Landscape architecture is a field of designing the environment which branches out from its parent subject-Architecture. Architecture is improving the lives of people through design.
Studying a Bachelor of architecture is a variant discipline, equipping one with some knowledge about everything- making a generalist. It leads one to understand the true nature of the design. Designing buildings, products, developing strategies, managing projects and a can-do attitude is hard-wired into the student, throughout the 5 years study, which comes with rigorous scrutinization.
Architecture also leads our interest further into other disciplines beyond design. Picking up different kinds of hobbies, trying out a new experience, engaging in philosophical discussions, reading a book, and other such activities keep the mind engaged. Landscape architects get more considerate of the human mind. This contributes to a cross-disciplinary approach to design.
As a practitioner, an architect coordinates a team of professionals that include structural and mechanical engineers, interior designers, building-code consultants, landscape architects, specifications writers, contractors, and specialists from other disciplines. An architect must know enough about each discipline to negotiate and synthesize competing demands within its team while honoring the needs of the client and the integrity of the entire project.
Any design decision should be justified in at least two ways and the designer should be quick on his feet – Understanding the iterative nature of the design process is crucial learning. Recognizing persistence without being disappointed is learned during the bachelor’s program.
Understanding these aspects of design principles like proportion, order, repetition, and unity is a basic prerequisite to boost one’s hold on the subject of Landscape architecture.
The course structure for the bachelor’s degree in architecture and Master’s degree in Landscape architecture have quite an overlap of the essential tools design studio and site planning. Site Planning involves the organization of land-use zoning, access, circulation, privacy, security, shelter, land drainage, and other factors. A thought after landscape design helps optimize the use of resources available at the site. Viewshed analysis, movement of water and Slope gradation study, Shadow foliage of the vegetation at the site, these are some of the characteristics of Site planning which is studied and considered in-depth by a landscape architect. These factors are dealt with regularly in the architecture design studio. Landscape architects recognize the nuances of the site having understood the aspects of design through the study of architecture.
A person having studied architecture already understands that there is much more to look and interpret in the world than meets the eye. They see the world differently. Their observations are holistic. -nothing around us sits individually in a bubble, thus designing also shouldn’t be in a bubble. Architecture opens up the mind and truly makes the world a designer’s oyster.
Landscape architecture isn’t an individual entity. Like how a landscape architect related better to the site design if he/she has understood the building needs and user requirements.
Architecture school also teaches how to sell your design through constant criticism and presentation of work. Landscape architects learn how to get their idea noticed and picked up by prospective clients. Along with a high level of skill in presentation, the most important component of a project is to place importance on the feasibility and the actual implementation of a project is better dealt with by them having already taught design detailing in architecture.
Architecture does plant the seeds for the love and importance for a planned landscape. A 1927 movie “ The metropolis”, is a utopian movie, set in the year 2026, in the remarkable corporate city with Gothic and Art-deco skyscrapers. It portrays the power of the rich depicted through the contrast in infrastructure for the different classes of the society. The one quite noticeable and horrifying observation was that there wasn’t a single tree in a sense of greenery nature. Landscape architecture who have to acknowledge that they understand their role in society better. Both architecture and landscape architecture share a symbiotic relationship.
Landscape architects acquire the following skills better through formal education of architecture:
- Sensitivity to landscape quality
- Understanding of the arts and a humanistic approach to design.
- Ability to analyze problems in terms of design and physical form.
- Technical competence to translate a design into a built work.
Architecture courses are important for the education of Landscape architects, as landscape architecture is aimed at developing holistic knowledge and understanding of landscapes in time and space, and at helping them to understand the pressures and driving forces to which landscapes are subjected to.
Despite the benefits of having studied architecture, the prospective students who aren’t inclined towards architecture shouldn’t be disappointed. Many schools provide the opportunity to study landscape architecture to students without a bachelor’s degree in architecture. If one has the potential and interest in a particular field, they should attempt to achieve it.
References
Frederick, M. (2007). 101 things I learned in architecture school. MIT Press.
asla.org/ContentDetail.aspx?id=12206&PageTitle=Education&RMenuId=54
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(1927_film)
