Expanding the Scope of Landscape Design: People, Ecology, & Time 33rd Annual Landscape Symposium

Landscape designers who successfully employ an ecology-based approach typically draw from a variety of sources. The inextricable link between people and ecology only increases the need to broaden the investigative lens. Join us as we explore the integration of “ecology-based” design with “people-based” factors, including the lingering effects of historic land use and the need to accommodate diverse cultural perspectives on the meaning of “ecology”.

Module 4:  Sculpture, Choreography, and the Integration of Landscape and Art

Art and Ephemerality in the Designed Landscape
W. Gary Smith, FASLA
While Gary Smith has been a major player in the ecological design movement for much of its existence, he
now devotes his primary design energies to ephemeral and environmental art. He will discuss this work, how
it has influenced his design practice, and how its immediacy can reflect natural processes of change in the
landscape.

Walking in Dumbarton Oaks: Beatrix Farrand’s Rhythmic Design
Robin Veder, PhD
When landscape architect Beatrix Farrand designed the paths, staircases, and landings at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., she thought about what they demanded of the human body and phrased her solution in terms of “rhythm.” Farrand’s notion of rhythm comes from health practices and aesthetic theories that were linked in early twentieth century thought. Historian Robin Veder proposes that landscape design was and is impacted by contemporary understandings of health, and that conversely, landscape designs continue to choreograph the embodied experiences on the bodies
that walk them a century later.

Principles, Not Formulas: The Visionary Modernist Gardens of Roberto Burle Marx
Raymond Jungles, FASLA
Raymond Jungles is an authority on the work of the legendary Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx. Jungles will discuss Burle Marx’s design excellence and share photographs he took while immersed in Burle Marx’s projects, including his personal paradise, Sítio Burle Marx, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Jungles will also share gardens he designed in homage to Burle Marx, including the New York Botanical Garden’s
temporary exhibit Brazilian Modern: The Living Art of

Roberto Burle Marx.