Blog

Dyslexia in Design – A deeper look at how Dyslexia has bonded with the world of design.  The lexicography of the word dyslexia translates as ‘trouble with words’ from the Greek ‘dys’ meaning ‘bad, abnormal or difficult’ and ‘lexis’ meaning ‘word’.  In popular culture the term dyslexia is primarily employed to describe children and young people who have a specific learning disability with regards to written language.  Historically, other terms used synonymously with dyslexia have included ‘word blindness’ and ‘strephosymbolia’. Both of these terms focus on the difficulties faced by dyslexics, thus defining them by what they can’t do, rather than what they can. Dyslexia in Design The Problem It is estimated that dyslexia affects 4-5% of the UK population. With such low figures, it is, ...Read More

One of Spain’s crown jewels, Barcelona Botanical Garden is located on Montjuich´s mountainside between the Castle and the Olympic Stadium. Today, I’d like to bring you on a journey into a garden-mountain landscape that captures the perfect design balance between nature and the city of Barcelona. The entrance to the Barcelona Botanical Garden is marked by four large folding doors. This botanical garden specializes in flora characteristic of areas homoclimatic with the coveted Mediterranean climate, such as places like South Africa, Chile, southern California, and the Canary Islands. Because of this setup, visitors can take a tour “around the world” so-to-speak through the varied Mediterranean plant palettes. Many plants at risk of disappearance are also preserved on ...Read More

It’s a common problem that’s caught us all out at some point: a dead phone battery and nowhere to charge it. But this frustration could soon be a thing of the past, thanks to a new wave of street furniture that’s sweeping through cities. Street Charge Solar Phone Charging Stations. Image via Street Charge. It began in the US back in June 2013 when Street Charge was launched in New York City. Intended to give power on-the-go to any electrical device with a USB connection, the open-air charging stations were installed across NYC by telecommunications corporation AT&T. Designed by Pensa, each charging station harnesses the power of the sun via three 20-watt solar panels. The sun’s energy is stored within an internal battery, ready to give users a burst of power at ...Read More

A guide to places in the USA, which are world renowned centres to study landscape architecture.  Have you decided that you want to be a landscape architect but aren’t sure about where to get the most bang for your college bucks? The following list of ten schools (in alphabetical order) offers the best and most comprehensive education money can buy for either a bachelor’s or a master’s degree in landscape architecture. 10. California State Polytechnic University One of five departments in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design, the landscape architecture “curriculum is structured to help students develop the values, knowledge, and skills necessary to address human and societal needs within a broad range of project types and environmental scales.” This program has braggin...Read More

1315 Peachtree Street by Perkins + Will. Not many wake up in the morning and say, “I’m going to design the most sustainable building and site in the world.” Neither do firms for that matter. But back in 2011, the Atlanta office of Perkins+Will completed this goal. Driven by a passion to practice what they preach, Perkins+Will began the process of a multiyear and multidisciplinary planning effort which would place their new office as the highest-scoring LEED certified project in the world at the time of completion. Sustainable Design Perkins+Will is an international multidisciplinary firm which specializes in landscape architecture, architecture, interior design, planning, and more. They have become known for their sustainably innovative designs and more recently for their work on the Atlan...Read More

The Bartlett Parklet, named after the orchards that used to stud the ground of Bishop Ranch in San Ramon, CA, was built ground up on top of a “drop-down” trailer originally intended to move Minnesotan ice shanties. It is designed to be mobile and parked in various locations in Bishop Ranch–a corporate office park, and is the first of its kind in San Ramon as well as in a corporate setting. The Bartlett Parklet origins began when Bishop Ranch sponsored a contest for their employees to design a parklet for their campus.  After all the votes were in, the “Bartlett Parklet” was the winner, and BASE was then hired to develop the design, plan, teach, and run the build week with employees. It features community seating, a bike rack, a responsible waste station, solar-powered out...Read More

Once again, this week’s Linescapes covers analytical drawing. As I emphasized many times before, drawing can be a great tool for analysis. I use it most frequently to record my thoughts when looking at a landscape. It also helps me analyze its shapes and patterns. When analyzing a landscape, all kinds of background information is useful. I try to inquire about the processes that shaped the landscape, its geological structure, plant sociology and even history. The more we know about an environment, the more we are able to see and perceive. RELATED STORY: Hand Drawing Tutorial – Analytical Section Drawing First, I draw the main features of the landscape. I outline the most visible lines, shapes and directions. Even if we don’t see an element in the landscape, we know its th...Read More

Hilgard Garden, an outstanding take on the terraced garden by Mary Barensfeld Architecture. The landscape proposal for Hilgard Garden, designed by Mary Barensfeld, follows a series of simple concepts that are reflected in each element of the garden: elegance, interaction, and simplicity. From the beginning, let’s analyze the visual connection between indoors and outdoors. This concept is gained by respecting the existing topography and using it as the core of the garden. By proposing different levels of landscape, the visual connection between the house and the surrounding forest creates a sensation of being inside a bigger garden and, beyond, being inside the forest. The topography of the upper garden and upper deck also provides sufficient height to see the San Francisco Bay. The plant p...Read More

Foster + Partners create Masdar City A few kilometers from downtown Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, an ambitious billionaire project is taking place. Although still in its early stages, Masdar City is already an incredible development that aims at making it among the most sustainable cities of the planet and becoming a research leader in energy-related technologies. Masdar is designed to offer “the highest quality of life with the lowest environmental footprint” by combining appropriate land use with a clean transportation system and energy efficiency approach – from the architectural to the urban scale. Designing For High-Efficiency  The experimental city has currently six completed buildings (three residential, two laboratories and one knowledge centre) which were designed with h...Read More