Blog

Fifty years ago on June 1 and 2, 1966, Ian McHarg, Grady Clay, Campbell Miller, Charles R. Hammond, George E. Patton, and John O. Simonds were convened by the newly formed Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Motivated by a sense of crisis about the environment and its future, they proclaimed the role of the landscape architect as critical to help solve it and drafted and signed a Declaration of Concern outlining a four-pronged strategy to multiply the effectiveness of the limited number of landscape architects and produce more trained people to cope with the future environment they foresaw. This was the 1960s. It was a volatile time and an era of activism. It was an extraordinary time. Rivers were on fire, pesticide use was leading toward a Silent ...Read More

Article by Win Phyo We take a closer look at 10 of the best YouTube tutorials for drawing perspectives by hand Lately at Landscape Architects Network, we have been sharing our finest articles on hand drawing. It is obvious why we have been doing so, isn’t it? We want you to become the best possible designers you can be and become confident in the art of hand drawing. If you are reading this article, hopefully by now you believe that you don’t suck at drawing , know a little thing or two about improving your hand-drawing skills and may even, wait for it, have become a confident artist over the last couple of months! For you folks out there, landscape architecture requires a hefty amount of different technical drawing skills and one of them is drawing in three dimensions. This is a great dra...Read More

Article by Elisa A.M.Varetti 100 Miles 4 Peace, by Paul-Felix Montez; a global project in 100 locations around the world. Have you ever stopped to think how many memorial monuments there are? Every country has its own, related to some global or local tragic event that must be remembered or commemorated as our writer Nick Shannon shows us in his article Poppy Plaza: the landscape of memory and Kaila Johnson in hers article How Gordan Lederer Memorial Makes a Tragedy Beautiful. Memorial monuments remind people what happened and encourage them to hope that similar tragedies never happen again, like Alexandra Antipa shows us in her article How A Symbol of Tragedy Can Encourage People to Look into the Future.   “But what if people were taught how many men and women stood up for globa...Read More

Article by Erin Tharp HASSELL has recently announced John Williams from RMIT University’s Master of Landscape Architecture program as the winner of this year’s HASSELL Travelling Scholarship. HASSELL is an international design firm with studios in Australia, China, South East Asia, and the United Kingdom that believes in using their designs to help clients not only meet their needs but to also bring a sense of belonging to the people who experience them. With this in mind, the firm developed the HASSELL Travelling Scholarship – Robin Edmond Award, which is an annual award that aims to celebrate outstanding graduate research by emerging landscape architects who show potential for future contributions to the profession. According to HASSELL, the award provides the winner with the opportunity...Read More

Article by Carlos Cortés It’s time for the Netherlands in our world series. We have selected 10 fabulous and well-thought-out projects from the Netherlands that will delight you. The term landscape is an Anglicization of the Dutch landschap, this term was, in the beginning, only applied to paintings, then to poetry, and later to real views. The Netherlands’ relationship with landscape and art has always been strong. Historical narratives and the care of heritage sites, cycling paths and connecting bridges, and water and pollution problems solved with innovation are some of the key elements that make the Netherlands’ landscape architecture one to be experienced and studied. Artistic vistas and functional designs are perfectly executed in each project. There is a sense of balance between aes...Read More

Article by Yang Su Lianjiang Butterfly Bay, by NEXT Architects, in Lianjiang, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China China’s rapid urbanization has meant that high-rise buildings with unique Chinese character have been sprouting up in large numbers in the country’s cities. There has also been an uptick in constructed green space to make up for the deterioration of the natural environment. In this way, China is becoming a leader in environmental design. The traditional value of Chinese aesthetics places an emphasis on “integrated sense” — the integration of heaven and human being, or “harmony is the beauty”. Lianjiang Butterfly Bay, designed by NEXT Architects, is a high-density residential development sitting on the banks of a tributary of the Min River, in the northern part of Fuzhou in Fuj...Read More

Article by Farah Afza Jurekh Spark Your City, by Kipling, in Sutton Walk, London Imagine you are walking past the same old, boring tunnel to start your day, stressing about how angry your boss’ mood might be or how your presentation to the multibillion-dollar company will turn out. Suddenly, you notice a huge difference around you. The usually dull, gray tunnel does not look the same as you see every day. It is completely adorned, lively and colorful. And even though this bright, new change won’t necessarily turn your presentation into the perfect one or bring a smile to your boss’ face, this colorful tunnel will definitely lift your mood and relieve your stress, preparing you to give your day your best shot. The spaces around us can act like mood lifters. A vibrant, colorful space can bri...Read More

Article by Irmak Bilir Campa de los Ingleses Park, by Balmori Associates, Bilbao, Spain Very likely, everyone who is related to or interested in architecture knows the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum, or has at least seen photos of it. The “Lung for the City” sits next to the museum in the northern part of Spain. The lung is actually a park, designed by Balmori Associates. It is the result of an international design competition in 2007; construction was completed in 2012. It is not surprising that the project, with its outstanding topographical waves, won the competition. It unifies the Abandoibarra area of Bilbao and the Nervión River, and the area is like a landscape bridge between the river and the city center. The park integrates the Mazarredo, Deusto Bridge, and the Plaza Euskadi...Read More

We take a closer look at five impressive resort gardens from around the globe Just like holidays, landscape gardens take on many shapes and are designed to elicit certain moods or emotions. For some, the garden is there to relax in and enjoy, others the plants take center stage, whereas for many the landscaping complements and softens the buildings it surrounds. The perfect garden is subjective to the wanderer who visits it – just like the perfect holiday. Many travelers go on holiday to relax, unwind and re-charge their batteries, and what better way to do that than in a beautiful garden? Those are certainly things to take into consideration when designing a resort garden, along with logistics, client requests and so much more. Let’s take a look at a few resorts from all over the wo...Read More

Article by Diana Ispas Estrella Hall at Estrella Mountain Community College by Colwell Shelor Landscape Architecture, Avondale, Arizona, US A successful landscape design takes into consideration client requirements, site specifications, creativity, added value, budget, deadlines … the list goes on and on. But when you aim to create a meaningful and engaging learning environment for students through a sustainable project that expresses the historical and cultural values of the surrounding communities — in a hot desert climate — things start to get even more complicated. Estrella Hall at Estrella Mountain Community College Campus Expansion Estrella Mountain Community College completed construction of the new Estrella Hall library and conference center in 2013. The whole project f...Read More

This week’s Sketchy Saturday Top 10. Sketchy Saturday is back for another week of awesome Sketchy Saturday talent, highlighting the best sketches of the growing LAN community (Currently 1,315,058 fans on Facebook) up 130,040 fans since our last Sketchy Saturday edition. What wonderful growth. Choosing the sketches to be featured in Sketchy Saturday is always the fun part, the hard part is putting them in order. Rarely do we have a clear cut top number one and this week is no different. Putting so many different styles up together is always asking for trouble, one has to find the commonalities and judge as fairly as possible. Take a look at this week’s highlights and let us know who you think deserved the number one spot. Enjoy this week’s Sketchy Saturday Top 10 10. by Rory L Canham, Maste...Read More

Article by Win Phyo. We take a look at 10 tutorials for drawing trees that will bring life to your sketches and help you communicate your design schemes with more confidence. Trees are awesome! Feel free to disagree with me but who doesn’t love trees? They provide us with shade during the summer months, make us feel peaceful in a park, provides homes for birds and as a landscape architecture student, they are one of the key things I can use to create functional and beautiful designs. They are also the most frequent features we will end up drawing throughout our academic and professional lives. Therefore, whether you are a beginner or a pro, here are 10 YouTube tutorials that can help you capture the most simplistic to the most intricate details of our majestic arboreal friends. I realize t...Read More