Repetition - The placement of the same or similar

fo1m, texture or color over and over
again.
- Itresults from placing things like things
together, enabling the mind to
comprehend a composition."
- It can be complete and absolute or
meager and sparing.
- Repeating a line creates movement,
vvhile repeating a color can make a
small :space appear larger

Balance - It results from the placement of an

object along imaginary or real axis.
- Balance equalizes or adjusts
competing forces to obtain stability or
repose.
- It also reinforces an axis, emphasizes
circulation, and a

Variety - The diversity of design qualities in a

composition.
 - It is the change of contrast in one or
two of design principles
- line, form, texture, or color-that holds
the observer's attention."

Symmetry - It is the similarity of size, form and

arrangement of parts on opposite
sides of a plane, line or point
- Symmetrical design implies order and
color and organizes landscape
through the use of balance and
repetition

Asymmetry - Not asymmetrical or identical on two

sides of a plane, line, or point.

- It is an organizational tool of
composition based on balance and
the sequence of movement about an
imaginary axis

- It is a restraint, inoderation , and

Simplicity fitness in design."
- These qualities give permanence to
the North of great architects and
landscape architects.
-Less is more

Sequence - This arranges the design so that the

viewer's attention moves into a distinct
way.
- It is a uniform change, n1 movement,
or transition of the design leading in
some direction or to some desired
end.

Scale - The perception of an object's size

based on its relation to the human
body or relation to another object.
- Absolute or Human Scale refers to the
relationship between the viewer and
the landscape.