minimalist approach towards sustainable landscape design

It seems like it definitely could or should be. If you look at the architectural side with guys like Ludwig Mies van der Rohes’ “less is more’ approach,” you can see how minimalist design could be considered sustainable in a way. If designs aren’t over designed then usually less materials will be used. Often when designers get caught up in artsy or ornate detailing in their design these things end up costing way more than other aspects of the project and also end up more often than not being built out of crazy materials. There are a lot of buildings around Las Vegas considered Green or sustainable and are actually clad in “natural”, rusted steel which is not sustainable at all unless you see it on This Old House where it was harvested from some old farming equipment on site. Anyway, even though design terms like sustainable and green are still way too ambiguous, in my opinion it is a fair stretch to say that less is more minimalism is a sustainable approach.

i sent you a comment on your wall talking about minimalist design, however i have herd it defined in a different way- in which it is not at all natural and is a design in which minimual work (low maintanence) is required, after reading this i am know under the understanding that your definition of minimalist is that of minimual (lack of) design – which reverts back to more natural landscaping and that of ‘less is more’ – in this case i agree that ‘less is more’ and sustainable in design as long as the design incorparates natural system approach and whole-system approach. I would also check your definition of minimual design, with a landscape architect society to make sure that it is not confused with an idea rather than a form of actual landscape architecture. In the case i am wrong please inform me.