Design Readiness for Landscape Architects

Book excerpt: Demands on landscape architecture students’ time are many and varied – when is there a chance to just sketch, and is it worth dedicating your time to the pursuit of drawing? This book shows how in short bursts you can build up your design skills using quick, relaxed sketches, which form the basis for full projects and studio work. This book will provide you with your own image library – sources of inspiration, guidance, and short-cuts to future designs. A variety of paths leading to design discovery, based upon experimental sketching methods, are discussed, demonstrated, and then put into action with valuable exercises. These exercises focus your sketching, giving hints and tips on what to look for, how to capture the essence of the object or location, and how to become a natural in the art of speedy visual communication. Real-life examples of the author’s built-works as a landscape architect show how professionals use these techniques in their own design creations. Design Readiness for Landscape Architects presents enjoyable and thought-stirring essays and drawing-based exercises to help students grow more facile and agile in their service as architects of the land, whether using tablets, paints, or pens and pencils.