Entire Issue As One Document

Entire issue as one document

Grounding Woody Meadows: examining the application of horticultural research into landscape design

This paper reviews the application and integration of Woody Meadow horticultural research into landscape design projects in Melbourne, Australia. Over the last seven years, the Woody Meadow research has trialled and demonstrated planting and maintenance strategies based on minimal labour and financial inputs while achieving urban plantings with high vegetation diversity, heat and drought resilience, and working exclusively with Australian native plants. While these trials have proven successful, the majority of applications are limited to prototypes or park upgrades rather than integrated design strategies as part of broader landscape design agendas. This research uses project analysis and comparisons in combination with researcher perspectives to highlight and discuss the gaps and barriers to applying this research to design projects. The study reveals that applying research into practice demands more than simple provision of knowledge but also extends to managing community and professional expectations alongside strategies for introducing new methods into established workflows and processes

Building collective know-how: Part 1: A case for more procedural knowledge in landscape architecture

This article makes the case that building landscape architecture’s procedural knowledge – defined as a collectively-shared and critically-examined understanding of the diverse ways landscape architects design – is of critical importance to the profession and discipline, especially if the profession desires to become more relevant and valuable to society as a whole.  Knowing-how to design is the core knowledge-base of the field. Landscape architects’ abilities to view complex situations holistically, engage in ethical deliberations, envision new possibilities, and weigh alternatives from multiple perspectives is the key to their design expertise. This design expertise is needed in order to create designs that respond to the complex problems of today’s society. More procedural knowledge is needed: (1) so that landscape architects can learn from each other, (2) so that beginning landscape designers have clear models upon which to build expert knowledge, and (3) so educators do not have to rely only on their personal experiences when teaching design. Because good designing responds holistically within particular circumstances, it is challenging to develop transferable knowledge about designing, but there are models from practice research that suggest how it could be done

Digital media and the design project: new creative research methods for landscape architecture

Practice and academia exist in parallel worlds. Universities with their priorities guided by government research metrics and competitive funding schemes encourage academics to present research through refereed journals (often behind paywalls) or at international conferences to academic audiences. Conversely, practice works at speed, offering minimal time for critical reflection before moving on to the next project. The design project connects these two worlds. It is here that the conceptual collides with the material, and theory meets practice. While academia and practice recognise the importance of design precedents and case studies, we argue neither is yet to fully capitalise on the tacit knowledge of the designer in advancing landscape architecture knowledge.  Through a critical reflection on the research processes and creative methods underpinning the Landscape Architect as Changemakers project, this essay discusses the potential of the reflective practitioner, along with the research possibilities afforded by digital media in developing more complex and precise understandings of design practice. In contrast to repeatable and predetermined research methodologies, we highlight the value of flexible and creative research approaches which can transform and respond to unfolding knowledge and evolving opportunities for funding and dissemination that can emerge during a research project

Research, Janus, practice

The following is a rumination, on the relation between research and practice in landscape architecture and considers aspects of what it would entail to genuinely engage in landscape practice as a researcher rather than simply making the claim to be research led or engaging in design research or doing some research to support practice

Assessing the Character of Australian Coastal Towns Through the Eyes of the Residents

Over the last couple of decades, smaller coastal settlements in Australia, particularly near major metropolitan areas, have experienced accelerated growth associated with tourism and people migrating to these places to live permanently or temporarily. Unfortunately, this attraction to the coast and the development that often accompanies it has resulted in environmental changes that threaten the qualities that made these attractive destinations in the first place. In some such communities, these changes have been rapid and dramatic, eliciting impassioned complaints from members of the local communities that the ‘character’ of their towns and/or individual neighbourhoods was being negatively impacted due to the types, scales, and rates at which these changes were occurring. This article reports on a methodological approach for assessing the contributions of landscape features to the character of Australian coastal ‘sea change’ towns as perceived by their residents. Variations of this methodology were, over the last couple of decades, used by the author to assess how residents of nine Australian coastal ‘sea change’ settlements, including Byron Bay in New South Wales, Airlie Beach in Central Queensland, and seven towns along Victoria’s Great Ocean Road perceive the character of these towns as conveyed by features in the landscape. The findings of these studies illustrate the importance of protecting the natural environment, heritage elements of the built environment and socially vibrant public spaces that are crucal in defining the character of many Australian ‘sea change’ coastal towns. The results of this approach can have a number of practical applications