Place Value: Empowering Landscape Architects to Measure the Economic Benefits of Designed Landscapes

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Place Value: Empowering Landscape Architects to Measure the Economic Benefits of Designed Landscapes

Landscape architecture and urban design, in their placemaking capacity, are central contributors to the economic vitality of cities. Millennium Park in Chicago exemplifies the potential of designed landscapes to catalyze the cities around them. The 24.5-acre park, which cost $490 million to implement, is the subject of extensive third-party studies about its economic impacts, triggering a new term, The Millennium Park Effect. According to a Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) case study, the park, with over 5 million visitors annually, generates an estimated annual revenue of $1.4 billion in direct visitor spending and an additional $78 million in tax revenue. The number of residential units in the area has increased by 57 percent in the park’s first decade. New residential condominium...Read More

Roof windows give the most light

After three years of theoretical and practical work, the Danish Building Research Institute (SBI) has published few years ago “The Study on Daylight” in which it is confirmed that roof windows create the biggest factor of daylight, twice as much as vertical windows, and even thrice as much as windows on roof bulges. The company VELUX has stated for many years that roof windows placed on roofs at an angle of 45 degrees give as much as 40% more light than those on bulges. But, the calculation and tests prove the difference is even greater. SBI is a state institute under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs in Denmark, and the study was conducted with the support and assistance of the company VELUX. The study had a large number of simulations done for each window i...Read More

Sustainable Residential Design: 5 Common Misconceptions on Stormwater Management

Throughout history, rain has been seen as an antagonist to the developed landscape. Civilizations in the Indus Valley region had developed sewers well before 2,000 BC, and sewers appeared in Roman settlements as early as the second century. Since then, society has aimed to control stormwater on developed land and remove it as quickly as possible. This strategy has yielded massively expensive infrastructure, frequently overloaded systems, depleted aquifers, and degraded water quality. Only the modern era—with the advent of environmentalism and sustainability—has brought about a revolution in the way that society deals with water, yet at the residential level traditional views persist.  Sometimes the fault lies with the client, but often it is the fault of the designer. Let’s examine a numbe...Read More

Book Review: Infrastructural Monument and Scaling Infrastructure

A few years ago, the departments of Urban Studies and of Architecture at MIT found that they needed to take their joint workshops and studios to the next level. Subsequently, the Center for Advanced Urbanism was created with the mission to research innovative designs for global problems concerning urbanization. To attain these lofty goals, the CAU built “a community of experts, cities, and organizations who are committed to addressing these challenges.” Two recently published books chronicle two conferences organized by the Center around its first biennial theme – infrastructure. These books represent the first steps in publishing research applicable to “new theoretical frameworks and methodologies appropriate for urbanism of our time.” Each conference’s...Read More

How to Give a Space a Multitude of Functions

Article by Alexandra Wilmet Centenary Square, by the team of JMD Design, in Parramatta, Australia. To revive the central area of a city is a major project which often requires much research and reflection as to the future use of such a space. For Parramatta, Australia, the design office of JMD Design took on the challenge by offering a complete reversal of the civic center of the city. Let’s see how the team of JMD Design has managed to regain the space of Centenary Square by assigning multiple functions using a few simple ideas. Centenary Square JMD Design first decided to open up the space. This simple gesture allowed a clear view of the church and its gardens as well as pedestrian traffic through the square. With this first principle, the team gave a positive image to the city by ...Read More

8 Incredible Pools With the WOW Factor

Article by Win Phyo These incredible pools have changed how people think and interact when it comes to people and water. Fancy a dip? The first swimming pool existed 5000 years ago in a Pakistani settlement. The great bath was the earliest public water facility made out of bricks. The history of pools then moved to the ancient Greeks and Romans. As individual wealth increased, so did the standard of living and luxuries like pools were considered to be the ultimate amenity. The Romans definitely knew how to make a splash – in AD 305, they built an incredible pool; over 900,000 square feet in size, which was heated by giant fires in the basement below the pool. Over time, swimming pools evolved and became more mainstream as people began to see that part of the American Dream was to per...Read More

The Best Camping Experience for the Ecotourist

Article by Rose Buchanan We take a look at Lushna Glamping, an alternative camping experience for the ecotourist. Love nature, but hate bugs, dirt, and the extreme inconvenience of not being able to plug in your straightening iron? Then Glamping may just be the thing for you. A combination of the words “glamourous” and “camping”, this new wave of nature experience combines the beauty of connecting with nature through camping with the luxury treatment of a 5-star hotel. Lushna products have taken this concept to the max by developing eco-friendly and beautiful camping pods that allow for an intimate bond to nature without compromising on the comforts of a hotel. These pods echo the triangular shape of traditional tents, but re-invent them as beautiful timber structures with luxurious interi...Read More

How Lumion Model Software Can Help Your Design

Article by Moreira Filho We take a closer look at Lumion design software and how it can benefit your design. Lumion is a useful software tool to improve your work in rendering designs and video presentations. Would you like to put some movement into your work? This may be the solution. Check out some of the pros and cons of this remarkable software. Software Is Supposed to Make Life Easier There was a time when mock-ups were used to show professionals and clients how a project or design would work. But in the software age, it has become easy to show the same work by creating drawings on the computer. Software such as that developed by companies like VRay has become very popular. Now Lumion has started a new way to show movement in those models and drawings. WATCH >>> Lumion 6.0 La...Read More

How to Build a Shared Space for Pedestrians and Vehicles

Article by Joanna Łaska Baga Square, by Comas-Pont Arquitectes, Barcelona, Spain. To the unwitting eye, the square at Barcelona’s Baga looks just like any other city square. But there is much more to it than we might expect: Baga Square’s seamless features have something lying underneath them. Literally. The retrofit project’s main aim was to combine a strongly demanded parking space with an unusual recreational space. Would you ever expect a car park to become the neighborhood’s favorite recreational area? That’s exactly what Spanish design firm Comas-Pont Arquitectes slp have achieved. Baga Square Once a forgotten and undeveloped space, Baga’s new underground parking lot has quickly become one of the area’s most popular places to visit. The design excellently adapts to its surroundings a...Read More

Is This an Effective Way to Inspire Learning?

Article by Kaila Johnson Caulfield Campus Green, by Taylor Cullity Lethlean (T.C.L), in Monash University, Victoria, Australia. Universities are intellectual powerhouses that promote and foster educational and research excellence. Monash University in Caulfield, Australia, is no exception. But it is exceptional when it comes to how it offers up learning to people. The university has extended its learning environment to the outdoors — and to those who are not necessarily paying students of the institution. Caulfield Campus Green, designed by Taylor Cullity Lethlean (T.C.L), proves that education can be immersive — woven right into the fabric of the local environment — and welcoming to anyone who wants to learn. The design takes the typical central campus hub, or “cam...Read More

The Best Way to Design a Traditional Mediterranean Garden

Article by Elisa A.M.Varetti Mediterranean Park Countryside, by Atelier Nelumbo Paysage, in the French Riviera. Working in landscape architecture doesn’t mean realizing only public spaces. On the contrary; landscape architects are often called to design private gardens, terraces, and parks, as you can read in Win Phyo’s article Mediterranean Terrace Provides Inspired Living in Italy and in The Best Way to Live in Sunny Spain from our writer, Yang Su. Beware – dealing with this side of the profession can be very tough sometimes and not every professional manages to do it in the right way. Some of them simply choose not to deal with it at all. Luckily that’s not the case with Atelier Nelumbo Paysage, who provides modern landscape solutions with a Mediterranean inspiration. One of his l...Read More

How This Toxic Industry Site Turned into an Environment-Protecting Wonder

Article by Sophie Thiel Chattanooga Renaissance Park, by Hargreaves Associates, Chattanooga, Tennessee. Abandoned and closed industrial sites are classified as special design projects for landscape architects. These sites often involve specific hazards, such as contaminated soil, which landscape planners have to deal with in a creative way. Renaissance Park in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was one such troubled site. For nearly a century, it threatened to contaminate the surroundings and the city’s waste water system. However, the planning bureau Hargreaves Associates redesigned the area in detail, turning the hazardous site into an outstanding park that now even partly manages the city’s stormwater runoff. Chattanooga Renaissance Park Completed in 2006, Renaissance Park has been a catalyst for ...Read More

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