1st Edition

To Design Landscape Art, Nature & Utility

By Catherine Dee Copyright 2012
    280 Pages
    by Routledge

    280 Pages
    by Routledge

    To Design Landscape sets out a distinctively practical philosophy of design, in accessible format. Based on the notion that landscape design is a form-based craft addressing environmental processes and utility, Dee establishes a framework for approaching such craft with modesty and ingenuity, using the concept of "aesthetics of thrift".

    Employing numerous case studies-as diverse as Hellerup Rose Garden in Denmark; Bloedel Reserve, Bainbridge Island, USA; Rousham Gardens, Oxfordshire, UK and Tofuku-ji, in Kyoto, Japan - to illustrate her ideas, the book is a beautiful portfolio of Dee's drawings, which are both evocative and to the point.

    The book begins with a 'Foundations' section, which sets out the basis of the approach.  'Principles' chapters then elaborate eleven significant considerations applicable to any design project, regardless of context and scale. Following on, 'Strategies' chapters reinforce the principles, and suggest further ways of designing, adaptable to different conditions.  Dee ends with a focus on 'Elements', case studies and verb lists providing sources for the designer to consider how the components - vegetation, water, terrain, structures, soils, weather, and the sky -  might be engaged, mediated and joined.

    Catherine Dee’s book is for all those who would craft landscape, from the gardener, to the professional landscape architect, to the student of design

    Part 1 The Aesthetics of Thrift  1. Landscape Practice and Aesthetics  2 The Aesthetics of Thrift  3 Craft  Part 2 Principles  4. Trajectories: Landscape Form is Landscape Process  5. Precision  6. Economy of Means  7. Utility  8. Perennial Landscape  9. Elemental Register  Part 3 Practices/Strategies  10. Hardly  11. ‘Go to the pine’  12. Hand and Machine  13. Intervention  14. Abstraction  15. Keep  16. Absence  17. Lucky  Part 4 Practices/Elements  18. Green  19. Terrain  20. Water  21. Furnish  22. Dirty, Rotten  23. The Wind  24. The Sky Part 5 Practices/Resolution and Continuum  25. Interplay  26. Raking  27. Soft, rock-hard and evergreen time  28. Do nothing

    Biography

    Catherine Dee trained in fine art before studying landscape architecture, and today practises both. She is author of Form and Fabric in Landscape Architecture: a visual introduction (Routledge 2001) and several articles on the relationship between design, drawing and art. She is a founding editor of the Journal of Landscape Architecture (JoLA) (2006) and creator of its peer-reviewed visual essay section ‘Thinking Eye’. A highly regarded design teacher, she holds an academic post in the Department of Landscape at the University of Sheffield, UK.