T H E L A N G UAG E A N D C O N C E P T S O F D E S I G N
ing the high surface temperature that highly reflective surfaces tend to create.19 Safety includes creating designs that neither cause harm nor create dangerous conditions or structures, and is one of the primary bases for licensing professions such as landscape architecture. Protecting the safety, health, and welfare of the public is a requirement of professional practice. A landscape architect must consider the regulatory and administrative design standards when developing design solutions. Walkways and paved surfaces must meet an array of design standards, including maximum slope, non-skid surfaces, and the absence of potential design flaws that could cause tripping or other unintended mishaps, resulting in bodily harm to the public.
7 Emphasize Quality There are several ways of thinking about the idea of quality in landscape architecture design and practice. The first has to do with providing quality design services. This first consideration has business and marketing implications. The landscape architect who provides a high degree of service and product (such as design and construction drawings and construction administration) and follows business practices that attend to customers’ and users’ needs and satisfaction will achieve in the long run greater market share, healthy profits, and thus stay in business. The second way to consider quality in design is creating designs that are safe, comfortable to be in, and facilitate the requirements of the activities and uses. Quality design also suggests the selection of quality materials and developing construction details that result in fewer mistakes, lower long-term maintenance costs and problems, and enhance and retain the economic value of the project and built work.
Cultural Differences in Design Globalization has had an effect on the landscape architecture profession as it has on architecture and engineering. Landscape architects are crossing borders to provide design services in greater numbers to work in countries other than their own. Firms are opening up satellite offices or establishing partnerships with local firms as new markets for design services open up globally. It would be an unfortunate oversight if the notion of the cultural dimensions in landscape design were not mentioned here. While it is convenient to think that there are universal design concepts that can be applied from one country to another, there exist cultural differences that must be recognized in order to practice successfully in other countries and cultures. Basically, the idea is that what one culture may think is a good design may not be so in another culture. Having taught and lectured in China on several occasions, I have found the statement to be all too true. Teaching design to Chinese landscape architecture students, I have learned to be more careful about how to communicate with the students. The quizzical looks I would get during a desk critique were not a matter of language differences but different ideas about design. For instance, I might suggest to a student to consider organizing their site design, 39
