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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 1,185,018 fans on Facebook) up 20,287 fans since our last Sketchy Saturday edition. Incredible 🙂 This edition took several weeks to compile as we had a lot of sorting through to do and of course, waiting on people to send us back their descriptions slows down the process, but it is a process worth waiting on, as we get a variety of opinions directly from the people who created the works, making each one of our Sketchy Saturday editions unique and worth reading for insights. Take a look at this week’s highlights and who knows perhaps you’ll be featured in the next one. Enjoy this week’s Sketchy S...Read More

Article by Erin Tharp The Rooftop Park at Saint John’s Bulwark, by OSLO Ontwerp Stedelijke en Landschappelijke Omgeving, in `s-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch), Netherlands. In 1999, the town council of the city of s-`Hertogenbosch began restoring the fortifications that surround the old town as a means to address flooding from the surrounding rivers. The town is home to 6.5km of walls, originally built to defend the city from invading enemy armies. A Brief History of the Site By 1995 most of these walls were in disrepair and had become inaccessible to inhabitants and visitors. In addition, the city was experiencing extreme flooding from the waters of the Aa and the Dommel rivers. Saint John’s Bulwark is one of 83 projects that make up this vast restoration. Originally, this bulwark was an import...Read More

Article by Erin Tharp Storehouse City Münster, by scape Landschaftsarchitekten GmbH, in Münster, Germany Historical sites are often the hardest to work with, due to the cultural or societal significance they hold. So when scape Landschaftsarchitekten was asked to redesign the 3.9-hectare area outside of the Storehouse City in Münster, a former German army pension office, they knew they had a delicate task at hand. The renovation they came up with is both thoughtful and reminiscent of what the site once looked like, but is not an exact replica. They wished to bring the site into the modern era to make it a more viable space for both the people who now work there and for the public that visits. Storehouse City Münster Located to the north of Münster, the site is considered a conservation are...Read More

Article by Ruth Coman YUL Condominium & YUL Sales Office, by NIPpaysage, Montreal (Quebec), Canada Citizens have a year-round interest in landscape and nature. This issue raises the question of how a design can give a proper answer to their enthusiasm. The surrounding natural landscape has to fulfill everyday needs like recreation and relaxation throughout the whole year for city dwellers. Residential and private ‘green spaces’, especially, have to be versatile and must not become boring. Recognizing this issue, NIPpaysage landscape architects chose to create a four-season design for the future inhabitants of YUL Condominium. YUL Condominium & YUL Sales Office YUL provides the ultimate in luxurious urban living in Montreal. Between stylish condominiums, limited-edition penthouses, ...Read More

Article by Elisa A.M. Varetti Ika Meditation Spot, by Batlab Architects and Studio Nomad, in Csernaton, Transylvania, Romania. Everybody knows how human beings affect the environment with all of their activities, as LAN writer Harkyo Hutri Baskoro reminds us in his article 10 Fascinating Climate Change Facts You Should Know. We all need to start changing our lifestyles to save the planet. But what you might not know is that there are other ways in which human beings are destroying the natural world; for example, by neglecting natural places. We need to start treating Mother Nature better if we want to avoid unpleasant results. That doesn’t only mean that we have to reduce pollution; we also need to start protecting our natural resources. Landscape architects are once more called upon to ma...Read More

Article by Valentina Ferrari A review of art piece entitled “Generation – Circulation of Life” by Toshihiko Shibuya, a Japanese artist from Muroran. Are you a prisoner of the daily grind, neglecting or forgetting everything that transcends your work or routine? Embracing art could help you restore balance in your daily life and aid you in focusing outside your boundaries, allowing you to see new horizons. All you need is to be open minded, have listening and sensibility skills, sincerely watch, and then accept that the message will not always be immediately understood. Be patient. The meaning of an artwork — which at your very first could be charming or mysterious or even funny — is hidden within the artist’s mind. Once you understand the artist’s thought proc...Read More

Kic Park, by 3GATTI, in Shanghai, China. The spaces between urban buildings and interstitial spaces are often difficult ones to deal with in terms of design. Many turn into surface parking lots, small buildings, or paved spaces devoid of any character, sense of place, and any natural elements. It is these very spaces that can become very important as a unifying element of an area, such as a city, where development and redevelopment create fragments that are unrelated to each other, and where ‘nature’ in its basic sense is, often, forgotten. So, how did one small urban park in Shanghai, China, achieve a functional yet attractive space that entices visitors to gather and be influenced by nature? Kic Park Kic Park, designed by Francesco Gatti of 3GATTI Architects has proven that these interst...Read More

Bonn Square, by Graeme Massie Architects, in Oxford City, United Kingdom. The city of Oxford is a unique place with a strong historic university identity. Like many cities built around universities, its public activity is focused on the spaces surrounding the campus buildings. Students and lecturers spend most of their time in these spaces, with the result that very little public space is developed outside of university property. Bonn Square is, therefore, one of the few public spaces in Oxford, and its transformation from a derelict, forgotten place into a contemporary yet historic square is worth exploring. Bonn Square A Catalyst for Urban Regeneration Bonn Square falls within the boundary of the Oxford Central Conservation Area, which includes the old city and the university. It was for...Read More

Developing the World’s Most-Used Cross-Platform CAD and BIM Software: An Interview with Vectorworks expert Eric Gilbey. With many options in computer-aided design (CAD) software, how do you know you’re using the right one? To find out, we turned to a software expert in the architecture, landscape architecture, planning, and urban design field. With more than a half-million designers across upwards of 85 countries using its products, Vectorworks is on a mission to develop the world’s best cross-platform CAD and BIM software. During its 30 years in business, it has been one of the first to promote BIM capabilities. Landscape Architects Network (LAN) had the opportunity to interview Eric Gilbey, PLA ASLA, landscape architect specialist from Vectorworks, at the ASLA Annual Meeting & EXPO 2...Read More

We take a closer look at 5 of best plants for phytoremediation. One of our most basic natural resource, soil, is threatened. The soil has been neglected and contaminated for decades now. Although, the global map of contamination is difficult to define, the European Environment Agency has identified heavy metals and mineral oil as the main soil pollutants. Knowing that just in Europe the number of polluted sites is expected to increase by 50% in the next 10 years, it seems clear that one of our biggest environmental challenges is under our feet. As landscape architects, should we not be aware of all our potential to play a role on the solutions side? What is Phytoremediation? Clean techniques to remediation are getting more popular, and most likely, you are already familiar to phytoremediat...Read More