AN EVIDENCE-BASED METHODOLOGY FOR LANDSCAPE DESIGN

As a design method supported by scientific knowledge and findings, evidence-based design now is widely applied in the field of architectural and landscape design. This design process makes architects and landscape designers’ decisions about built environment sound and reliable. Combining two practice cases — the Urban Ecological Corridor Planning of College Station of Texas, a regional planning project, and Landscape Design of the Yangpu Bridge Park in Shanghai, an urban public space project — this article illustrates the concept and process of key issue identification and response, a pivotal step in evidence-based design, and points out the challenges in related applications of this method.     

Cognition and Design of Complex Landscapes: The Function,Logic, and Mechanism of Mapping

Being rich in form and obscure in content, mapping brings not only new opportunities, but also confusion and doubts to the research and practice of contemporary complex landscapes. Therefore, deep exploration of mapping’s function, logic, and mechanism in inspiring design is needed to help recognize the value of Mapping and promote its understanding and application. Through literature review, case studies, and the authors’ practice and teaching, this article attempts to answer three questions: Which function does Mapping emphasize, representation or exploration? What is the logic of mapping in arranging information? And what is the mechanism of mapping in inspiring design? The main conclusions of this article include: 1) Rather than viewer-oriented representation, mapping more often serves the cartographers themselves in their exploration activities, in which they develop new understandings and create new possibilities while constructing the complex relationship of existing information; 2) Despite the various forms, media, and methods, mapping’s logical structures in organizing information would converge into five types: sequence, matrix, parallel, network, and deconstruction reflecting to various degrees the logic of complex landscapes themselves; And 3) through collecting and connecting information and ideas with certain logical frameworks, mapping helps with bottom-up generation of cognition and design of the site, which provides a visual operation carrier that reflects the site’s structures and evolutionary processes. Applying mapping in teaching and practice can promote designers’ cognition on structures and processes of complex landscapes and get rid of the dogma of following standardized workflows or imposed cultural symbols.     

Ecological Planting Imperative: Functional Systems,Not Stylized Ecologies

The ability of landscape architectural projects to mitigate the worst effects of climate change will depend upon designed ecological systems. These systems will be built with plants. Despite the recognition of ecology as an essential driver of landscapes, the professionals of landscape architecture too often lack the knowledge and practical skills to create robust vegetative systems. New approaches and tools are required. This article outlines principles and methods for designing biodiverse plant systems for urban sites. Planting methods that increase species richness, functional diversity, and spatial complexity are emphasized as a way of developing more resilient plantings. Selecting species with similar evolutionary adaptions to stress, disturbance, and competition—as well as creating multi-layered compositions of diverse plant morphologies—allows designers to create compatible, long-lived plant mixes. To balance the increased visual complexity of diverse plant mixes, the article explores design techniques to make plantings more appealing to the public. The strategies explored here are based on the projects, experience, and research of Phyto Studio, a Washington, D.C. based studio. The methods build on work described in the author’s book, Planting in a Post-Wild World, an exploration of how to create designed plant communities.     

LA PKU’S RESEARCH ON CHINA’S TRADITIONAL ECO-WISDOM AND RELATED APPLICATION IN CONTEMPORARY LANDSCAPE PLANNING AND DESIGN

Since 1997, LA PKU has conducted a series of studies on China’s traditional ecological wisdom and related application in contemporary landscape planning and design. This paper first reviews the background and the course of LA PKU’s research: In early years, they studied on Feng-shui and vernacular landscapes that stemmed from their understanding and response to local natural and human processes in planning and design practice; In 2006, Kongjian Yu proposed the concept that Landscape Architecture is a discipline concentrating on the art of survival, which has greatly promoted the study and revival of traditional eco-wisdom, not only providing a historical base for the modern development of Landscape Architecture, but also applying the research results in responding to contemporary environmental and ecological problems; In 2014, developed upon the achievement on the art of survival, LA PKU further explored the deep form of China’s traditional landscapes by studying local spatial forms and design strategies on micro- and site-scales and translating such ecological solutions into China’s contemporary landscape design. The paper also reviews on LA PKU’s important research results over the past two decades, including traditional agricultural landscapes, vernacular settlements, and traditional water-adaptive landscapes.     

设计的"为"与"不为"——围绕幼儿游戏空间设计的思考

To all kinds of design, the negotiation between the expression of designers’ idea and the representation of users’ desire is a typical internal tension of design. Particularly, the balancing of the internal tension of the design for children requires sophisticated solutions, because the needs of the actual users are often (mis-)represented by the desire of their parents. Therefore, in addition to satisfying social needs, the designers should also recognize the collective unconsciousness of adults who express on behalf of children. Taking the studies in Developmental Psychology and Anthropology as reference, this article focuses on playing, instead of knowledge acquisition, and discusses the balancing of the internal tension of the design of playing spaces for children, especially for the preschoolers. This article aims at revealing the role of games to children’s psychological and intelligence growth, as well as their game playing mechanism, by answering two questions: why do children play games and how do they play? By illustrating a case study on the playground design of the COBY Preschool in Japan, the proposed concept of “design to not design” is expected to inspire the design of children’s playing spaces.     

SHANGHAI SANLIN VALLEY PARK — LANDSCAPE DESIGN OF AN URBAN GREEN WEDGE

As one of the eight major green wedges within Shanghai’s overall urban planning in the city center, Sanlin Valley Park serves as an important intersection between ecological corridors along the Huangpu River and Shanghai’s outer ring road. During the rapid urbanization process, the city’s ecology has been facing constant deterioration. Furthermore, the city is experiencing an alarming loss of biodiversity, as well as increasingly severe urban heat island effect. To alleviate these issues, the project adopts a “valley” concept as the core of its design and utilizes thoughtful design strategies in five aspects: water management, wind corridors and micro-climates, ecosystem, transportation, and program and experience. With these strategies, the design team aims to improve the site’s connectivity, restore its ecology, reshape habitats, create a resilient landscape, and forge a vibrant urban hub that can also serve as the city’s ecological research base. During the design process, the design team adopts certain principles of landscape practices within the USA — that a project should encourage public participation of all socio-economic levels and place emphasis on the experience and benefits of the public. This form of multi-lateral cooperation allows for the park to constantly have its design plan reviewed and improved. It also allows for iterative responses to issues on the ground during construction. Last but not least, it instigates careful considerations of how to manage the park and its ecosystem, both in terms of cost and feasibility. By adopting all of these principles, the design team aspires to truly accede to citizens’ needs, all while introducing a sustainable ecosystem that would, ultimately, contribute to a much improved ecology and economy.     

THE SPARK OF CONTEMPORARY LANDSCAPE CREATIVITY — THE FOUNDATION LANDSCAPE DESIGN STUDIO IN THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

Traditional landscape design studio training starts with the learning of a classic or prominent landscape project, may it be through site observation or a trace-over / imitation exercise. Foundation year students in a landscape program typically take the landscape precedent project as a study ground, to learn about the landscape master’s design through the mimicking process in the trace-over exercise, or to learn about the articulation of spatial design through site observation. Landscape Architecture, afterall, is a creative endeavor. Thus, an alternative approach is to start the fundamental training with the study of artistic processes, to foster appreciation in art and design, innovative concept development, and articulation in craftsmanship. Also, the contemporary discourse of Landscape Architecture is no longer simply about spatial design, but has transformed to require understanding of process, operation, step-by-step mechanism, movement, and how a system works. The performative and dynamic aspects of landscape are being valued nowadays. Such ways of seeing landscapes require a different set of observation and representation methods and skills. In this article, the author shares how the pedagogical content and developments of the foundation year landscape design studio in the HKU Bachelor of Arts in Landscape Studies BA(LS) Program help train students with such new interpretations to contemporary Landscape Architecture.     

TO BE ALARMED BY THE TRAP OF INTELLIGENCE TOOLS

Boeing aircraft crashes aroused the author’s thoughts on intelligence tools. He believes that they should be used to help humans solve problems, rather than put a burden on human life and work. From his own experience of measuring sites, drawing maps, and collecting information, the author is optimistic about the use of intelligence tools in human activities, especially in the field of landscape architecture — intelligence tools have undoubtedly freed designers’ hands for more creative work while acquiring more accurate data, helping humans realize the value of being designers. The author appeals the public to be alarmed by the trap of intelligence tools, and humans’ creative behaviors should not be replaced with such tools. Only in this way can we avoid being lost in the age of artificial intelligence.     

声景方法在景观设计中的作用

Soundscape starts from human’s perception and understanding of users’ needs and expectations of a space in an un-visual observation and expression form. Similar to visual landscape, soundscape costbenefit can be rather attractive. However, how to integrate soundscape approaches into landscape design has not been sufficiently understood or applied by designers and practitioners. This paper aims to discuss the roles of soundscape approaches in landscape design by exploring the research outcomes, national policies, and the state-of-the-art design practice especially across the UK. The design elements of landscape have been demonstrated to be able to form positive soundscape in terms of both noise barrier and positive sound source, although there is still a lack of research on soundscape approaches in landscape design. Besides, relevant policies should encourage appropriate soundscapes and diversity of soundscapes in both urban and rural areas, which could provide more possibilities for landscape designers to create innovative design solutions for noise problems. The landscape design options need further development through collaboration and innovative thinking so that a greater variety of solutions can be implemented. Soundscape approaches are those which take into account interests of different groups, including transport authorities and developers. Coordinated solutions can be defined with the help of landscape and urban architects to fulfil stakeholders’ interests by creating a desirable urban soundscape.     

A DISCUSSION ON INSTITUTIONAL IMPROVEMENT FOR ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION AND LANDSCAPE GOVERNANCE IN CHINA

With the development of landscape discipline and governance theories, “landscape governance” has become a new frontier of inter-disciplinary research, and is considered a sub-topic and extension of “environmental governance.” Institution is an important factor to the development of landscape governance theory and practice. Since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, the construction of Ecological Civilization has marked itself a new milestone for its systematic top-down design and institution-oriented efforts. At the same time, the Third Plenary Session of the Eighteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 2013 proposed to improve the contemporary national governance system and capacity, and took governance as a new means to evaluate state capacities and state-society relations. Both of them will significantly impact landscape planning, design, protection, and management in China. This article reviews the evolution of western landscape governance theories driven by 1) the emphasis on the spatial scale effect of landscape; 2) the exploration of the regional variety of cultural and collective identities of local landscapes; and 3) the emphasis on the practice of landscape governance. It also examines the opportunities in China’s landscape governance brought by the institutional improvement of Ecological Civilization, which might help: resolve the inherent conflicts that cause the existing environmental and ecological problems; enhance China’s capacity on landscape governance; establish a new land-use management system with a greater ecological security and broader ecosystem services; endow landscapes with more public benefits; cultivate a civil society and democracy in landscape governance; and, influence the education and research of Landscape Architecture in multiple dimensions. Finally, the article proposes roadmaps for China’s landscape governance at both global and national scales.     

大运河上的塔“院”：遗产理景中的价值解读与景观提升

由本体转向在城市景观视野内理解建成文化遗产,不仅有益于对古人传统设计智慧和营建逻辑的发见,也契合入遗之后的遗产保护需求,特别是遗产所在城市的发展要求。以大运河上一座重建的塔的周边环境提升为切入点,探讨入遗后遗产保护与景观设计如何全面认知价值和促进城市功能提升。以大运河上的塔和塔院这类特殊的文化景观要素指出古人整体性的营建逻辑和景观被赋予的多重属性,说明整体性的视野是应对入遗后需求的有效策略。风景园林设计应回归城乡背景而非从中剥离,方可为城市作出更积极的贡献。     

景观公正——英国格林威治大学风景园林学院院长艾德·沃尔教授专访

艾德·沃尔（Ed Wall）是英国格林威治大学风景园林学和城市规划学的学术带头人,在风景园林研究与教育领域具有广泛影响力。在专访中,艾德围绕景观公正阐述了自己在风景园林研究、实践与教学方面的核心思想。在研究方面,他强调景观和城市的公共性,尤其是公共场所产生的交叉方式在规划、设计、使用和维护公共空间中非常重要。在实践方面,他提出设计不仅要确定城市的物理环境和物质维度,更要理解和熟悉景观的过程。在风景园林教学中,格林威治大学的学生正在学习和研究侧重于景观开放性和不完整性的设计方法,学生们还需要牢记他们对环境和社会公正的专业责任。     

基于案例分析的后工业景观改造的规划设计理论

一些废弃的、未充分利用的后工业景观的出现,加上风景园林设计关注的重点从单一孤立的对象设计转变为更大范围的城区内宝贵地段的城市形象设计,从而增加了预想的干预措施的影响,突出创建风景园林理论本体的必要性,提供了一个能从中获得行动对策的结构。受工业污染的景观造成经济衰退、环境退化和社会困境,因此,景观改造能够重新定义这些景观,以社区为基础,跨学科行动,在社会、经济和生态目标的基础上集成多功能、长期的解决方案,改善景观质量并且提高生活质量。提出一种具体的方法,在案例研究方法的基础上对改进的后工业景观改造理论进行定义。所提出的方法和应用的方式可能是对成功的后工业景观改造设计方法进行经验性的分析,以此建立一套设计原则,为类似景观的改造提供信息和理论基础。     

斯蒂格·L·安德森作品之光环境设计语言解析

斯蒂格·L·安德森从1994年创立SLA丹麦景观规划设计事务所至今从事大量景观设计工作,其作品中涵盖大量对景观光环境的思考。对其研究,归纳出3种具有代表性的设计语言:以水作为传递光感的媒介;塑造动态的光影效果;设计主题化的夜间照明气氛。通过对安德森的两个优秀作品的介绍,阐述设计师营造光环境的设计理念。     

Designing Aesthetic Experiences for the Cultural Sustainability of Ecological Health

Ensuring human wellbeing and promoting ecological health are two central objectives in contemporary landscape architecture practice and adaption to climate change. Cognitive sciences recognize that affect and emotion play a critical role in human decision-making. This article describes how aesthetic experiences could affect decisions that support or undermine ecological health. While the wellbeing benefits of pleasant landscape experiences have been demonstrated empirically, aesthetic experiences may or may not promote ecological health. The question of how to better align the two remains under debate and investigation. Building on the concept of cultural sustainability, this article elucidates how aesthetic experiences can be used in design tactics to encourage societal acceptance for highly functioning ecosystems that otherwise may be destroyed or resisted for their unappealing or unfamiliar appearance. With examples from China and the United States, this article illuminates how fine-scale, immediately noticeable landscape characteristics, such as “cues to care,” can change perceptual and affective responses to promote ecological health. This article invites readers to reflect on what role aesthetic experiences may play in conserving, restoring, and creating ecologically sound landscapes as we face new challenges in the urban era of climate change, and how design can help construct aesthetic experiences with immediately noticeable landscape characteristics.     

A Call for Innovative,Multidisciplinary Adaptive Landscape Design in the Age of Climate Change: Interview With Brett Milligan

Brett Milligan stands out among all the scholars studying the future of the landscape profession in the context of climate change. He studied unique subjects, such as mud and river sediments. His projects often go beyond the usual landscape architecture majors, such as ecological restoration after dam removal and delta habitat creation; His attitude towards landscape is also very characteristic. For example, he treats landscape as a process, believes that people are very important beings in the process of landscape, and that the fluidity of landscape should not be underestimated. Through this article, Milligan points out the responsibility to acknowledge, embrace, and use landscape forces in project planning and design. It is also required to bring about more humility in terms of how we conceptualize the lifespan of a project to cope with climate change impacts. He encourages us to think beyond externalities–such as environment, people, communities, and sediment–as a practice of inclusion, diversity, and justice for humans and others. Relatedly, the public should be included as part of refined transdisciplinary and co-design methods. In the end, he shares his vision of design as a rigorous and unique form of knowledge making through a new Research by Design track.     

Shifting Shores: Managing Challenge and Change on the Lizard Peninsula,Cornwall, UK

In this paper, we look at how landscape and climate change are simultaneously apprehended through institutional strategies and then negotiated through local knowledge and social relations on the ground. We argue that by examining landscapes that are practised, embodied and lived, it is possible to gain an understanding of people's actions, beliefs and values in relation to climate and climate change. This attention to cultural landscapes also enables us to ask how a variety of publics make sense of climate change, and how they are invited to do so by organisations that take responsibility for the management and preservation of landscape, such as the National Trust, Europe's biggest conservation organisation. This paper considers how the Trust makes sense of climate change via the document Shifting Shores and how its strategies are operationalised on the Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall, UK.     

Ethics-Based Stewardship Practices and the Stewards—Case Studies on Public Landscape Stewardship From North Carolina,USA

The persistence of public landscapes is a critical approach to community resilience and sustainability. But in China’s landscape architectural field, it is neglected in both planning and design, and post-occupancy operations and maintenance. With the case studies of three public landscape sites in North Carolina, the United States this article introduces the concept of stewardship, and outlines the contemporary public landscape stewardship practice as management efforts predominantly driven by the landscape architect’s long-term duty and proactive care to create a sustainable landscape for the site. This article emphasizes that the essence of stewarding public landscapes lies in the ethics—the attachments to and the responsibilities and care of the land and the landscape; and modesty, discernment, and enthusiasm when facing the ever-changing socio-ecological systems—and the outcome of public landscape stewardship typically takes the form of developing and implementing new and futureoriented master plans for the sites. This article also summarizes a set of site-based principles and approaches to public landscape stewardship. Finally, based on the discussion about the case studies, this study points out the practical implications of public landscape stewardship for Chinese cities which are progressively entering into an era of inventory development. Recommendations for its application to the Chinese landscape architectural profession are further addressed.     

城市儿童空间设计中的认知科学

An important consideration in designing urban spaces for children is that it should aid children’s development and learning. An extensive literature from Cognitive Science has established that children’s social, cognitive, and motor development is promoted by various, wellresearched types of play. This article reviews the body of knowledge from Cognitive and Developmental Science concerning the benefits of play for learning and explains that it can and should be harnessed by urban designers. First, the review shows that different types of play confer different learning benefits. Urban space design that attempts to maximize learning from play should consider design’s affordance — what types of play are afforded by the design. Second, evidence from Cognitive Science show that children’s learning and exploration are fostered by challenge and ambiguity. Design that embraces these increases learning and creativity. Third, play is critical for children’s social learning, as it gives children the opportunity to practice social interaction. Urban design can catalyze social learning by creating spaces and structures that invite play among peers, as well as parent-child play. Beyond this theoretical review, this article also illustrates how to realistically implement these Cognitive Science-oriented urban design with an authentic case study.