Conceptual Landscapes Fundamentals in the Beginning Design Process

Introduction

Part 1: The Spark of an Idea

1. Excavating Ideas

Elizabeth Mossop

2. Obsessions

Emma Mendel

3. Composite Drawings + Landscape Ideations

Karen Lutsky

4. Pictorial Cartography and Digital Printmaking:

Experiments in Representing the Working Landscape

Forbes Lipschitz

5. Materiality as Inquiry: Environmental History for Enacting New Worlds

Sara Jacobs

6. Developing Concepts

Scott Jennings Melbourne

7. Critical Making

Emily Vogler

Part 2: Concept in Translation

8. Materializing Atmospheres: Translating the Immaterial

Zaneta Hong

9. Tacit Concepts

Ferdinand Ludwig & Sergio Sanna

10. Sediment in Process: designing an active channel for Alameda Creek

Justine Holzman & Rob Holmes

11. Grounding the Site: Uncovering Concepts in the Landscape Architecture Design Process

Mary Pat McGuire

12. From Ideas to Design Actions

Yun Hye Hwang

13. Translations between Patent Innovation and Environmental Design Pedagogy

Richard Hindle

Part 3: Forming Futures

14. Designing Parks – The Art of Creating Lively Places

Leonard Grosch

15. Disrupted Futures: The Rise of Speculative Digital Landscape Simulation in Conceptual Design.

Aidan Ackerman

16. Landscape: "For Illustration Purposes Only"

Fadi Masoud

17. Conceptualizing the Design of Fluid Geographies

Kees Lokman

18. UX for Landscape Architects: A New Paradigm for Conceptual Design

Biography

Simon Bussiere is Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urban Ecological Design at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. His research explores intersections of ecological urbanism, design communication, and pedagogy.

"How do we initiate the sometimes exhilarating, sometimes frustrating, sometimes daunting process of creativity that leads from inception through iteration and interrogation to a coherent and lush and functional design? Simon Bussiere and his colleagues from teaching institutions around the world probe the depths of this question for landscape architecture students and emerging professionals—and even the more seasoned among us—exploring not one or two but a multitude of starting points for the creative process. In doing so, Bussiere offers us insights into the critical minds of leading academics—giving us a clear and comprehensive sense of the state of the contemporary academy. More importantly, however, the sheer diversity of approaches invites young and aspiring designers into the conversation, begging for them to write the next chapters of design teaching as they explore their own individualized and situated understandings of the world today. A remarkable collection for those interested in understanding how new ideas are born."

Chris Reed, FASLA, Founding Director, Stoss Landscape Urbanism, Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design

"The design "concept," and the mysteries of how conceptualization ossifies is always a profound topic among beginning design students and among seasoned practitioners. What Simon expertly curates in Conceptual Landscapes is a series of essays that unpack a plurality of approaches to concept generation. Importantly, the manuscript highlights the humanity in design and makes the case for promoting a diversity of voices in the design professions in an age where society is often looking for technologies and metrics to solve complex problems. Conceptual Landscapes will serve as an important text for beginning design students and those interested in the formation of landscape design ideas for years to come."

Bradley Cantrell, FAAR, ASLA, Chair and Professor in Landscape Architecture, University of Virginia School of Architecture

"What I appreciate most about Simon Bussiere's approach to the topic of ‘conceptualization’ is his understanding that ideas are found in myriad experiences, sources and processes, from individual to the collective consciousness. He has assembled the knowledge base and reflections of significant practitioners and academics to explore the realm of creativity, and how that informs how landscapes are written and read. This publication will surely be on every burgeoning landscape architect’s ‘must read’ list."

David A. Rubin, FASLA, Founding Principal, DAVID RUBIN Land Collective

"Clearly, Bussiere delights in the ‘ephemeral, sporadic, recursive, and bewildering’ nature of the creative process. Fortunately for readers, he has assembled here a diverse and charismatic array of landscape architecture professors and practitioners, whose approaches and methods embody the endless possibilities of conceptualizing landscapes. Readers are likely to leave this volume more humble yet more courageous designers."

Timothy A. Schuler, Contributing Editor, Landscape Architecture Magazine