Landscape Theories: Aesthetic Sustainability and Organic Design
Let us abandon simplicity and give unity its due.’ – Ian McHarg 1969
This post is part book review and part reflection on the ecology of design and sustainability. It begins with a tour of an organic farm in north Florida and closes with one chapter of Simon Swaffield’s reader Theory in Landscape Architecture.
New Orleans: leader in Urban Farming Initiatives
In a city like New Orleans, with food as a cornerstone of their culture and history, it only seems natural for the local communities to crave spaces where they can farm for themselves. This desire eventually led to organization of farming plots in many neighborhoods and vacant lots. With sustainable influences from landscape architects, nominal sites around the city have been transformed to structured social outlets that strengthen communities, proving that landscape architects can confront social issues through design. Below are a few examples of larger projects in New Orleans area that have sustained the urban agriculture revolution.
Reformation of The American Lawn !
The January issue of ASLA’s Landscape Architecture Magazine was met with excitement as we are introduced to LawnReform.org. What originally began as a web blog in early 2011 has transformed to a platform for sharing your images, observations, and info on lawn alternative plants. Alternatives to over watered and over fertilized lawns are a major goal in some circles, but often it is difficult to spend time to research and experiment the hundreds of groundcovers and lawn substitutes in our environment.
Check Out the Landscape Invocation Tumblr
The Landscape Invocation Tumblr is new project we are starting to share some happenings, links, and projects from some of the sites we enjoy exploring when we are not writing for Landscape Invocation.
Martha Schwartz Interview via ASLA’s The Dirt
Take some time out of your day to check out this thought-provoking interview of Martha Schwartz by the people over at ASLA’s The Dirt. Its a good one.
AECOM wins Rio 2016 Olympic Park Competition
Congratulations to AECOM for winning the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Park Design Competition. Along with the traditional olympic competition, the grounds will play host to the 2016 Para-Olympic Games, 2014 World Cup, and the 2011 Military Games.
A Stranger’s Path: Transect Florida
Somewhere between the looming exit from my home in the deciduous Florida highlands of Gainesville and my reading of Landscapes, by J.B. Jackson, I felt the need for a personal conquest. One that ingrains me in all aspects of Florida, introduces me to natural ecosystems, town planning and the vernacular of small town Florida.
Photoshop Brushes for Landscape Architects / Designers
Along the same lines as our recent post on Adobe Photoshop custom shapes, brushes are a useful tool for creating landscape renderings. Shapes allow you to apply realistic images without the hassle of cropping images out of other contexts.
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Park Review: Franklin D. Roosevelt National Memorial
The Franklin D. Roosevelt National Memorial is a series of outdoor rooms that represents the 4 terms of FDR’s presidency. The design, one of the most distinguished of the late Lawrence Halprin, integrates a set of waterfalls and statues to evoke the attitudes and emotions of the president and American people in an era marked by some of the most important events in our young country’s history.
Count Plants in AutoCAD the Easy Way with the EATTEXT Command
After spending the last two week looking over landscape planting plans and schedules, I have concluded that while landscape architects spend a lot of time mulling over the tiniest details of their plans – one of the things that they dont pour over are planting counts.
