OBSERVATION AND REPRESENTATION: ON RECOGNITION AND EXPRESSION OF NATURAL SITES IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

Abstract

In the education of Landscape Architecture, the way we view and depict a natural site is defined by the way we observe and express it. This paper starts with a comparison between the perspective and approach of traditional painting types (the realistic sketch, design sketch, and landscape painting) and those in Landscape Architecture. All of them involve observation (viewing) and expression (drawing) of natural beings and phenomena, where traditional paintings are in the pursuit of honest depiction of the forms or shapes. While in Landscape Architecture it emphasizes understanding and representing the evolutions and the complicated intrinsic relations of the authentic sites — in other words, to represent the nature of reality.

To be on-site, the use of body movement, and the evolutions and correlations of natural beings are the three most important principles to the observation and representation in Landscape Architecture. Combining with two cases in teaching and practice, this paper elaborates how to develop abstract forms and design concepts from the observation of authentic sites and how the trans-scaled reflection on the correlations about the sites can inspire a site-scaled design, providing references for the education and practice of Landscape Architecture in China.

Keywords

Landscape Architecture / Site / Observation / Perception / Movement / Expression / Representation

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2019 Higher Education Press