Landscape Architecture Frontiers 046: Prototype Study in Landscape Architecture

In its history of over a hundred of years, landscape architecture has developed many ideas, concepts, methods, and models. In this issue, LA Frontiers focuses on prototype studies by examining those traceable and repeatable landscape theories, methodologies, and pedagogies, and introducing the knowledge from allied disciplines to inspire knowledge innovation, with a particular highlight on the prototypes adaptive to future uncertainties. It hopes to extend the disciplinary horizon and enrich the fruition of disciplinary growth, and to provide designers and scholars with prospective design thoughts and more resilient working methods.

This issue explores the following aspects: First, prototyping process, or test planning process, which is characterized for the test-planning-design process and has been widely applied in the fields of computer sciences and industrial design but still being less explored in landscape architecture. This process emphasizes the multi-disciplinary collaboration and test procedure before design, which would improve the communication efficiency among professionals from different fields. Second, reflection and innovation on classic theories and models in landscape planning and design, such as Ian McHarg’s Map Overlay and Carl Steinitz’s Six Steps model. Third, research-based design, including design research or competitions with clear goals and boundary conditions which help designers comprehend the essence and implications of design and encourage disciplinary innovation. And fourth, inductive and empirical pedagogies to inspire forward-looking design ideas and working methods.

YU Kongjian is a doctor of design at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, he is an honorary foreign fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a professor at the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Peking University.

Noha Ahmed Abd El Aziz has a PhD and is an associate professor in the Urban Design Department, Faculty of Urban and Regional Planning, Cairo University.

Paolo Vincenzo Genovese is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Architecture, Tianjin University.

Kevin Thwaites is a senior lecturer in the Department of Landscape Architecture and is the founder and co-leader of the Socio-spatial Urbanism Unit (SsUU), at the University of Sheffield.

Zihao Zhang is a PhD candidate in constructed environment and is a lecturer in landscape architecture at the School of Architecture, University of Virginia.