Bipolarity and Ambivalence in Landscape Architecture

Our discipline of landscape architecture contains bipolarity, not only in terms of landscape and architecture but also because the idea of landscape is both aesthetic and scientific. Furthermore, within landscape architecture there is a gap between design (as implied by architecture) and planning (implying land-use plan and policy orientation) on one hand, and a similar gap between design (associated with artistic activity, concerned with aesthetics as well as science) and research (considered as scientific activity Landscape architects often retain as much ambivalence between design and planning, as they do between design and research

Landscape Design Dialogue. Bridging the gap between knowledge and action

Spatial planners and landscape architects do not excel in theory development. The authors, being a practicing landscape architect-planner and a planning scholar, explore new roads to a middle range theory of landscape design and planning. Building on theories-in-use in regional planning practice they develop an empirically grounded methodology for planning and design. The process of theory building is part of a process of methodical reflection on best and worst practices. It focuses on an analysis of planning and design efforts in the period 1970 – 2005 which have gradually transformed the landscape of the Rhine-Meuse Flood Plain in the Netherland

Downtown Waterville Feasibility Study Waterville, Maine

The Purpose and Need for this project is to: “Revitalize the Downtown to improve the aesthetics, support existing businesses and encourage economic growth, improve pedestrian and bicycle accommodations and provide adequate parking while maintaining vehicular capacity in the overall area.” Contributions and assistance in the completion of the study were provided by the City of Waterville, Colby College, the Maine Department of Transportation, and the General Public

Landscape planning to promote well being

There has been a rapid increase in knowledge regarding the importance of the external environment to our health. Eight characteristics of the outdoor environment (serene, wild, lush, spacious, the common, the pleasure garden, festive/ centre, and culture) have been identified as fulfilling recreational needs through a number of environmental psychology studies carried out at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Alnarp, Sweden, between 1995 and 2005. The external environment has become an increasingly decisive factor in people’s choices regarding where to live and work; the landscape has become a competitive factor in attempts made by companies and local authorities to attract well-educated, mobile manpower and housing. Knowledge-based companies predominate in the Öresund Region of Sweden and Denmark, which at present has substantial recreational values making it an attractive area in which to live and work. The region’s annual population growth is approximately 20,000 to 25,000 inhabitants. The prime ministers of Sweden and Denmark have expressed a common objective that the Öresund Region be one of Europe’s cleanest metropolitan regions. The objective of this article is to present methods for implementing the eight characteristics as indicators for impact assessment in planning projects. The article presents case studies of the application of environmental impact assessments in the municipalities of Malmö and Svedala, which are situated in the immediate vicinity of the Öresund Bridge. Development plans are being evaluated through impact assessment. Mitigation and compensation measures are being created to achieve the environmental quality goals defined by the eight characteristics. The case studies referred to in this article are in very early planning phases, either the feasibility or pre-feasibility phase. This article does not present complete investigations of balancing, but discusses some principal ways of defining values and suggests measures for mitigating and compensating for negative impacts on existing values

Plant material booklet 1: palms of Malaysia

This book is intended as quick reference for landscape architects, architects and urban planners in identifying palms for landscape planning and design of open spaces, recreational areas, residential landscape and street planting. It begins with descriptions of the indigenous or introduced palms found in Malaysia. It then discuss how palms can be used as spatial articulation features in shaping human spaces. The book also includes a set of table describing eight subfamilies of palms in alphabetical order. This booklet is the first in a series of plant material booklets on the utilization of plants in landscape planning and designs. Other titles in this series include, among others, Herbs and Medicinal Plants, Wayside Trees and Bamboos in Malaysia

He tokotoko mo nga tangata : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Regional and Environmental Planning at Massey University

THE PROBLEM Urban river corridor areas are often subject to damaging use and to increasing pressure from conflicting uses. The main issue is the need to utilise the characteristics of a river and its margins within a city while integrating it into the city's life and preserving its ecological functions. The aim of the thesis is to develop a planning framework to address this issue. Information from various disciplines contribute to the River Corridor Planning Framework. The main areas researched are landscape aesthetics, ecology, recreation styles and public participation in planning. The study of landscape aesthetics reveals universally valued natural landscape features, and in part justifies concern for, and planning action in, river margin areas. The potential for river corridor areas to host significant ecological functions is shown in the ecological study, and brings an additional aspect to the urban planning situation. The significance of provision for informal recreation, the most common type, also influences the Planning Framework. Integral to the Planning Framework is a strong belief in, and justification of, the need to include public participation in all phases of the planning process. The River Corridor Planning Framework developed is applied to part of the Whanganui River in the city of Wanganui, which is in some ways typical of medium sized cities with rivers in New Zealand. It is suggested that the River Corridor Planning Framework may have application in other cities with similar situations

Waterville Riverfront Master Plan

Waterville Riverfront Revitalization Plan

From Landscape Atlas to Flemish Heritage Landscapes: using landscape inventories to formulate landscape quality objectives in a participative process

The European Landscape Convention recommends the realisation of landscape policy, meaning “an expression by the competent public authorities of general principles, strategies and guidelines that permit the taking of specific measures aimed at the protection, management and planning of landscapes”. Landscape quality objectives should be formulated by the competent public authorities, including the aspirations of the public with regard to the landscape features of their surroundings. The responsible authorities in Flanders faced many questions to achieve these tasks. Landscape entities to be management had to be defined, landscape qualities and values formulated, but according to what time horizon, who are the different stakeholders and who is the public to be involved? Only small adjustments were made to the existing legislation on the protection of monuments, sites and landscapes to meet the recommendations of the ELC. Two of the new approaches used today are analysed in this paper. First, there is the designation of heritage landscapes through a long process of spatial planning. Second, there is a faster thematic approach of protecting particular landscape elements as monuments. Two different legal procedures are used with different aspects of public’s participation. Examples of their application so far were analysed as case studies. The Landscape Atlas in Flanders (2000) forms a basic inventory for the current landscape policy, which aims to be more integrated an cover most policy domains. A process was set up to designate selected anchor places from the Atlas, defining specific landscape quality objectives which should be used in the procedure of spatial planning to become managed as heritage landscapes. About 29 anchor places have been subject to the first phase of this procedure, which engages mainly policy makers and administrations to realise the objectives. In this phase participation consists mainly of external expert judgment and the input by different administrations that take care of sector interests. The analysis shows that the landscape quality objectives are defined by the responsible administration and aim at conservation of the existing landscape values and character. The input of the public remains mainly indirect and has little influence on the final formulation of the landscape quality objectives and the decision of designating. The direct influence of landscape policy ends when procedures of spatial planning take over in a second phase. Thus monitoring of the real developments in these heritage landscapes will be essential to evaluate if the landscape quality objectives are realized. The second case consists in the protection of special vegetation forms which are representative for particular cultural practices such as pollarding. Here objects are proposed as protected monuments which engage landowners to maintain them and the participation procedure is more direct. The analysis shows a large indifference by the authorities concerned and some negative responses by the landowners which are mainly based on misinformation

On a landscape approach to design and eco-poetic approach to Landscape

For Landscape Architecture to become an academic discipline it must present its own coherent theory and methodology for the planning, designing and management of (built) landscapes. This also requires not only an articulated if difficult differentiation of planning, design and management and the interrelationship between them, but also clarification of the term landscape itself