issue one 2011/12 • digital technology is [not] the future of landscape architecture

We would like to thank all our contributors – students, staff and practicing landscape architects. Particular thanks to Pete Griffiths and Renee Davies for trusting us to get on with it. Special thanks to Sam Bourne and NZILA Auckland Branch and Stacey Gillies from Unitec for the promotional support. Thanks Michael Barrett of AGM Publishing, and Lee Colson of Geon for technical advice and getting this magazine out there. Cheers to all our facebook ‘fans’, blog followers and all of the other supporters that we have not forgotten but remain nameless.

EditorsJohn Allan, Heather Docherty, Helena Downey, Thomas Keal.x.section.magazine@gmail.com

SupervisorC. Peter Griffiths

PublisherUnitec Institute of TechnologyFaculty of Creative Industry and BusinessDepartment of Landscape ArchitectureCarrington Road, Mt Albert, Auckland +64 9 815 2945study@unitec.ac.nz

Supported by New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects

Printed by Geon

ISSN 2230-6277 print editionISSN 2230-6285 online edition

xsection is published annually by Unitec Department of Landscape Architecture. Advertising statements and editorial opinions expressed in xsection do not necessarily reflect the views of Unitec Department of Landscape Architecture and its staff, unless expressly stated.

© Copyright 2011 xsection

Copyright to all work included is retained by the authors. Copying or transmission of any part of this publication or the related files in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) is restricted to educational use only, with appropriate referencing. No part of this document may be used without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Lauren Vincent - mixed media perspective

i (information/imagination) 40

modes of manipulation 42

design in the digital age 44

tamaki 46

blurred boundaries 49

contact 50

comment 5

the big idea 6

multidimensionality 8

negotiated study 11

on fabricated ground 16

christchurch 18

capturing the ephemeral 22

oratia 24

sustainable landscapes 26

proceed with caution 28

conversation with ken smith 31

nothing revolutionary (…yet) 36

visualisation 38

issue onedigital technology is [not] the future of landscape architecture

Is digital technology the future of landscape architecture?

FIELD LA discuss fine art techniques for landscape analysis

Students conduct advanced research projects on topics of interest

Jane Rumble on effective means of visual communication

Den Aitken’s 100-day design project exploring urban surfaces

Students explore design methodology at a variety of scales

Thomas Keal on the fundamental link between drawing and seeing

Students take vegetation as the design driver for an urban fringe site

Sam Bourne imagines the future of the landscape architecture profession

Trina Jashari confronts Auckland’s water pollution issues

Daniel Irving speculates on the digital revolution

Gary Marshall + Claire O’Shaughnessy question our reliance on technology

Matthew Bradbury analyses the way designers use information systems

xsection interviews the renowned contemporary landscape architect

Students examine urban growth potentials along the Tamaki River edge

Zane Egginton talks about realistic digital representation tools

Renee Davies muses on potentials for the landscape architecture profession

Nikolay Popov challenges the limits of pen and paper

Cover Image: Meg Kane - Negotiated Study (see p12)

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In this inaugural edition of xsection magazine, we explore the way in which landscape architecture is adapting in the age of social media, where online connections are equally important as physical ones. Digital technology is by no means the end of the hand-drawn, but the way that it is used to represent landscape is susceptible to becoming more significant than the design itself.

Landscapes are designed solutions to particular problems, whether they be aesthetic, social or environmental. Using digital systems allows the input of vast amounts of information, facilitating data re-combination at a variety of scales and dimensions. This can be achieved quickly and involve the input of many users simultaneously. Students of landscape

architecture now have access to a plethora of high-end Computer Aided Design and representational software, creating persuasive representations to enhance their designs.

There are risks involved with relying too heavily on the sophistication of digital means. Apprehending spatial relations, scale and proportion is a highly skilled capability in the physical world, let alone on-screen. Through specialised software and precise mechanical efficiency, images created digitally can be realised with exacting control, minimizing technical imperfections. When translated to full-scale, the most minimal of errors are potentially magnified. Designing to eliminate flaws may neglect the unpredictability of open

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systems and the unknown requirements of the varying needs of stakeholders.

In this issue, we explore current themes and work produced by landscape architects in both education and practice, showcasing diverse responses to the statement digital technology is [not] the future of landscape architecture. In doing so, we aim to provoke thought and discussion between the students, educators and professionals of landscape architecture, initiating a dialogue to connect and guide the aspirations of the next generation with the needs of contemporary practice.

For more details about xsection magazine and to access exclusive online only content, go to x-sectionmagazine.blogspot.com

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the big ideaJane Rumble

Technological advancement of digital media is a fascinating topic for landscape architecture. Digital representation is certainly a relevant and invaluable topic of study within the academic realm, with benefits for the discipline as a whole.

There is an intrinsic quality in the hands-on explorative process that is lacking in the digital format. Hands-on design processes offer an intimate approach to conceptual thinking about the site. Whether it is a rough freehand drawing, abstracted photographs, makeshift model or mosaic that has been cut up, folded and moved around, early explorations communicate design thinking. These ways of working can evoke the experience of a place in a way that offers richness to the conceptual process.

Abandoned tyres are claimed as boundary markers: some planted with flowering species/scrubby grasses. The illegal dumping of material has become idea, boundary marker, habitat.

Scrubby colonising grasses are contrasted with fruit trees, which make reference to the site’s productive heritage. Leftover, incongruous materials become a feature of the design.

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With the recent surge in the use of digital representation, hand-drawn images are a refreshing addition when integrated in to a design package. However, the drawing board alone will not keep landscape architecture in step with our partner industries.

Tools such as Geographic Information Systems [GIS] and AutoCAD have much to offer. GIS layering of site qualities, landscape patterns and connections inherent to the site enrich site analysis and feed into the design process. Programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator are useful for layering different types of media, testing a concept and adding texture and interest to a presentation.

The technical accuracy of Computer Aided Design [CAD] programs such as AutoCAD

enable drafting accuracy, modelling, flexible editing of drawings and are formatted to allow the transfer of information between construction and design industries. Digital software is an invaluable tool for landscape architecture and sharpens our skills as designers, however the creative process should not be confined to a computer. Digital advancement will continue to pervade the industry, thus computer-based technology is the future of landscape architecture. However, a visual representation can come to life through the thoughtful integration of hand-drawing and conceptual thinking with digital technology. As designers we are taught to experiment and find new ways of doing: discovering techniques to connect land and people

through meaningful design. The skill lies in then choosing the most effective means of visually communicating that information from the overall picture down to the smallest detail.

Good design starts with an idea.

Jane is a Landscape Architect at Natural Habitats and recently graduated from the Unitec Bachelor of Landscape Architecture programme. Images accompanying this article are from Jane’s final year Negotiated Study project on Canal Reserve, Otahuhu.

For further reading on this topic, Jane suggests Cantrell, B and Michaels, W (2010) Digital Drawing for Landscape Architecture: Contemporary Techniques and Tools for Digital Representation. John Wiley and Sons, New Jersey, USA

‘visual representation can come to life through the thoughtful integration of hand-drawing

and conceptual thinking with digital technology’

Site study: fluctuation/ corridor

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multidimensionality

Is the analysis phase of landscape architecture due for a makeover? Do aerial mapping techniques give the designer a hint of the ephemeral and dynamic nature of things? Perhaps techniques borrowed from the fine arts could offer ways of helping us to explore how landscapes work?

It was our hunch that focusing on the moments such as birds flying, children running and cars moving, that regularly occur but are often overlooked in the landscape, would contribute to a greater understanding of how a landscape actually worked.

Areas we thought worth exploring were the work of the Cubists, and more recently David Hockney, and in particular their use of multiple viewpoint, therefore the inclusion of the temporal in a single image. The

work of the analytical phase of Cubism, for example Pablo Picasso’s Femme Couchee and Hockney’s collage and large panoramas in general, demonstrate the dismantling of objects, analysing them into component elements then rearranging them in a new order.

-The potency and relevance of this new articulation is reinforced by the Abstractionists’ belief that no imitation can ever reflect the strength and beauty in the appearance of nature. In order to depict nature fully we must find another way1. Our images accompanying this text attempt to realise a multidimensional understanding of place.

In this work we begin with the utilisation of the camera to record information. At this stage the pictures were just that –

FIELD_LA

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pictures - which contained formal notions of perspective, a particular way of seeing the image, from a distance and in a static frozen ‘moment’. Picasso’s works are often seen as distortions or abstract works, however if we introduce the notion of time to the way we think about his works, we can begin to read them differently. Take the two archetypal styles of theatre; the Italian style where the stage is a box that contains backdrops which create the illusion of distance and perspective; and the Shakespearian style of theatre where the stage juts out into the audience so that everyone who views the theatre sees something different. Picasso’s

paintings can be described as working in the same way as the latter of these two examples.

They are in fact just another way of seeing. It is as if the image is moving in time and we can see behind, beside and in front at the same time. This is an idea we thought would be useful for landscape architecture. What if we could articulate site information in this alternative multidimensional way?

It is worth noting that images which are stylised, abstracted, and distorted can often be dismissed as not being like the world, because they don’t look like the world. Our

drawings could be seen as such distortions. It is easy to hold up a photograph and say, ‘see, this is what it looks like’. However, when we do this we are accepting one viewpoint, one angle, perspective rules, and the concept of outside looking in. Our work attempts to offer other ways of interpreting and understanding the forces and flows that are functioning in and pulsing through the site. The process by which we have gone about this determines landscape architecture as a regulator, meaning that this design process taps into the forces and flows, extracting intensities and expressing them in terms of potential design instructions.

Various intensities are recorded using a camera. Compositions are produced that endeavour to express the

momentary qualities we perceived. In the case of the birds images, this was the notion of here, not there and there.

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Utilising techniques borrowed from the fine arts enabled us to construct images that encompass an assemblage of conditions. Multidimensionality differs from the use of aerial mapping because it offers concepts of here, there and not there, change, chance and potentiality, as in the case of the birds flying composition.

This is a different style of information to numbers of birds, flight paths, species that can be represented through maps and denote ‘fixed’ conditions. Our technique attempts to capture the more ephemeral and also functional characteristics of the birds and register their effects against the landscape.

The results are an assemblage of effects registered against surrounding landscape in the diagrams - change/chance, stack/shift, and move/transform.

The analysis of the original photographs utilising this technique reveals qualities such as: the constant evolution of landscapes through adding, removing and recombining conditions; minute changes in behaviour within the assemblage can radically alter formations; movements of forces layer up on landscapes and distort and alter entire assemblages. The landscape operates in much the same way as these images. As opposed to geometric ways of seeing,

the focus is on overlapping and changing ordering devices.

Landscape architecture, perhaps more than other design disciplines, is involved with these ideas because it utilises dynamic systems such as change and chance.

C. Peter Griffiths (MLA) and Dr. Hamish Foote (DocFA) are lecturers in the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture Programme at Unitec and also founders and principles in the landscape architectural firm FIELD_LA.

Images by the authors.

Stacked conditions can produce unfolding events as other conditions are moved through them, creating a cumulative effect where there is the potential for many events to occur at once.

1. Harrison, C. and Wood, P. (Eds.)(1993) Art in Theory 1900-2000 An Anthology of Changing Ideas, USA, p. 287

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negotiated study

The aim of final year Negotiated Study projects is to demonstrate the development of personal philosophy and landscape architectural strategies in an advanced research project. Investigation commences with the identification of an issue of interest. These typically concern a pre-existing problem of the landscape discipline and importantly, to ensure motivation, one of critical interest to the student.

Drawing, modelling and other explorative representational strategies are then employed in the investigation. The process also includes contextualisation in terms of the relevant theory and practise, which culminates in the presentation of the results to critics and peers.

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memorialisation

Memorials help to connect people to place, and to each other as a collective society. They can also enrich the urban fabric and urban life. Memorials offer an intersection between the physical and the immaterial, acting as a mediation between place, time and memory. From what I have learnt, this is revealed through personal experience, connected on an emotional level.

A balance of physical and immaterial creates subtle connections, which operate as an instrument for memorialisation. Embedded memory, bodily experience, movement, visual connections, haptic moments of light and shade unfold throughout the site. The combined experience of elements takes the emotional experience of memory and transforms it into something of the present time.

On reflection, this investigation transcended a project on memorials. It became an exploration into place, time and memory, all of which contribute to ‘sense of place’, as an instrument for memorialisation.

Meg Kane

How can aspects of ‘memorialisation’ be utilised

in the design of public open space?

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social condenser

People use space. This presents an opportunity for the process of using space to be altered or manipulated. The movement of people, or users, over a landscape field is often a missed opportunity for enlivening or supplementing the experience of a site.

This opportunity can be utilised through the application of subtle landscape prompts. The use of perspective, screening and manipulation of circulation systems, allows the designer to alter the behaviour of the user on site, with the intent of maximising the experience for those people and the potential of the site. The intent of this design is to consider the user as the number one stakeholder within a landscape.

Dillon Towers

What opportunities exist for the maximisation of public

space through an investigation into the manipulation of

human movement?

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Landscape architecture often attempts to engage with the economics of a site; the cafe, the restaurant, without delving into how these assemblages work. My project looks at how landscape architecture can engage with the relationship between the socio-economic entity of coffee and urban space at Britomart.

Coffee places are a cross section of the socio-economic processes of their context and to use them in design, we have to understand what they could become. I discovered that the way people moved through Britomart related to the layout of the economic edges. This in turn set up a ‘spectacle’ nature that became the driving force behind the economics of my intervention.

The result was a spectacle-shopping axis that sets up a vibrant overload of window shopping and concentrated movements. Hidden coffee-relief spaces provide a break from this experience as well as an opportunity to work, study or have a meeting.

Jamie Stronge

How can landscape architecture engage with the relationship between

the socio-economic entity of coffee and urban space?

coffee anyone?

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Landscape systems thinking, architectural process and ecological science have begun to define landscape architecture as an accumulation. Perhaps it is the dexterity with which we utilise the component parts of our hybrid practice which will further define our role or become our weakness.

This project is a response to the alchemical condition of our discipline. I sought to develop tools which not only blatantly and honestly steal from other disciplinary fields, they seek to re-configure ‘theft’ to interact with new contextual landscapes, in the words of T.S Eliot, to ‘wield theft with a wholeness of feeling’.

The successful appropriation of ecological networks , info-graphics and systems thinking underpin landscape urbanism which has strengthened landscape’s ‘capacity to theorize territories’ (Corner, 2006). I would venture this is not a static process where we seek to work with the results of this appropriation, rather stealing is a continuous motive force behind landscape architecture, one which reflects the flexible knowledge base of a teenage profession.

a basis to stealEthan Reid

How can we articulate the way in which the ‘creative leap’

functions within the landscape architectural design process?

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Landscape architects have maintained a long history with the interpretation and subsequent representation of landscape conditions from Frederick Law Olmstead to contemporary theorists such as Stan Allen and James Corner. Throughout this long history, the practice of landscape architecture is constantly undergoing change, evolving and mimicking the shifts in the social consciousness of the times. Long standing catalysts for change - politics, fashion, economics and resource depletion - have, as of the 21st Century become increasingly topical as the global population continues to migrate to major urban centres.

Locally this shift from a historically rural nation to a contemporary urban one brings with it new and demanding circumstances and responsibilities for design practice. Architect and theorist Rem Koolhaas, while

discussing the state of the contemporary city states that “in spite of the calculation that goes into its planning – in fact, through its very rigidities – it is one architecture that engineers the unpredictable”1. Likewise, theorist Mohsen Mostafavi’s writing in the book Landscape Urbanism refers to the modern city as one “not limited by the traditional definition of the terms ‘building’ and ‘landscape’; it allows for the simultaneous presence of the one within the other, buildings as landscapes, landscapes as buildings”2.

Specific to the practice of landscape architecture during this transition is a re-defining of ‘landscape’ within an urban dialogue: posing and responding to questions such as what is urban ‘landscape’ in the contemporary city and how does it operate?

One technique that can be used to begin disassembling these questions is to view the urban realm [city] as a fabric. Each city consists of its own unique fabric, but each is weaved with multi-faceted threads: a cultural context of social, political, emergent, ecological, and economic needs of its population. This viewing technique shifts away from analysing the urban realm as object and form3 [buildings and the spaces in between], to an analysis of the urban realm as an environment: threads of relationships, processes, systems and programs, each thread in some manner connected to another, threads both independent and interdependent, unpredictable and simultaneous.

By shifting our viewpoint toward the operating city as an intensity of relationships and programs, we can then

fabricated groundon

Den AitkenIn what ways does the fabric

of the ground contribute to the atmosphere of public

space?

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begin exploring techniques that document this emergent information. To date, typological interpretation and representation [documentation] remain the tried and true response to investigation and design: maps, plans and sections - the drop down menu for design practice. The evolution of design work is moving from primarily hand-drafted techniques toward digital drawing systems, such as GIS and ArchiCAD. As of yet, these digital systems fail to provide options for an expansion on the existing realms of tradition, though at times presenting themselves more ‘slickly’. The failure of these techniques, manual or digital, is not due to either form of media, but a failure to quantify and locate the relationships and programs that form the connections of our greater urban landscapes.

The question posed here then is not whether modern technology is somehow more

relevant than traditional rendering, but whether the tools we currently employ to interpret and represent the operative city are still relevant when viewing the urban realm as a fabric. Can we develop alternate techniques and means of documentation that are more readily able to engage with notions of atmosphere, unpredictability, subtlety, change and variation?

One such technique, captured in the accompanying images, is the project On Fabricated Ground, documenting the city through a series of photographs. Taken consecutively over one hundred days, the project attempted to capture a sense of atmosphere that makes direct links to the characteristics and qualities of the materiality of the urban ground form.

Undertaken in 2011 between March 1st

and June 8th, the project was one of approximately forty individual projects, each topic unique to the participant.

Den Aitken BLA(hons) is a Lecturer at Unitec, and a Founding Partner of Field LA.

Accompanying images by Den from On Fabricated Ground. To view all 100 photographs see http://onehundreddaysofdesign.wordpress.com/For further information on the 100 days of design process see http://www.100daysproject.co.nz/

1. Koolhaas, R. (1998) Bigness or the problem with large in S,M,L,XL, Ed 2. The Monacelli Press Inc: USA. pp.5112. Mostafavi, M. (2003) Landscape Urbanism, A Manual for the Machinic Landscape. AA Publications: London, pp. 073. Allen, S. (1999) Points + Lines, Diagrams and Projects for the city. Princeton Architectural Press: NY, pp. 80

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Olivia KochThe layers that essentially create this memorial garden are derived from iconic buildings, landscape features and the transport network of Christchurch, which provides the connections for this design. Mapping and combining these elements attempts to capture the essence of Christchurch and instil it in the site.

The title for this studio, S, M, L, XL, outlines the objective - to explore the site at a variety of scales in order to create a landscape treatment for the proposed Christchurch Botanical Gardens Centre. Without the benefit of a site visit, students engaged with both pre- and post-earthquake maps, aerial images, photographs, plans and reports of the area to develop designs that respond at regional, civic and site scales.

christchurch

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This future inner city space could be used as a new main street, with tram links, green spaces and pedestrian connections. A sense of shifting and sliding creates an environment full of movement and change which can always be seen differently.

Andrew Priestley

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Blair Clinch

The idea was to embrace and amplify variations between zones using the spatial and materialistic elements of both ’garden’ and ‘city’. A new dynamic emerges when these two elements are hybridised, with context dictating uniqueness.

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Chris Judd

The Avon River, the flux and constant of Christchurch, directs the design lines for the site. The new Botanical Gardens are not only an experience of the natural world, but a sanctuary from the earthquake ravaged city. This intervention works on improving the water quality of the Avon River, and also reuses materials salvaged from the demolition of the damaged city.

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that it is, as well as drawing the relationship and experience into it. Drawing is the key to effective ‘seeing’, and ‘seeing’ is the key to effective drawing. Effective drawing enriches values that may normally be unseen, as the drawing forces you to consider each aspect of the object or idea, including otherwise unnoticed qualities of place, shape, colour, texture, and how these values come together to influence emotion and form experience.

Marks and strokes are given meaning relating more to the subject than the artist’s knowledge of the media. When reproducing

glass or water, the designer is forced to think about qualities such as reflection, movement, and emotional influences to the site. Visually exploring an idea with a pencil facilitates the imagination, honing essential critiquing skills, and instilling sensitivity and personality into the design process, resulting in solutions which are unique, flexible and able to unpick complex problems. The fluid nature of this process allows the ideas to change and develop as they emerge on paper. It taps into the emotional intelligence of the artist, and the capacity for such things as self-awareness, creative expression,

Thomas Keal

The rapid acceleration in the evolution of technology during the past decade has fundamentally changed the way we design and present our work. Hand drawing is still the primary, underlying foundation of creative design thinking, Since a computer can now produce work quickly and easily, it is simple to think of the computer as the primary design tool. In contrast, drawing on paper can be frustrating, forcing concentration, introspection and revision, as an idea or vision takes shape. The process hones essential skills and sensitivity and personality that make the design unique.I agree with the freehand sketcher Paul Laseau1, who says it is difficult to learn to see, before beginning to learn to sketch, as the two are so interdependent on one another. The ability to effectively see the subject is not in the ability to reproduce visual components accurately, but rather in the ability to be responsive to the subject, seeing it for all

capturing the ephemeral

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the essence of what a site really is, the intangible, the emotional, the experiential and the journey.

Thomas Keal is currently a student of the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture programme at Unitec.

Images by Chris Roberts-Brewer, a recent graduate of the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture.

1. Laseau,P. (1980). Graphic Thinking for Architects and Designers.

imagination, and empathy.

The process of drawing creates opportunities for happy accidents, unpredictable achievements, new concepts, and a stream of creativity stems from within this. The life given to the lines on the page carry with them that which is important to the artist. If sites are to be designed for people, it is the life, through connection with the site, through drawing, through interaction, and through abstraction that must be engaged in the design process. If we lose this vocabulary we no longer have the means to communicate

‘effective drawing enriches values that may normally be unseen ... and how these values come together to

influence emotion and form experience’

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oratia

Tosh Graham

Landscape processes offer rich potential for design, giving us the opportunity to key into and engage with dynamic forces in unexpected ways. For Oratia, a site on the Auckland urban/ rural fringe, vegetation is an important component that contributes to the quality and character of the landscape. Student discoveries regarding the qualities, characteristics and processes of plants were intersected with the ‘reserve program’ to produce a design that also responds to site conditions.

I have a special affection for the plant I chose for this project. When our son was born we used ‘moka’ [a delicate twine made from harakeke] to tie off his pito [umbilical cord], another small and important way this incredible and beautiful plant was used by our tipuna [ancestors].

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Nick SisamConsidering Oratia as a gateway between the West Coast and the city was the cue for various interventions on this site. This includes regeneration of the Oratia Stream and referencing the early European settlement and traditional fruit growing history of the area.

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The Rena oil spill has seen New Zealand facing one of the nation’s largest environmental maritime disasters. Clean up and management efforts to date have also attracted an enormous amount of criticism.

What we don’t realise is that everyday we are also contributing the same type of pollution to our waterways, through the contamination of storm water. Auckland faces a $10-billion cost to upgrade and manage storm water networks in a more sustainable way over the next 50 years. Storm water contains extremely harmful chemicals from the transport network such as zinc, copper and noxious oils. It can also contain rubbish and many other pollutants that severely degrade water habitats.

Auckland’s waterfront contains one of the most serious storm water problems in the country. Whilst visiting the Wynyard Quarter, one of the newest developments in Auckland, people may not be aware of the contamination and the environmental

sustainable landscapesTrina Jashari

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degradation takes place underneath. A large and historic urban catchment area drains below Wynyard Quarter, where more than 80% of storm water is untreated.

Unnecessary investments are currently being made on projects that are only temporary: we need to plan towards the future and not just provide temporary fixes. Methods to remove contaminants from storm water have included the creation of artificial wetlands, grassy swales and vegetated filter strips. However, it has been noted that these methods can be limited by the amount of water that they can treat at one time, and at times may fail to embody aesthetics, learning environments or public engagement.

The 2011 Rugby World Cup has shown how the waterfront has manifested into a top tourist destination. All around the world waterfronts are becoming some of the most desirable and celebrated urban places, and some leading waterfronts display best practice through the use of green technology.

In my Masters of Landscape Architecture research project I propose to investigate ways in which storm water can be treated through sustainable design, and ways in which it can add value to waterfronts and create multi- layered landscapes.

In Auckland there is potential to incorporate green technologies with current storm water management methods to potentially ‘daylight’ pipes. This could create efficient state-of-the-art places that cater for multiple functions, creating sustainable and resilient environments, economies, culture and education.

Today, our seas are faced with increasingly devastating pollution. We should no longer tolerate this. We need to make a stand to better plan and manage the wellbeing of our environment for the future.

Trina is currently studying in the Master of Landscape Architecture programme at Unitec.

Image by the author.

‘in Auckland there is potential to incorporate green technologies with current storm water management methods ... creating

sustainable and resilient environments’

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through a perceived lack of honesty. Catherine Ingraham discusses this in detail in her book, Architecture and the Burdens of Linearity 2. Where traditionally a place could be understood through relationships, by using digital systems like GIS it can be understood through a series of physical characteristics. This is not to dismiss digital technology as a helpful design tool but to highlight the continuing importance of the stories, people and perceptions of a place.

Caution – fragility of infrastructureIt is generally understood that most of the information we receive via digital technology is up to date and therefore accurate [unless a disclaimer expresses otherwise]. Many designers already acknowledge this as being dangerous when providing representations of design work and perhaps why a concept sketch that conveys well the fallible and flexible human component is still a popular form of communication in the early stages of design. Aside from understanding

Gary Marshall and Claire O’Shaughnessy

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology

has exceeded our humanity”- Albert Einstein

To introduce what might be one reason for our cautionary approach, it is worth providing a bit of personal background. We both studied at a time where the application of digital technology for design was new and held a world of potential, but ultimately not to be relied upon. The novelty made digital technology an exciting way to explore ideas but the lack of reliability meant we continued to still develop and communicate much of our design work through more traditional methods.

However, if we are to put nostalgia for traditional methods aside we can begin to discuss a number of clear advantages and in some cases liberations that digital technology provides designers: the increase in the number of scales a designer can investigate in a small physical space, the speed of production and testing of ideas, the quantum and accuracy of information available (and there is a large question mark surrounding this one), and the democratisation of that

information through open source software.

Digital technology is also an area where great advances are being made and quickly, although limits to this growth are anticipated to occur within the next decade according to Moore’s Law1. It is probably already clear that we are suggesting that the above “advantages” are not without their problems, and that we should definitely be cautious when replacing the old with the new.

Caution – Abstraction Of PlaceTo narrow in on specific concerns for landscape architecture we must look at how digital technology allows us to look at place. The ability to isolate elements and processes assists in an understanding of complex systems; however, this abstraction can remove the designer from any given place and the designer’s apparent position in that place. This can also break the link when communicating a place to key stakeholders and runs the risk of arousing suspicion

proceed with caution

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east  bankwest  bank

re-­engagement  with  the  Tamaki

education  by  design  +  experience

A

A1

B

B1

C C1

east  bankwest  bank

re-­engagement  with  the  Tamaki

education  by  design  +  experience

A

A1

B

B1

C C1

no single governing body managing the integrity of the GPS infrastructure it is likely to continue to decline gradually and “at some point in the [next] few decades, the whole system may crash.”4

Also, when considering the longevity of this technology we must consider the raw materials required. One example that is widely applicable is the decline of indium, a chemical element used in the production of flat screen televisions. It is estimated

that the “world has, at best, 10 years before production begins to decline; known deposits will be exhausted by 2028, new deposits will have to be found and developed”5. This is not to suggest that this would be the end of digital technology but that it is prudent to understand that digital technology in its current form should not be taken for granted and it should not be assumed that the future of digital technology will be mostly recognisable, just bigger, better, faster.Although cynicism here may appear to

the suitability of digital technology for representation the bigger concern lies in the fragility of the physical infrastructure that is integral to our digital world. This is clearly demonstrated by a 2009 report released by the United States Government Accountability Office investigating the longevity of satellites supporting Global Positioning Systems [GPS]. The study concluded that the existing satellites are wearing out and the accuracy of the system is likely to decline in the near future3. With

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merging green + grey infrastructure

P2

P1

community integration + connectivity

utilising existing infrastructure to integrate

view of bridge looking south from parallel north bank

view of bridge looking east from west bank towards viewing platform

P3

ecological restoration + enhancement

P4

stormwater management + treatment

view of storm water treatment wetlands from north looking southvvv

view of bridge looking west from east bank towards Tip Top bread factory

overshadow support, an admission must be made that digital technology has become a critical part of our daily work flows and allows us to achieve things that would otherwise not have been possible. In fact, our alarming dependence on this technology is possibly what fuels this underlying cynicism.

Our industry needs to keep up with technology and use the tools provided to our advantage, but always keep in mind that as intelligent beings it is our responsibility to question the medium we use, know its limitations and ensure we have a back up plan.

Gary and Claire are both Landscape Architects based at JASMAX.

Images accompanying this article by student Heather Docherty for Tamaki River studio project.

1. Moore’s Law. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore’s_law [10October 2011]. Moore’s Law maps the development of integrated circuits, observing that the number of transistors that can be placed on the circuit board approximately doubles every two years. This trend has held true for over 50 years and is expected to continue for another 5 – 10 years by which time the functional elements of circuits will be approaching atomic dimensions.

2. Ingraham, C. (1996). Architecture and the Burdens of Linearity, New Haven, Yale University Press

3. US Government Accountability Office (2009). Global Positioning System: Significant Challenges in Sustaining and Upgrading Widely Used Capabilities, Report No. GAO-09-670, May 7, 2009

4. Heinberg, R. (2011). The End of Growth: Adapting to our new Economic Reality, BC, New Society Publishers. p180

5. Cohen, D. (2007.) Earths Natural Wealth: An Audit. New Scientist (2605). cited in Heinberg, R. (2011). The End of Growth: Adapting to our new Economic Reality, BC, New Society Publishers. p 143

For more information refer to International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management (Ed.). 2010. Metal Stocks in Society, United Nations Environment Programme

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On a recent visit to New Zealand, Ken Smith took some time out to chat with the xsection team. Ken shared his views on inter-disciplinary collaboration and where landscape architecture is

heading, along with the role that digital technology may play in this journey.

ken smithconversation with

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New York-based Ken Smith is best known for traversing the boundaries between art and landscape. Ken has also taught at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. His practice WORKSHOP: Ken Smith Landscape Architect was established in 1992 and recently expanded into Southern California to facilitate the massive ‘Orange County Great Park’.

xsection: We were interested to read that you worked in collaboration with Kennedy and Violich Architects in the East River ferry landing project. On large-scale projects such as that, or the Orange County project, collaboration between public and private stakeholders appears critical to success. How do we teach collaborative skills, other than group work, and how important are those skills for landscape architects?

XS: So is that how we teach collaboration in class? Allow students to choose who to work with in groups?KS: That’s the traditional method. When I was teaching I generally did projects where they were individual projects, because I was more interested in someone trying to find their own identity and attitude towards design. At the same time at this school there were faculty who were organising group process, and there would be a lot of collaboration gaming going on - not exactly as nasty as ‘Survivor’ on TV - but they would set up situations which would test the dynamics of the group and force people to come to some kind of consensus. I think for a lot of landscape architects, traditionally we have been too ‘nice’ and accepting of other people leading things. I think that as a group we need to be a little more assertive in these group situations because we bring a lot to the table

Ken Smith: As the projects get bigger and more complicated you just have to work with more people unless you’re going to organise your practise where you are going to go to battle and fight about everything you have to collaborate. It’s just how it is. Generally you want to find people that you want to work with - people that you share ideas and agenda with. Sheila [Kennedy] and Frano [Violich] were great because we were colleagues from Harvard and know each other. We’ve also done a lot of work with SHoP Architects recently and we get along as colleagues and that has been very good working relationship. I think you have to pick your collaborators carefully.

XS: That rings true at our level of study as well, doing group assignments…KS: Not everyone can play in the sandbox right?

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and we need to be equal among others at the table. I think that’s an ongoing challenge to the profession, but it’s probably a challenge of each generation to gain your place at the table and be part of the decision-making.

XS: Another thing we are interested in is how to stay connected and engaged in the human scale while working at objective or large scales, such as diagrams and plans. How do you remain connected to your project, from the initial stages through to completion?KS: I used to fairly regularly sit in on designer reviews at the University of Pennsylvania, Jim [James] Corner used to invite me to sit on the jury and they were very interesting because Jim would always have his students simultaneously doing diagrams, and then montage views. There was always this connection between this kind of larger idea and the quality of the space that it was

creating for people in there. That’s the thing I think you are talking about - how you get those two to work. That is difficult on all projects because it is very easy, especially with computers, to get sucked into the box at one scale and not really understand what you’re doing. In my office we move very quickly to computers, we don’t draw very much anymore but then we do a lot of visualisation, computer views, but we also build a lot of models.

We build traditional models to see what the thing looks like, but we also do full scale mock-ups. Last week we did a full-scale mock-up of a seat to see if it was comfortable. Another instance, we were trying to do a slope and the client was having great difficulty understanding the slope. So we found a big room, took some string and we executed the entire slope on the wall and [the

client] looked at it and the said “oh fine, no problem”. We often times work at full scale in some way in trying to understand and make that connection. A vine screen we are doing in Brooklyn, is tall - 55 feet tall - and we printed out a portion of it full scale.

We have 12-foot ceilings in our office and we put up a full scale drawing of a portion of it, just to see what it actually felt like, how big the pieces actually were, because often times you don’t know when your detailing something, how big is that, horizontal thing there so we try to make that connection. We also spend a lot of time just looking at how people use spaces. When I was teaching, I always had my students read the William Whyte’s Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, which is a really good book about how people use space, sit and people watch and stuff, and we kind of bring that social agenda to all of

‘...it is very easy, especially with computers, to get sucked into the box at one scale and not

really understand what you’re doing’

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‘GIS doesn’t tell you how to make the interaction between

ecology and culture work’

a postcard to anyone these days - it doesn’t make any sense. So the interactive aspect of how people respond is a very useful way of getting feedback. I would say it could be a major tool in the future for public participation.

XS: Do you think social media could be a useful tool in the Orange County Great Park project?KS: Yes, Orange County is a good example of that. It has been very media savvy. The park itself was born out of voter initiatives - ballot initiatives. There were people who wanted to build an airport there and people who didn’t want an airport. The people who didn’t want an airport did a great deal of political polling, and what they found out was that people won’t vote against an airport, but they will vote for something else, so you have to have a positive thing to put out there. They polled and they found that people would vote for a

the plan work and it changes it. We are using more 3D software now and that’s also useful to find out, ‘well that’s too tall’ and you can start pushing things around differently.

XS: Is that with CAD or video software as well?KS: We are using Rhino in the office now and in terms of fabrication, CAD drawings go directly to the fabricator more and more. So there’s a much stronger connection, a kind of industrial design connection between how things are built and design that is changing. The products and the forms are more complex than they were 20 years ago because the computer allows us to do that. XS: Where do you see the future of social media technology within landscape architecture? KS: We haven’t been doing that very much, but it makes sense that it would be the way you would do it. You are not going to mail

our work.

XS: We note that you use Photoshop extensively in the design process. Do you think the use of these digital design tools influences the outcome or is it just a tool?KS: It’s not just a tool; the tool is actually shaping the design, because you can do things quickly now which were very difficult before, so it’s making different kinds of design.

I still draw sometimes, but I tend to work in Photoshop first. I do diagrams in Photoshop - kind of dumb diagrams - but I’ll tend to layout a project in Photoshop diagrams and then some montages, that’s usually the first part. I find that ‘montage-ing’, at some level, influences the look of the project, because you start designing that image. So then you find out that this actually looks better than that and then you take that back then into

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park. Even the name ‘The Great Park’ had a great deal of appeal to people and that is why it is called that, all a result of political poll taking. Even during the competition they had websites and a lot of interactive measuring going on to see what people like and that was part of how we got selected for the project. So already that is happening in contemporary projects.

XS: What other sort technologies do you see influencing the disciple of landscape architecture in the near future? How do you see that influencing the way we design?KS: Well, it’s all part of our means of production, and that is changing the profession. But I think that probably another thing that might be an influence are the research models that come out of other

professions. I mean you see it certainly in the ecological aspects of the profession, that you don’t have to be ecologist to adapt a model for community sampling or species diversification, and then you apply it to a project. I would expect that we would use research findings from public health and other related fields as design form-makers in a way, where we are starting to apply other kinds of models into the work that starts to shape the design.

XS: I suppose GIS the big influence there?KS: I’m not sure. I think the organisational models, spatial models, and performance criteria - those things we will borrow. GIS is really a different scale - big scale - right? We don’t really do planning in America so we don’t’ know anything about that!

XS: So do you think there is a danger in GIS-based or ecologically derived design?KS: No, no. I think it makes sense at a big scale, but it is a very coarse scale and when you get down to the specific site it won’t tell you how to plant or to grade, or make things work. It doesn’t tell you how to make the interaction between the ecology and the culture work. That’s a different kind of endeavour.

Ken Smith ran a master class with students of landscape architecture at Unitec in July 2011. See the Spring 2011 (Issue 11) of Landscape Architecture New Zealand for an article about this event. The full transcript of this interview and links to the projects can be found on our blog: http://x-sectionmagazine.blogspot.com

Palm Court, Orange County Great Park, Irvine, California(courtesy Orange County Great Park Corporation)

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Daniel Irving

Technology changes everything. It always has. Cultivation, printing, Boyle’s Law, and Touring’s machine, each tore a hole in the practices of the day. But the innovation that led the real revolution is distinctly different from the products that come to symbolise it – i.e. the plough, the press, the fridge, and now digital and vector-based computing.

The digital age promises designers a hyper-level realism, 3D information modelling, precision complex geometries, and sexy words like parametricism. But any argument for a superior digital design future is moot. The techniques may seem appealing, but seeing them as a natural evolution from an ancient art of mark-making to a higher-order mouse-clicking, mistakes the technology for technique, process for outcome, or innovation for product. Philippe Starck puts our misconception of this single-line

evolution well in a TED talk. Google it.

It’s important that we don’t mistake that initial breach of innovation for some sophisticated tool arising from the breach – we risk the tail wagging the dog, and the poor decision-making that so often follows this. Thomas Kuhn tells us that discovery and innovation are not a straightforward progression from the old and dumb to the new and cunning. That, instead, knowledge and thinking culminate, and then, suddenly, unexpectedly, and spectacularly, innovation punctuates. And everything changes. This is the revolution we never see coming.

Here are my three suggestions to landscape architects. First, digital technologies should be critiqued so as to prevent that sad postscript, fear not, technology will fix it later! That is, while we deploy digital

nothing revolutionary (…yet)

technologies in everyday work, we should be pushing that technology to the brink of failure wherever possible. In design, any failure is an opportunity to innovate – and we should, for the sake of our own practice, lead this innovation. Are we content frustrating ourselves in the wake of others’ almost-similar, not-quite-but-if-we-just-squint, yip-that’ll-do techniques and tools? I hope not.

Second, design is a speculative business. Not knowing precisely, but speculating strategically is the primary activity of designers. To this end design is not defined by the tools of practice, but by an individual’s approach to practice. A critical mistake, to my mind, is misidentifying digital technologies as an approach, rather than a tool.

Third, all-important innovative shifts come from an ability to cross-cut disciplines,

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break boundaries, steal and adapt unfamiliar processes, and redefine practices. More simply, we need to experiment. Nigel Thrift suggests we re-discover “the ethic of craftsmanship”. I like that. Thrift describes this ethic as I would describe a designers’ focus on cultivating design talent – that basic self-interest, self-awareness, and self-confidence that leads to productive and imaginative practice, and contributes to a community of ability.

Taking these points together, I suggest landscape architects embrace experimentation in every part of practice. We should test and often break the tools, re-make and constantly re-imagine the rules. Landscape architecture is a newcomer on the disciplinary scene. Its strengths come from not being too deeply wrapped in disciplinary bureaucracy, nor yet weighed down by theoretical dogma.

The various emerging digital techniques may be another vein of contemporary design-thinking, but they are no more rich and compelling than any other techniques of representation and design. It is perhaps time to stop looking at things as the future of design – if its here now, it very likely isn’t the future.

Daniel is a Landscape Architect and Programme Leader for the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture at Unitec.

Image of Victorian sewer structure under Toronto supplied by the author.

Kuhn, T. (1962: 1996) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 3rd Edition. The University Of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Thrift, N.. (2007) Non-Representational Theory: Space, Politics, Affect. Routledge, London

‘discovery and innovation are not a straightforward

progression from the old and dumb to the new and cunning’

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In August 1998 I landed a job as a technician in the ‘School of Landscape and Plant Science’ at Unitec. I had recently graduated from Waikato University with a Science degree and had a healthy interest in computer graphics, at that stage AutoCAD, Photoshop and a 3D programming language called Pov-RAY. At the time the School had roughly three PCs and three Macs for students in a very small room, which was also my office.

Although I had come in as a technician, from day one I was teaching and within six months had an official recognition of it in my contract. Since then I have watched the use of computers in the Landscape Department gradually change from year to year. Of course the technology has came a long way. In those early days we got excited about a few rather crude and identical trees whereas now we can produce a forest with relative ease. The biggest change however, is not the technology itself, but the perception and acceptance of it in landscape practice.

Back then, anything done on a computer was seen as computer generated, void of any design process. This was far from the reality but that was how it was perceived. It was a shortcut for those who did not have the time or skill to draw. I remember many students tracing their CAD drawings to avoid the preconception that their design was done by a computer. That perception has dramatically changed since. Now it is well understood that designing with computers most definitely has human input and in most cases, has become a vital component of the design process.

Designers can also save a lot of time using CAD, however it raises the question: Is that time reinvested in making our rendered images look more realistic? This is an interesting dilemma as it can change the way a design is perceived. A simple line drawing communicates form, however a detailed render becomes a debate about materiality. Most designers would suggest it is self-destructive to present a major

visualisationZane Egginton

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project without a bells-and-whistles digital render to go along side it. However, it must be considered what is being communicated and to whom. If the project design is still conceptual, then perhaps it is better to present imagery that suggests just that. If the design is past the point of negotiation then maybe it is time to show the viewer exactly what it is going to look like before construction commences.

This is where some of the new technologies available to the designer can take digital realism to a point that is difficult to tell it from the real thing. Not only that, a well-executed visualisation can show both the final site and the journey that the design went through to be realised, especially when film techniques are employed.

Well-executed design can neither be accomplished purely with or without computers - what should be considered is how they are used.

Zane is a lecturer at Unitec, teaching CAD-based papers in the Department of Landscape Architecture programme. He is also involved in the production and editing of short films and music videos for his own film studio. For more about Zane and his work, go to http://zedspace.wordpress.com

Competition entry image of digital materials made by experimenting with fractals and Boolean objects using Vue software, supplied by the author.

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Nikolay Popov

i (information/imagination)

We should all agree that the production of landscape architectural design work is tightly related to the modus operandi of our society. This is why, without attempting to define the scope of our profession, it will be informative to have a closer look at the radical transformations of our world in the twenty first century.

There are five major factors fuelling these changes1:

- Abundance and automation of industrial production and information

- BRIC2 and globalisation- Climate change and energy- Demography - E-everything.

‘The question today is not how to produce something, but

what to produce’

E-everything indicates the transition from ‘paper society’ to ‘digital society’. The opposition digital – real no longer exists. All of it is real - some of it is physical, other parts are digital. We should embrace the digital in exactly the same way we embraced paper several hundred years ago. All the information, and there is abundance of it, is in digital format and we as landscape architects cannot circumvent this fact. Most of the contemporary design discourse is about working with information – communicating, visualising, and discriminating information.

The abundance and automation of industrial production and information means that we overproduce things (stuff). The same applies

for information –everything is measured, mapped, recorded and catalogued using various computer technologies. The question today is not how to produce something, but what to produce.

These trends have led to rapid decline of manual and routine tasks, as well as an increase of non-routine analytic and interactive tasks (Image 1). This is how our society operates and produces today. This is why we need to generate and communicate landscape architectural design work in a non-routine (imaginative, creative…), analytical, and interactive way handling vast amounts of information. If anyone thinks that this can be done with pen and paper... give it a try.

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1960 1970 1980 1990 2002

Image 1: Automation & Abundance: Routine work disappearing Economy-wide measures of routine and non-routine task input (US)

Mea

n ta

sk in

put a

s pe

rcen

tile

s of

the

1960

task

dis

trib

uti

on

Graph Image Source: Turk, Z. (2010) after Levy and Murnane.

Routine manual

Nonroutine manual

Routine cognitive

Nonroutine analytic

Nonroutine interactive

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60

55

50

45

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THE GRID

RAIN GARDENS

GREEN SPACE

MAJOR ROADS

DEVELOPMENT EXTENT

SERPENTINE PATHS

BUILDING FOOTPRINTS

‘if anyone thinks that this can be done with pen and paper...

give it a try’

Nikolay is a Landscape Architect and Lecturer of digital techniques such as GIS and Vectorworks in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Unitec. His current research ‘is in the interface between artificial life and landscape architecture.

Above image by student Ryan Aldrich for Tamaki River studio project.

1. Turk, Z. (2010). Project Europe 2030 Challenges and Opportunities. Brussels: Reflection Group.

2. BRIC stands for the rapidly growing economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China.

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The profession of landscape architecture is not confined by a single mode of graphic process or representation. The future of landscape architecture is in the use of digital technology but with a hand drawn / sketch sensibility.

As professionals we utilise a multitude of digital tools and media in our planning, design and implementation work; from GIS and Google Earth to visualise planning regulations, to detailed movie fly-through renders with sound tracks to represent our concepts, to GPS units and laser levels strapped to huge graders that re-contour the terrain, directed by our CAD model contours. We all know the power of hand drawing as a

humanising media that can evoke emotion, express light and shadow, form, movement and texture. This mode of working is still at the core of landscape architecture, and far more expressive and engaging than the computer mouse. However a sketch alone will no longer suffice in the age of the digital.

There is no more polarising debate than digital vs. analogue, local vs. global, hand drawn vs. simulated model, old school vs. new school. As with any dichotomy it is often more constructive to rationalise each mode and the potential for hybrid forms that mix the best of both. This hybridity offers landscape architecture the greatest potential for creative processes and artful

outcomes. I refer to this mashing as ‘modes of manipulation’. Modes of manipulation are a part of what we do; these are the processes that take place between the research, the analysis and the design phases of our projects. As we conceptualise a site we ‘draw-out’ the values of the place through research, often mapping, sketching, photographing and constructing [digital] models.

modes of manipulation

‘the representational techniques we utilise yield

new insights into the potential of a place’

Sam Bourne

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TRANSPONDER PAK

Plan - A

location: approved

Plan - B

Landscape Architects

The representational techniques we utilise yield new insights into the potential of a place. The characteristics and processes of a site can be pushed and pulled based on choices made as to which representative technique or media we use. A single (mono-tone) media will feedback vastly different information to a full-blown 3D simulated environment. Both modes capture different qualities of a place; both offer alternatives in the creative process of design. The increasing familiarisation of our profession with digital technology can restrict creative processes, and lead to a proliferation of ‘rubber stamped’ project processes and outcomes. If you are a slave to the machine your design will become automatic and mechanical. As

designers we strive to create the new and the different, we are not limited by the digital. The limitations of software can be overcome by increased familiarisation and awareness of the limitation of each programme. Like any other tool of the trade we know the limits and adjust accordingly.

The digital influences inform us through much wider information systems - both social media and geographic information systems. Our work is represented in 2D, 3D and 4D. We now look to re-dress the proliferation of the digital with analogue touch screens, palm computers, digital devices, i-Pads and tablets. The Minority Report style screens/surfaces are in development1.

The future for professionals is a digital system where landscape architects work in the field connected to software and hardware. We orchestrate the designs on site, fully immersed in the virtual 3D and physical environments simultaneously. Armed with visualising glasses and power gloves we walk the site, we model the project, and we see the results first hand [digitally]. While back at the office our work is captured by the quantity-surveying package that crunches the sums. The mobile phone rings: it’s the office - “you are well over budget, but if you drop your right hand you will reduce the amount of fill and save the project...”

The dichotomy we currently face with regards to digital and sketch sensibility is diminishing thanks to new technology that recognises biometrics and ergonomics. This makes it easier for us to concentrate on the creative activity rather than the act of transcription [e.g. converting sketches to CAD]. If our working environments become increasingly cyber-oriented, we may find that by embracing the digital we spend more time on the ground.

Sam is a NZILA Registered Landscape Architect with Boffa Miskell Ltd.

Image supplied by the author.

1. Minority Report (2002) Directed by Steven Spielberg. Starring Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton.

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design in the digital ageMatthew Bradbury

The way in which digital technology has affected the practice of landscape architecture over the last twenty years is part of a larger conversation about the role of the designer in the late 20th Century.

The start of this debate can probably be dated to the publication of S,M,L,XL1 in 1995. Ostensibly, Koolhaas assembles a record of a practice but in reality he is determined to overthrow the hegemony of traditional design practice. He undercuts the traditional role of the designer as heroic author through a diminution of the individuality of the project

by forcing his own practice into a crude scalar catalogue. Further instability is introduced through an exploration of the multiplicity of design regimes outside of professional and academic boundaries. The generic city, shopping mall design, Lagos and the new Chinese city, are gleefully investigated. By the 2000s we have come to accept the boundlessness of design practice as a common place.

In a recent landscape architectural design symposium at Unitec, seven Auckland landscape professionals discussed their

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‘the landscape architect has a new responsibility to connect

different realms: social, political, and environmental’

practice in New Zealand. They revealed a multiplicity of design practices; planning, managerial, and academic, informed by an equally wide range of concerns, from` ensuring the ecological health of place to the centrality of community participation to speculation on the future of a post carbon city. This heterogeneity of landscape design practices in the coming decades is exhilarating and liberating. Landscape design has become an inquiry that is manifested as GIS maps, digitally rendered Vue images, animations, web publications and drawings. The landscape architect has a new responsibility to connect different realms: social, political, and environmental. The Tamaki River Project, a recent studio venture with third year Bachelor of Landscape Architecture students, is a great example of how students have engaged in a multiplicity of design regimes. Looking at the way in which the Tamaki River could be the catalyst for a massive urban intensification, students have worked with planners, urbanists, property developers, and scientists to explore and connect to different social, cultural and political worlds.

Two projects, randomly chosen, demonstrate the richness of this new design world. Helena Downey has worked with Megan Carbines, a marine scientist at Auckland Council, to map and qualify the most contaminated areas of the Tamaki River. Remediation techniques have been explored which are then used as an

opportunity to connect to the social realm of the surrounding neighboured. The armature of the chosen remediation strategy, mussel racks, becomes a physical opportunity to connect the disparate and fragmentary parks of the upper reaches of the Tamaki. Josephine Clarke’s project utilised GIS mapping to identify urban marae on the Tamaki. As a response by iwi to the urban migration of the 1950s and 1960s, urban marae have in some places become less relevant. Jo’s project was to reinvent urban marae as centres for Maori heath care, education and business and to connect this new assembly to the strong hydrological landscape of the Tamaki littoral.

Digital technology is an inescapable, irreducible part of this investigation and the future of landscape practices in the 21st Century.

Matthew is a Landscape Architect and Senior Lecturer in Landscape Architecture at Unitec.

1. Koolhaas, R. and Mau, B. (1995) S,M,L,XL: O.M.A (Small, medium, large, extra-large : Office for Metropolitan Architecture) Monacelli Press New York, N.Y.

Rows of mussel racks to remediate water quality in the Tamaki River by Helena Downey

Plan for a new connection between the landscape and urban marae by Josephine Clarke

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Rebecca Cray

This design deals with how the residential population can be accommodated and provided for as their ‘neighbours’ [commercial developers] become increasingly imposing on the Tamaki landscape and skyline. It is essential to develop a strategy that is flexible and resilient in the long term, as the planned densification is likely to take place in stages over a number of years.

‘an investigation into the relationships between commercial buildings,

residences and landscape’

In the developing Auckland Spatial Plan, the idea of the Compact City has been offered as a way in which to accommodate population growth.

The Tamaki River offers a rich testing ground to propose strategic landscape and urban design interventions, which explore and promote innovative urban succession and retrofitting opportunities for an unknown future.

Future scenarios will undoubtedly include elements of environmental, socio-cultural and economic dimensions. This studio is concerned with the spatial implications and landscape interrelationships of these factors.

Proposed Sylvia Park pedestrian connection

tamaki river

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Rhys Pemberton

The intent of my design is to enhance the streetscape of Richards Ave by connecting schools and open spaces together to create community/ campus pedestrian linkages. This potential design creates linkage connections using transport, planting corridors and public space. An innovative entrance/bus bay to front of Macleans College is created and new parking spaces for the growing number of students are also provided, away from the main roads.

Proposed Macleans College entrance

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Hailey Gill

Digital model of solar energy towers

‘solar energy is an under-utilised source of energy’

This design investigates a 165-hectare area in Point England, comprised mostly of state housing. The area is currently supplied electricity by a methane power station. Methane is a non-renewable natural gas which contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.

Energy generation and energy usage are major issues today, with the demand for energy increasing by 2% each year. With non-renewable energy resources diminishing, we will run into energy shortages and high price increases.

Solar energy is an under-utilised source of energy. Auckland gets around 2000 hours of bright sunshine every year, enough to easily support all of our energy needs. Solar energy is natural, renewable and free

This design proposes a series of solar towers that reflect, focus and capture energy from solar radiation to more than adequately supply power to the local area.

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Renee Davies

The range of content featured in this issue of xsection has highlighted to me the innovation which results from blurred boundaries. In this instance the Maori notion of ako [teaching and learning together] seems appropriate, encouraging an ongoing conversation between students, educators and industry practitioners, blurring the boundary between teacher and student. It is the basis on which our roles as educators of landscape architecture at Unitec are being shaped. By facilitating an exchange between landscape generations, I believe we can contribute to the broader, ever-changing nature of our discipline. In that exchange, future landscape conversations and influences will find their genesis and our profession will continue to thrive.

All this brings to mind a favourite quote by an unknown author:

“I favour borderline states of mind – just as I prefer all boundaries: twilight, midnight, midsummer’s eve, crossroads and seashores.”

My feeling is that like those boundaries described above, the issue of representation

and visual communication in landscape architecture has its place as a borderline state - a shade of grey between the digital and non-digital. The proportional mix or choice that is made is less important than the creative and individual expression which is achieved as a result of the interaction with either or both approaches. As designers, the ability to communicate is core to ensuring an ongoing ability to influence positive change within our environment and is the essence of our role in a discipline which can so dramatically impact our surroundings.

On a daily basis we grapple with these concepts of change and dynamism. The future of our landscapes will be determined in part by the quality and sensitivity of the designers that influence and manage that change and safeguard the qualities of it.

To appropriately respond to this we need to ensure we are in a state of constant exploration. Exploration that contributes and adds value to the understanding and knowledge of our discipline - in so doing, constantly improves our professional competence and potential. Instilling a desire

and hunger for exploration that is carried beyond the boundary of student life will encourage a life-long dedication to discovery and innovation, in turn fostering designers with originality, passion and energy.

There should be no rules, only exploration and experimentation. The appropriate place for digital technology in landscape architecture is exactly where we, as creative individuals choose it to be. On my desk, the HB and Rotring sit happily alongside my mouse and the interaction between them [that borderline state] is where creativity soars.

This issue of xsection has set the scene for an ongoing dialogue. I encourage everyone to contact the xsection team to engage, alongside our students, and explore the potential of boundless conversations in landscape architecture.

Renee is the Head of the Landscape Architecture Department at Unitec where she is also developing her research interests in living roof technology and urban ecology. She is also a Fellow Member of the NZILA.

blurred boundaries

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contact

Andrew Priestleya.priestley11@gmail.com Blair Clinchblair-92@hotmail.com Chris Juddcjudd99@windowslive.comChris Roberts-Brewerc.brewer@hotmail.co.ukDillon Towersdillontowers@gmail.comEthan Reidethan@maxnet.co.nzHailey Gillhailey.nz@gmail.comHeather Dochertywilkins.heather@gmail.com Helena Downey helenadowney001@gmail.comJamie Strongejamieadd38@hotmail.com

John Allanjohn@allan.co.nzJosephine Clarkclarkj85@wairaka.comLauren Vincentlaurenavincent@gmail.comMeg Kane flashmeggy@hotmail.comNick Sisamnicksisam@gmail.comOlivia Kochlivykoch@gmail.comRebecca Craybexy.cray@hotmail.com Ryan Aldrichunique_styler@hotmail.comRhys Pemberton rhys.pembo@gmail.comThomas Kealthomaskeal@hotmail.comTosh Grahamtosh.tamamutu@yahoo.comTrina Jasharitrina_jnz@hotmail.com

Boffa Miskellwww.boffamiskell.co.nzField LAwww.fieldla.co.nzJasmaxwww.jasmax.comNatural Habitats www.naturalhabitats.co.nz

NZ Institute of Landscape Architectswww.nzila.co.nz

Unitec Landscape Architecture Departmentwww.landscape.unitec.ac.nz

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