Experiential Landscape: An Approach to People, Place and Space

Experiential Landscape offers new ways of looking at the relationship between people and the outdoor open spaces they use in their everyday lives. The book takes a holistic view of the relationship between humans and their environment, integrating experiential and spatial dimensions of the outdoors, and exploring the theory and application of environmental design disciplines, most notably landscape architecture and urban design.

The book explores specific settings in which an experiential approach has been applied, setting out a vocabulary and methods of application, and offers new readings of experiential characteristics in site analysis and design. Offering readers a range of accessible mapping tools and details of what participative approaches mean in practice, this is a new, innovative and practical methodology.

The book provides an invaluable resource for students, academics and practitioners and anyone seeking reflective but practical guidance on how to approach outdoor place-making or the analysis and design of everyday outdoor places.

Kevin Thwaites teaches and researches urban design and landscape architecture in the Department of Landscape, University of Sheffield and along with Ian Simkins is co-founder of the elp:rdu, a UK based research facility concerned with the development of experiential landscape (www.elprdu.com). Ian practices as a Chartered Landscape Architect and tutors urban design related subjects at the University of Sheffield. Ian is currently developing PhD research on the spatial experiences of primary school age children.