The Dark Art of Conceptual Design in Privately Funded Public Space

The City Dune by SLA and buildings by Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter, Copenhagen, Denmark. Public spaces should be the heart and soul of every city; they might be the meeting places for the citizens, the areas where people gather, spend time, socialize. The potential is endless – however, this is often unfulfilled, leaving the spaces underused, empty, lifeless and forgotten. Fortunately, more and more areas are getting revitalised, invigorated and refurbished for the benefit of local communities. Such great public spaces are always full of life. They are functional, they can be used in a variety of different ways. It takes a team of wonderful landscape architects to design a working urban space – Danish studio SLA managed to succeed with its project, the City Dune, designed and constr...Read More

A look at some of the world’s most outstanding riverbank projects. When it comes to building sustainable cities, discussion often centers on urban rivers and their surroundings. In many cities around the world, rivers have been channelized, transformed into receptacles for waste disposal, or just forgotten when they are no longer needed for industrial and commercial uses. As a consequence, these rivers have lost their innate ability to aid in flood control, seen their aquatic life destroyed, and gone unnoticed due to construction of barriers that blocked their access and hid them from residents’ eyes. But in other cities, once dead spaces along rivers are being brought back to life and transformed into recreational areas, meeting the demand for outdoor spaces from quickly growing pop...Read More

Monuments across the globe. Monuments have been an important part of our landscapes for millennia. Some of them have been accepted by their communities almost immediately, while others raised controversies, complaints, or even protests. Sometimes it takes time for a monument to grow into the landscape and to become part of it or even an icon or a landmark. Who knows, maybe the ancient Egyptians complained about the Sphynx or the pyramids — who can now imagine Egypt without those majestic constructions? Other structures don’t pass the test of time and are either universally hated, or removed and forgotten. We are presenting the list of the monuments that raised the most controversy in their time. Find out which are still doubted, and which became well loved. 10. Obelisco de Buen...Read More

Ben-Gurion University University Entrance Square & Art Gallery, by Chyutin Architects, Beer-Sheva, Israel. Ben-Gurion University, in the Israeli city of Beer-Sheva, is home to the new meditative Deichmann Square that is bringing hope for the future back to a city that is constantly on the verge of losing it. The 3,500 square-meter space incorporates hardscapes and plantings almost seamlessly, while also shining a light on future development, not only on campus, but also in Israel. Located in the western part of the BGU campus, the square is adjacent to existing buildings and the future Negev Gallery, and is meant to serve as a link between the community and the art and social sciences studied in the buildings. This connection is emphasized by a pedestrian path that leads to a city squa...Read More

This week’s Sketchy Saturday top 10. Welcome to this week’s exciting edition of Sketchy Saturday; this week’s sketches show a great diversity in style with some Sketchy Saturday regulars throwing their hat into the ring for another attempt at top spot. Certainly sketching and free style hand techniques are skills that will always be appreciated, regardless of whether you are a student or professional so let yourself be inspired by this week’s top 10 and submit your own sketch for next week’s edition of Sketchy Saturday. 10. by Yingying Tu, Chinese student of Landscape Architecture ” The sketch was made on plain A4 paper with marker pens and colour pencils. It is a picture I imagined: A set of parterre plants as a prospect,wooden boardwalks around the central pool. A...Read More

The advent of the digital age has long been upon us. For most practices, this has created an interesting mix of skill sets within an office. Recent graduates have a great handle on the most current programs while those that have been in the industry for a little longer are finding themselves playing catch up. More often than not, a general amount of knowledge and appreciation is present, but the ability to produce the most striking of visuals is usually not there. Digital Drawing for Landscape Architecture is a comprehensive presentation of easy to follow tutorials and guides to help the digitally aware become the digitally adept.  Digital Drawing is the most recent offering by Bradley Cantrell and Wes Michaels. Bradley has been featured here on Land8 in 2013 as the recent winner of the Ro...Read More

Who’s leading the ecological revolution of landscape architecture? For centuries, humans have chosen to force the natural environment into fitting our needs and desires. This attitude of transformation, rather than working alongside and conforming to nature, has led to a host of problems. The built environment has popped up without consideration of its surroundings, leading to inefficient energy use, pollution, and water shortages. Within the last 10 years, there has been a trend toward more “sustainable,” “ecological” and “resilient” designs that seek to work alongside the environment to improve the quality of our towns and cities. However, how do we tell the difference between a functionally robust design and one that looks good on the board but fails in the field? How do we know w...Read More

Vinge Station, by Henning Larsen Architects, Vinge, Denmark A visit to the future Vinge, Denmark, train station will likely evoke the imagination of Star Wars rather than the tradition of Hogwarts. The design by Henning Larsen Architects is futuristic, visionary, and beautiful. The Danish studio won an architectural competition to design the S-train station that will form the chief transportation hub in the center of Vinge, a 350-hectare city to be built in the Frederikssund region north of Copenhagen. The S-train is a network of regional trains in the Copenhagen area. A team from Henning Larsen Architects, in cooperation with Tredje Natur, MOE A/S and the Irish Railway Procurement Agency, designed the proposal, which a competition jury called both visionary and beautiful.  While the stati...Read More

Pyramid Garden, a new space saving way to grow crops. In a world of big box stores, convenience shops, and fast food chains, it is easy to lose sight of where our food comes from. Generations ago, families worked the fields and tended to gardens day and night to produce fresh vegetables and herbs for daily meals and canning or preserving for future seasons. Today the trend is again on the rise but we face new obstacles and challenges. In today’s fast-paced, on-the-go, high-energy world, few individuals have the time necessary for intensive vegetable gardening. While many desire to grow their own fresh produce, they often do not have the time or space required to do so. The Limitations of Growing Crops in Containers   Container gardens have become one popular solution for those seeking...Read More

The Presidio—the 1,500 acre national park which vanguards the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco—is looking to make some dramatic changes.  The park is gaining a large tract of functional land as the elevated Doyle Drive which transmits people to the Golden Gate Bridge is being lowered to a series of at-grade parkways and underground tunnels, not unlike the Big Dig in Boston.  In its place will be an iconic new landscape that serves as a social and cultural hub for the city. The Presidio is an important piece of land to San Francisco, historically, culturally, and ecologically.  It served as a major military post for over two hundred years before becoming a national park and hosts a number of important coastal habitats.  Last February, the Presidio Trust shocked the public by announcing t...Read More

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Project, Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, Seattle, USA “What does it take to change the world? How can each of us make a difference?” This bold question that stretches across the home page of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation website sounds as ambitious and inspirational as the design of the foundation’s headquarters. The couple’s vision of creating a permanent home for their international humanitarian organization came to fruition when they combined the foundation’s five separate locations into one in spring 2011. It is often said that we first need to help ourselves before we can help the world; at this campus, the “Gates family” of staff and partners works together in this beautiful, comfortable, and stimulating outdoor-indoor environment to help others ar...Read More

Key elements to consider when planning urban trees. We all know the importance of trees on the urban landscape. More than just decorative elements, they contribute to the city’s improvement in the social, cultural, economical, and of course, environmental levels. Due to the complexity of the city interaction, trees cannot simply be planted without any criteria – the relationship between the natural and the built environment can be tricky and some risks must be identified to be avoided. Here you have a guide to help you out. For a strategic planning of the urban forest, follow these 5 essential steps: Choosing Urban Trees   1. Evaluate The City’s Needs A direct way of evaluating the city’s needs is to measure environmental conditions and variables as they will be of g...Read More