Effective landscape design lies in the balance between human needs and the context of the whole landscape, between human interventions and natural processes, between function and beauty. It considers the totality of people, landscape, and culture. Ultimately, the challenge of landscape design is to heighten perceptions, and augment the experience of place.
What determines that balance? Each design solution is informed by the needs of the client, the requirements of a landscape, and the cultural context. The balance may rest in a place that achieves a feeling of harmony, comforting and calming for people; or it may be a point that challenges individual notions of place and culture.
I focus on integrating design interventions into a site, maintaining the wholeness of the native landscape, in appearance and in function, by preserving natural processes and relating designs to the scale and materiality of the place.
I believe in minimalism as an ethic for approaching landscape, using design moves that support the essence of a place rather than over powering it. Minimalism demands subtlety and an economy of means, applied consistently through the details, informed by what exists, not by what is imposed. Bold moves, where appropriate, are supported by the preexisting essence of the native landscape. The culmination is a continuum, not a disguise, of the essence of a given place.
My design process begins by getting a feel for what a given space is about, for what belongs, for what is at the core of it. I investigate the ecology of the place and look for connections between elements. Those connections inform an internal logic to guide design interventions. I consider how the client's program affects the space, then synthesize what I have discovered about the people and the place. The process can be likened to a spiral, with a beginning and an ending, revisiting key elements in between, each time at a more refined level, until the most interesting and integrated set of connections are achieved, and balance is identified.
Linda Robinson
11/15/04 |
