Some Projects from the fall

It's been a while since I did anything here, so I decided that instead of trying to follow my initial ideas for this space, I'd share some of the work that I have worked on this past fall. Rather, Green Impact needs to be a space for me to show that I can learn and grow as a designer and human inhabitant. So, hopefully the process will show that I am becoming a better landscape architect and earthly steward at the same time.......and that I can develop a vocabulary to explain what I am trying to create.




This is a project I made in construction that asked for land to be indexed in two ways, while storing water in some related way....I chose to index landforms by folding and refracting. I created these shapes grinding with a sanding disc into the plywood and slowly started to create topographical variation. A composition resulted from the forms as I sought to vary them, keeping from making a symmetrical design. I hoped to make a design that appeared fluid and balanced, but was not so simple that it could be immediately discerned. As a result of the indexed forms, there were spaces left in between that were capable of storing water, yet I wanted them to also be able to have the ability to overflow if necessary.



This project was also for construction. The requirement of the project was to poise topographical forms for use by groups of size 3, 30, and 300 people. The project also required that a minimum of three walls were used. I started by using a test black from the previous index project, and forcing changes throughout the design to facilitate spaces poised for different groups. At first I thought it might be easier to adapt the older project than to :start from scratch", but in working through it, I now think that it is harder to change a design that start from a new one with no real restrictions already imposed. Anyway, I developed several spaces of various size that could be occupied by groups based on a chosen scale. During the sculpting of the forms, an idea was given to me that the walls could be formed by splitting the forms and changing the height of each section. I really liked this, since the forms would stay the same and from plan view would seem unchanged, yet there would be equal variation between each form along the walls. The result is an interesting composition, where walls of different forms are displayed, those that maintain equal height, one that halves a hill form, and one that melds into the ground.

The last project of this series was a Photoshop rendering, where I used photographs of the above model. I took macro photos of spaces that could be used by 3, 30, and 300 people. I then placed people and objects over the photos to create those spaces. The result is a oak woodland space with trails, where three people are shown, a desert hillside with stairway and clearing for picnickers, and a meadow that is used as an outdoor theater.