2 credit hours

Section A (NBs) meets T U 2:30 - 3:20 in Seaton 251
(Please arrive in time to help set up the room for "board room" discussion. )

Section B (PBs) meets T U 11:30 - 12:20 in Seaton Court 106a

Our primary objective is to formulate and develop a balanced conceptual framework for landscape architectural design theory, and to read a number of theories in the course of doing so.  That balance might be described in Simon Swaffield's terms as a combination of instrumental theory, critical theory, and interpretive theory... i.e. how do we do what we do, how could it be better done, and what does it mean?   Our seminar sessions will address relationships between the theory and practice of landscape architecture, and relationships of our profession to architecture.  To do this we will read, outline, reflect, and discuss the content of recent texts; and we will do some independent research and writing.  We will strive for breadth, depth and currency as we develop professional insight (wisdom, perhaps).

A goal of ours is to find inspiration in the literature of our profession and allied arts.  To that end we will study "classical" or seminal texts in Swaffield's Reader; contemporary writing on current thought about our profession (AD Site|Nonsite), and other relevant material.

Our goal is to become a more highly educated person: a person who engages in critical thinking to a high degree.  All students should print out the PDF at that WSU website, the New Critical and Integrative Thinking Rubric, 2006, read it and think about it. We are also concerned about creative process and thought, and management of the self as a graduate student.  

Students are encouraged to reflect on the idea that developing an ethically-based theory; one that attends to the needs of the whole human being -- body, mind, soul and spirit (of the individual and the community; and for the client, user and designer) -- may include challenging preconceptions or current assumptions on what constitutes "good design".

With that thought in mind, a passage from the book This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin comes to mind (p.244):

"The power of art is that it can connect us to one another, and to larger truths about what it means to be alive and what it means to be human." 

The assignments for the semester will involve discussion leadership through the use of weekly journal entries, content outlines for key readings, and a semester project.   It is hoped that students will develop a sense of ownership (with its attendant responsibilities) in the direction and content of the seminar.

We will progress through the books and articles in sequence, concentrating on particular themes or areas of theory as the weeks progress.  We will work out the procedural details of taking turns for doing content outlines and leading discussion during the first or second day of class. The schedule linked to this page will be maintained regularly, and adjusted if necessary.

Assignment 1: Journal entries for reactions and reflection

A journal entry for selected readings will be due each week.  Journal entries should be made after reading the assigned excerpts or chapters, and then copied before class -- they should be word-processed.  Please identify the course, author, name of articles or excerpts and dates, and include your name and the date of discussion at the top of the page.   The format for journal entries should be about one page in length; a column of text, single-spaced, about two thirds of the page in width, so that one third of the page is available for marking up and writing in thoughts during class. 

Describing relationships between and among readings would be a useful way of establishing meaning, but be brief and incisive.  The copy should be marked up with changes, new thoughts or additional observations during the relevant class period, and then handed in at the end of the class period, probably on Thursdays.

For each journal entry, consider these questions and indicate what the content means to you: 

1. what is the context for the author's work?
2. what is the author's purpose?
3. what is the topic and the main point?
4. what are the main arguments?
5. how does this article or chapter relate to other material you are currently reading?
6. how could you apply this material to current studio or other work? … to future work?
7. what does it mean to you now?

So, in sum, each weekly journal entry should be handed in at the end of Thursday's session, and each should identify the key points of the week's readings, relate them, and summarize what they mean to you at the moment.  The journal entries should be written in complete sentences, and be a single-spaced column of text about 2/3 the page width, using perhaps a 10 or 11 point font.  All the week's readings could be cited near the top, and author's name be the quick way to reference the reading in the narrative. 

Examples of journal entries.

If you are doing the content outlines for the week, you are exempt from the journal entry for that same week.    

Assignment 2: Chapter/article content outlines and ppt. for discussion leadership. See Assignment 2

Students, or student teams of two, will take turns leading structured discussions. The structure will come from reading carefully and thoroughly; summarizing, prioritizing and outlining the content of an excerpt or chapter of the required texts.  The content outlines will be shared with classmates before the discussion session -- typically by sending via e-mail (please do not forget the instructor ...).  In addition to preparing the outline, typically a short visually rich PowerPoint presentation will be created to provide context and stimulate discussion.  The thoroughness and timeliness with which each student prepares for leading discussions will strongly affect the quality of discussion, and the grade for the excerpt/chapter outline and discussion leadership (see assignment grading criteria).  It is my intention to assist students in preparation for discussion leadership by being available for office visits well in advance of the day of discussion leadership -- please make an appointment for such help; I really enjoy the one to one discussions on chapter or excerpt content and meaning; and finding ways to relate and integrate the various readings.

Example of a content outline.

Assignment 3: Semester project: research paper; summary paper; CBW entry, or case study power point presentation

Semester projects can be done in teams of two. They must involve a substantial amount of reading and synthesis from various sources, and may be a: 

1. Research paper on an important topic of landscape architectural interest; or a
2. Summary paper that link all the readings; a
3. Critique of a built work of landscape architecture (to be submitted to LSU's competition); or a
4. PowerPoint presentation (ppt) of a case study of an important landscape architecture project or place.

Seminar semester project ideas are on the linked page for help on identifying a semester project topic.

At some point before mid-semester I will ask you to identify your semester project intentions.  That link takes you to an example.

Substantial in-class presentations of semester projects will not be possible, so we will use posters to summarize and present the findings, key points and conclusions of the projects.  The format for the posters will be similar to the requirements for returning fifth year students who create "summary exhibition boards" for the Internship Show each fall.  Guidance on the format is here: Semester Project Poster. 

A summary evaluation form for semester projects is available.

Guidance for writing good essays may be found at ArchitectureBoston. Elizabeth Padjen is the magazine's editor and she offers useful writer's guidelines online.  Guidance on award winning work can be found at ASLA webpages that record an interview with Chris Diamond (HNTB) who has been the chair of the professional awards jury.  He stresses the importance of powerful graphics, focused and concise text ... coherence.  

Assignment 4: Thesis topics identification matrix ... see Assignment 4

A small but important exercise, this work will help you identify possible research topics or lines of inquiry, for thesis purposes.  The assignment entails creating a matrix in which you pose research questions that link, for example, scales of practice with substantive areas of inquiry (such as historical, biological-ecological, socio-cultural, technological, and formal issues).  The exercise is intended to illuminate some possibilities and get you started on the research track of courses in the MLA program (seminar; research methods; thesis proposal writing; thesis research and writing).

Course requirements / grading

Seminar grades will be based on the quality of content outlines and leadership for discussions; engaged listening and participation, daily journal entries; and a research/summary paper or power point presentation.  Attendance at all meetings is required, unless previously excused.  Requirements are valued at:

Journal entries .........................................................................	25%
Content outlines and discussion leadership..................................	25%
Summary paper ; research paper; CBW; or PowerPoint case study and summary project poster....	25%
Thesis topics matrix ...........................................	5%
Participation and attendance...................................................	20%
	100%.

Grades will be awarded as follows:

A: excellent, substantially above expectations
B: good, above expectations
C: average, meets expectations, acceptable (OK)
D: marginally acceptable
F: not acceptable

Note on participation  

Participation, or involvement, can take many forms in a seminar.  Active listening is one; to check during a discussion if you understand what the person is saying by restating it in your own words and finding out if that is a correct interpretation; it may be by making a point to confirm what the speaker is saying, or a point in contrast or friendly challenge or contradiction to what has been said.  Participation may be by sending e-mail messages to the instructor in order to ask a question or make a point about  a reading.  It may be by making a quick visit to the office for the same, getting my attention in studio to indicate awareness of something in the readings or to ask a question about the readings.  

In other words, participation does not have to occur only in the class room setting during the seminar hours on Tuesday and Thursday.  I will note who is speaking during the seminar meetings, while discussions are occurring, but please refrain from speaking just to get your name into my notes. One of our goals is to have everyone involved; so please encourage your quiet classmates to participate as well.

Academic honesty / plagiarism

Honesty and integrity are values and personal attributes that are held in high esteem by the faculty and administration in our college and department.  Our students are known and appreciated for their integrity and solid work ethic, in individual and team efforts.  Nonetheless dishonesty will be penalized -- it must be, because infractions in this regard hurt not only the individual(s) and faculty member(s) involved in a course, but the whole academic community, to which we all belong.  Plagiarism or any form of academic dishonesty will cause failure for the assignment and possible failure for the course.  Really serious violations could result in suspension or expulsion from the University.  See the university web pages on the K-State Honor & Integrity System: http://www.ksu.edu/honor .

Disability

If any student has a limitation, condition or disability that will make it difficult to achieve the course requirements, particular academic accommodations will be made.  Please inform the instructor in the first week of seminar so that appropriate arrangements can be made.

Simon Swaffield, ed. (2002). Theory in Landscape Architecture: A Reader. Philadelphia: U Penn Press. SB 472 .T44 2002
With the required reader in hand, students will have an introduction and overview of important theoretical writings for our discipline, in the form of excerpts from seminal texts.  The authors of these texts are all very important thinkers in the profession.  The excerpt sources are identified in the section entitled "Credits", pp. 257-259, and reading the full parent article or chapter would provide context for understanding the excerpt more fully (this 'extra' reading is recommended, of course).  I have many of the articles and chapters photocopied and available in my office ... just ask.

Spens, Michael, ed. (2007) AD Landscape Architecture: Site/Non-site, Wiley .. ISBN: 978-0-470-03479-8 This collection takes a critical look at contemporary European and American practice and thought.  

Why read these books? To become an educated person.

... (red highlight = strongly recommended that you read in its entirety for THIS semester)

Berrizbeitia, Anita and Linda Pollack. 1999. Inside Outside: Between Architecture and Landscape. Gloucester, MA: Rockport. – this text has a section on the Robert Wagner Park at the southern tip of Manhattan in NYC

__________. 2002. About Landscape: Essays on design, style, time and space. Edition Topos. Basel: Callwey Birkhauser. SB 470.55 .E85 T48 2002

__________. 2002. Parks: Green urban spaces in European cities. Edition Topos. Basel: Callwey Birkhauser. SB 484 .E8 P37 2002

__________. 2002. Water: Designing with water: promenades and features. Edition Topos. Basel: Callwey Birkhauser. SB 475.8 .W35 2002

Burns, Carol J. and Andrea Kahn, eds. 2005. Site Matters: Design Concepts, Histories and Strategies. New York: Routledge. NA 2540.5 B86 2005

Calthorpe, Peter. 1993. The Next American Metropolis: Ecology, Community, and the American Dream. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. 

Corner, James, ed. 1999. Recovering Landscape: Essays in contemporary landscape architecture. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Dreiseitl, H, et al, eds., 2001. Waterscapes: Planning, building and designing with water. Basel: Birkhäuser.   

Francis, Mark and Randolph T. Hester, Jr., eds. 1989. The Meaning of Gardens. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Kirkwood, Niall. 1999. The Art of Landscape Detail: Fundamentals, Practices, and Case Studies, Wiley. 

Kirkwood, Niall. 2004. Weathering and Durability in Landscape Architecture: Fundamentals, Practices, and Case Studies, Wiley. 

Little, Stephen …Isms: Understanding Art, Universe Publishing, Rizzoli, NY, NY, 2004, ISBN 0-7893-1209-3

McHarg, Ian, Design with Nature

Melvin, Jeremy, …Isms: Understanding Architectural Styles,  Universe Publishing, Rizzoli, NY, NY, 2006, ISBN 0-7893-1380-4

Moore, Mitchell and Turnbull. 1988, 1993. The Poetics of Gardens. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Moore, Allen, Lyndon. 1974. The Place of Houses. NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Murphy, Michael D. 2005. Landscape Architecture Theory: An evolving body of thought, Waveland Press, Inc., Long Grove Illinois.

Nassauer, Joan Iverson, ed. 1997. Placing Nature: Culture and Landscape Ecology.  Island Press.

Nesbitt, Kate, ed. 1996. Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965 - 1995. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Orr, David, 2002. The Nature of Design: Ecology, Culture and Human Intention. New York: Oxford University Press.

Pasqualetti, Martin, et al., eds. 2002. Wind Power in View: Energy Landscapes in a Crowded World. New York: Academic Press. TJ 820 .W5767 2002

Potteiger, Matthew and Jamie Purinton. 1998. Landscape Narratives: Design Practices for Telling Stories. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Spellman, Catherine, ed. 2003. Re-Envisioning Landscape Architecture, Actar, Barcelona. SB 469.3 .R42 2003

Spirn, Ann Whiston. 1984. The Granite Garden: Urban Nature and Human Design. New York: Basic Books.

Thayer, Robert L. Jr. 1994. Grey World, Green Heart: Technology, Nature and the Sustainable Landscape. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Thompson, George F., ed. 1995. Landscape in America.

Thompson, George F. and Frederick Steiner, eds. 1997. Ecological Planning and Design. SB 472.45 .E36 1997   From this text, I recommend these chapters, especially:

Thompson, Ian H., 2000. Ecology, Community and Delight: Sources of Values in Landscape Architecture. London: E & F SPON. SB 472 .T48 2000.

Thompson, J. William. 1997. The Rebirth of New York City’s Bryant Park Land Marks 04 Washington, D.C.: Spacemaker Press.

Treib, Marc, ed.1993. Modern Landscape Architecture: A Critical Review. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. See especially:

Tuan, Yi-Fu. 1974, 1990 ed. Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perceptions, Attitudes and Values. New York: Columbia University Press.

Waldheim, Charles, ed. 2006. The Landscape Urbanism Reader .. Princeton Architectural Press. NY.

Weilacher, Udo. 1996. Between Landscape Architecture and Land Art. Basel: Birkhauser.

Weller, Richard 2005. Room 4.1.3 Innovations in Landscape Architecture, U Penn Press. SB 472 . W45 2005

See also Lorn's recommended readings webpage.

Nature, Form, and Meaning (special issue of Landscape Journal) Vol. 7, No. 2 Fall 1988

Eco-Revelatory Design: Nature Constructed/Nature Revealed (special issue: exhibit catalog) 1998

Jusick Koh, "A Post Modern Design Paradigm of Holistic Philosophy and Evolutionary Ethic, " vol. 1, no. 2 (1982) pp. 76-84.

John Lyle, "The Alternating Current of Design Process," vol. 4, no. 1 (1985) pp. 7-13.

Robert Riley, "From Sacred Grove to Disney World: The Search for Garden Meaning," 7:2-88, pp. 136 ff.

Kim Sorvig, "Nature/Culture/Words/Landscapes," 21:2-02, pp. 1 ff.

Carl Steinitz, "A Framework for Theory Applicable to the Education of Landscape Architects (and Other Environmental Designers)" vol. 9, no. 2: pp. 136-143.

Marc Treib, "The Content of Landscape Form [The Limits of Formalism]," 20:2-01, pp. 119 ff.

Other recommended journals

These come to mind and are in Weigel -- there are more. If you find these are not current in the library, please let me know.

• Anthos
• CELA Forum and conference proceedings
• Design Book Review: Architecture, Design, Urbanism, Landscape (NA 2599.9 .D47)
• EDRA conference proceedings
• Garden Design
• Global Architecture (various issues on designers, projects and firms)
• Journal of Landscape Architecture
• Land Forum
• Land Use and Environment Law Review
• Land Use Digest (ULI)
• Land Use Law & Zoning Digest
• Land Use Policy
• Landscape (J.B. Jackson, ed.)
• Landscape Architecture
• Landscape Design
• Landscape Ecology (in Hale: Science)
• Landscape Management
• Landscape Research
• Landscape and Urban Planning
• Landscape Architecture and Town Planning in the Netherlands
• Places
• Process: Architecture (various issues on designers, projects and firms)
• The Princeton Journal, Volume 2, Landscape
• Scape Magazine: Landscape Architecture and Urbanism:  http://www.scapemagazine.com/
• Topos: The International Review of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism http://www.topos.de/
• Consider also the Project for Public Spaces Hall of Shame, but be mindful of the bias evident in the evaluation criteria.