A Landscape Design Method Facing The Open Terrain

Founded in 1924,the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania is recognized around the world for its pioneering contributions as a pedagogical model during her 100 years of landscape education history.In the early1990 s,young faculty members,prominently among them James Corner and Anurandha Mathur,launched the new curriculum that prioritized the study of "open terrain" in the foundation studios of landscape architecture.It emphasized "representation",based landscape design on the new cognition sciences of the space and place,and developed a set of strategies involving subjects in the field,inspecting site,recording the site,and combining with the exploration of with human body perception.This method has also led these young faculty members to rethink the Ecological Landscape concept and design method advocated by Ian Mc Harge since 1960 s,and inspired the Landscape Urbanism in the early 2000 s.This approach to landscape suggests that the site is not just a static scene or what the site looks like,but rather it focuses on the discussion of the "process" of the field and human engagement when moving in the site.This exploration in landscape architecture at Penn later expanded through Corner,Stan Allen,and Charles Waldheim into a broader discussion involving architecture,landscape architecture,and urban design.By recognizing site and place as important given precondition to explore the new direction of design,they developed a new approach which engaged horizontal topographic operation,urban infrastructure,and building,which led to the emergence of the Landscape Urbanism theory.Through their series of pedagogical experiments in the 1990 s,Corner and Mathur moved beyond the idea of the site as nature advocated by Mc Harge to bring the society into the scope of study,explore the complexity and dynamics of landscape creation,and examine urban conditions that had been considered limitations into positive potential of design.These research and teaching methods shifted from the traditional aesthetic view with most attention on appearance toward a focus on site characteristics through the strategy of inquiries in process rather than final results.This dissertation examines this "true field" theory and the design method it implies as an exploration of the contemporary theory of landscape architecture.Through emphasizing the experience of the true field,it analyzes the relationship between scene and experience,and investigates the main element of open terrain to design language approach.By reviewing the differences and commonalities of the research by generations of Penn's landscape architecture faculty as well as other scholars in the United States,this dissertation delve into the inheritance and criticism of this method,and its possible adaptation to today's landscape architecture practice.Based on the author's graduate experience at Penn Design,teaching experience at China Academy of Art,history of Penn's landscape department's curricular transformation,and contemporary theory of landscape architecture,this research traces and discusses several issues surrounding the topic of "true field." A teaching experiment has been held in Hangzhou,consisting of four steps including the initial mapping ? understanding ?exploration and transformation to explore this approach's potential adaptation in China.The "On-site Interpretation and Design Method" is proposed to guide the rethinking and design of China's contemporary landscape,aiming to influence China's landscape architecture education and practice.