Architecture and the Landscape
Architecture and the landscape is the pairing of the discipline of architecture, which designs the building, with landscape architecture, which designs the ground the building stands on, and the 2 are the 2 halves of a site, the structure and the land it sits on. The building and the landscape are drawn together on a site plan, and the line where the wall of the building meets the edge of the lawn is the border between the 2 disciplines. This page defines both disciplines, says where they meet, and sets the difference between architecture and landscape architecture and between urban planning and landscape architecture.
What architecture is
What architecture is is the discipline of designing the building, and it is the part of the site that goes up from the ground. The architect draws the walls, the roof, the floors and the openings of a building, and the structure, the light and the rooms are the work of the discipline of architecture. The building is a closed volume, a solid that holds the people inside, and the design of it is measured in the area of the floor and the height of the story, the 2 numbers that define the size of a building. The architecture of a site is the set of the buildings on it, and the discipline is the one that decides where the buildings go, how they face the sun, and how the ground between them is shaped. The building is the hard edge of the site, and it is the part that the landscape architecture of the same site is drawn around.
What landscape architecture is
What landscape architecture is is the discipline of designing the ground and the open space of a site, and it is the part that holds the buildings and the people who move between them. The landscape architect draws the plan of the land, the paths, the planting, the water and the edge where the site meets the street, and the work is the design of the space that is not a building. The field is one of the oldest of the design disciplines, and the public park, the first modern version of it, came into being in the 19th century when the city needed open ground. The landscape is the soft edge of the site, and the discipline of landscape architecture is the one that gives the site its ground, its planting and its movement, which is the space the architecture of the building is set into.
Where the 2 disciplines meet
Where the 2 disciplines meet on a site is the line of the edge, and that line is where the building and the ground are joined, and it is the part of the site that both the architect and the landscape architect draw. The edge of a building, where the wall meets the grade, is a joint, and the joint is where the water, the heat and the load of the building pass from the structure to the ground, so the 2 disciplines meet at the engineering of that joint. The plan of the site is drawn by the landscape architect and the building is drawn by the architect, and the 2 plans are fitted together in the site plan, where the footprint of the building is cut into the plan of the ground.
Architecture versus landscape architecture
Architecture versus landscape architecture is a difference of the object and the scale, and the 2 disciplines are set apart by what they design and the size of it. The architect designs the building, which is a closed volume that goes up, and the landscape architect designs the ground, which is an open field that goes out, and the building is measured in the height of the story while the landscape is measured in the area of the plan. The 2 meet at the edge, but the work of each is on one side of the line, the structure on the side of the building and the planting on the side of the ground. The difference is that the architecture of the building is a solid and the landscape architecture of the site is a field, and the 2 are the 2 natures of the site, the hard and the soft, that the site plan holds together. The discipline of architecture and the discipline of landscape architecture are the 2 that build a site, and the table gives the 2 sides of the line.
| Discipline | Designs | Measured by |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | The building, the structure and the rooms | Floor area, story height |
| Landscape architecture | The ground, the planting and the paths | Plan area, grade |
The line between the 2 is the edge of the building, and the site plan is the drawing that shows where the solid of the architecture ends and the field of the landscape architecture begins, so the 2 disciplines are read in the one plan that the site is built from.
Urban planning versus landscape architecture
Urban planning versus landscape architecture is a difference of the scale and the power, and the 2 are set apart by the size of the area and the kind of decision each one makes. Urban planning is the discipline of deciding how the land of a city is used, and it works at the scale of the district and the city, where the decision is where the housing, the street and the park go. Landscape architecture is the discipline of designing the ground of a site, and it works at the scale of the building and the block. The planner sets the use of the land, and the landscape architect designs the ground within the use that the planner has set, so the 2 work at 2 scales of the same place, the city and the site.
Where to start
2. START HEREArchitecture in ChineseArchitecture in Chinese is said with the word jiànzhù xué, and it is the term that the discipline of architecture carries in the language.
3. START HEREArchitecture in SpanishArchitecture in Spanish is said with the word arquitectura, and it is the single term that the discipline of architecture carries in the language.All pages in Field Guide
ARCHITECTURE FORM SPACEForm, Space and OrderForm, space and order are the 3 concepts that the discipline of architecture works in, and they are the 3 that the building is made of.