Blog

Article by Paul McAtomney – We take a moment to consider 10 things that need to be considered in ecological planning and design. The forces of current global conditions hovering over the human race today—population densification and growth, unbridled urbanization, changing climatic conditions, food production, and biodiversity loss to name but a few, alter ecosystems and cause environmental damage from the local to the global. To address these conditions, many landscape architects are shifting to a more systems-based and ecologically-driven approach to the design of the contemporary landscape. For those unversed in ecological planning and design, here are 10 things to consider. Ecological Planning & Design 1. Ecological Context As with any piece of design, context is everything. ...Read More

Landscape architects are skilled facilitators, listeners and translators of diverse information into meaningful action. Are we good at adaptation? The dynamic conditions that we preach about in nature also apply to our social world. Certainly, dynamic conditions revealed themselves last week with our national election. Can we adapt to the information that’s been revealed? We are proud stewards of land and communities, and alarm bells have been going off about increasing income gaps, fear between racial groups, personalized social media and the echo chamber of information, and the divisive role each of these can play in communities. How should our daily work and lives respond after seeing these issues laid out so clearly before us? There may be some answers in an organization called EcoDist...Read More

Article by Terka Acton – We take a closer look at one of Europe’s most major cities and ask the question “Why Make London the First National Park City?”. London is famously one of the world’s most crowded and frenetic cities, so it may come as a surprise that there is a growing movement to make it the first ever National Park City. In fact, the city’s habitat is startlingly diverse: More than 8 million humans co-exist with 13,000 species of wildlife living in 3,000 parks, 30,000 allotments and community gardens, 36 sites of special scientific interest, and 142 nature reserves, as well as in wasteland and the 3.8 million gardens that cover 24 percent of the capital. In total, 47 percent of London is green space. So What is a National Park City? The campaign prospectu...Read More

Article by Sophie Thiel – We take a moment to recap 10 incredible landscape architecture projects that also make great tourist spots about the world.  The combination of landscape architecture and traveling gives all of us a great opportunity to view the world from a nature-centered perspective, as well as to immerse ourselves in the many different cultures and traditions of our global family. This article is the last of our “Tourist Spots for Landscape Architecture” series. (Links all at the bottom of the article). The previous articles shared collections of 10 landscape architecture projects from each of the world’s continents that also make for must-see tourist destinations. To finish the series, I have summarized the most incredible of these tourist spots: Landscape Architecture ...Read More

We take a look at solar farms. Looking at how they could be a huge opportunity for landscape architects in the future. Consumer behavior changes rapidly when prices fall low enough. The price of solar panels have now hit historic lows and that is expected to change energy generation forever. The US Department of Energy predicts that solar panels will cost one-fourth the current price by 2020. The panels could lose 10% of their value every year for the next decade, according to UK researchers. With massive demand and lower prices, the renewable energy boom could prove to be lucrative for landowners and landscaping businesses. Solar Farms Over the next three years, more than 100,000 acres are expected to be brought under management as solar farms in the United States. States and corporations...Read More

Article by Kamil Rawski – We take a moment to explore 10 of the best ecological designs in the world and look at how they merged with their environment.  It is hard to choose only 10 designs from among hundreds, even if we are just considering the most ecological ones. First, we have to think about what it means to be ecological. I have tried to choose projects that represent aspects such as increasing biodiversity, protecting the environment, changing (or healing) polluted sites, using sewage systems intelligently, supporting water retention, and connecting people with nature. How many of these can be combined in one project? Aesthetical features also must be taken into consideration. Human interference in nature is not always a catastrophe. When the designers have skills and care a...Read More

New Orleans is one of the few distinctly diverse places in the United States where there exists a rich sense of place. From a history rooted deeply in its multi-cultural backgrounds derived from French, Spanish, Haitian, African, German, and Irish peoples. This bouillabaisse, of sorts, has come together over the past few centuries to become a place that many people love to call home and to travel. There might have been a few places so fitting to host this year’s ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) Annual Meeting with the tagline ‘A Celebration of Place.’ Attendees began arriving as early as Wednesday and Thursday to spend time traveling the city sampling and tasting the local Cajun food and po’ boys and to visit the lush landscapes and habitats that make up a small portion of t...Read More

Article by Eleni Tsirintani – Tram Square area in Purmerend by NEXT Architects & Rietveld Landscape, in Purmerend, Netherlands. Tram Square, or Tramplein in Dutch, is located along one of the main accesses to the town of Purmerend next to one of the canals crossing the city, the Noordhollandsch Kanaal. The Square has been designed by the Amsterdam-based office, NEXT Architects. Purmerend is a town in the North of Holland. It is surrounded by *polders, the characteristic entities of Dutch landscape indicating reclaimed land surfaces. Therefore water has always been present as a limit/defining element of the landscape. This condition has also affected the Tram Square design. *A polder is a tract of low land, especially in the Netherlands, reclaimed from the sea or other body of wat...Read More

Article by Cristina Ferrara – We explore 10 of the best green roof designs in the world, looking at what makes them so special and how they impact their environment.  As well as protecting buildings and adding character to the urban environment, green roofs can help to manage rainfall and create diverse new habitats for plants, wildlife, and people. Green roofs help to cool urban environments, improve air quality, and provide biodiverse habitats for wildlife. They manage rainwater by reducing run-off and filtering out pollutants and can also insulate buildings, reducing heating and cooling costs — this is how they can help mitigate the urban heat island effect. But they are also aesthetic frames for urban surroundings and social and meeting places for people who live inside buildings...Read More

National Military Museum, by H+N+S Landscape Architects, in Soesterberg, Utrecht, the Netherlands. The Netherlands have already shown us that they clearly know what landscape architecture is about and the National Military Museum (NMM) in Soesterberg is not an exception. The former Soesterberg Airbase that was officially out of service on 12 November of 2008 was brought back to life in 2015 as the National Military Museum (NMM), as a result of the integration of the Army Museum and the Military Aviation Museum. The complex is composed of a 100 x 250 m building, an arena, and a surrounding natural landscape full of military, war and aviation relics and landmarks. The firm in charge of the mission was H+N+S Landscape Architects, based in Soesterberg. National Military Museum The placement of...Read More

We take a look at green solutions that may indeed end up saving you money, so you can spend it on what really matters. Green Solutions Solar Revolution Solar panels are more affordable than they’ve ever been. The key is utilizing them to their fullest ability. A single solar panel doesn’t give a lot of energy. But if it’s hooked into a source of energy storage, suddenly it becomes exceptionally effective. All you really need is a good-sized car battery. If you can sequence several car batteries together, you can increase your storage capacity such that one panel may see to a single individual’s needs for a twenty-four hour period. If you can get a large enough energy storage station, relatively few panels could provide the electricity needs for an entire operational...Read More

Article by Maria Giovanna Drago – The Westergasfabriek Terrain, by Kathryn Gustafson and Francine Houben from Mecanoo, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The Westergasfabriek Terrain by Kathryn Gustafson and Francine Houben from Mecanoo, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The Westergasfabriek was the largest factory which produced coal gas in the Netherlands during the nineteenth century. It’s just outside the centre of Amsterdam and towers over the landscape with its red and yellowish bricks in the Neo-Renaissance style of the time. It used to provide energy for street lighting; that is why it’s strategically located between the railway, the waterways and the major streets. With the end of the industrialization boom in 1967, its activity terminated, giving way to emptiness and abandonment. The...Read More