The Design Concept

do any better in answering the question of where the inspiration for their music scores or paintings came from. More often than not when inspiration comes, it just comes. It is sort of like most serendipitous experiences: they just happen. But I do know where or how to look when I need to come up with a design concept or idea. Design ideas can come from many different sources or can be sought out in many different ways. Before we investigate the sources of design inspiration, we will consider another question: what is a design idea? That is a good question that might be easier to answer more directly than the question of where ideas come from and how. In this chapter we will explore many sources of design inspiration.

So, where do ideas for designs come from or how do they come about? One could ask the same question of composers of where do the ideas for their compositions come from or where the images on the canvases of artists come from. A landscape design, a musical composition, or a painting is somehow derived by the mind processing stored knowledge and experiences. In Chapter 4, the history of landscape architecture was discussed. Certainly one’s knowledge and understanding of historical precedence will be a source of inspiration, from which ideas for a design might occur. The experience of visiting built works of landscape architecture can be a source of design inspiration. Critically evaluating built works of landscape architecture that one has visited will build a body of knowledge and visual imagery that may provide an idea or concept that can lead to a solution for a current design project.

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, came up with an explanation to the question as to the source of design ideas or what is the process involved in creating new ideas. Berners-Lee suggested new ideas occur when a lot of random notions churn together until they coalesce. He described the process this way:

Half-formed ideas, they float around. They come from different places, and the mind has got this wonderful way of somehow just shoveling them around until one day they fit. They may fit not so well, and then we go for a bike ride or something, and it’s better.1

When the solution to the design problem becomes evident, the process of development and refinement of the initial ideas follows, finally evolving into the landscape design solution we present to the teacher or client.

Regardless of the explanation of how the mind works in processing and considering a plethora of information, it is from knowledge and experience that ideas emanate. That is not meant to suggest that one copies or replicates from the past. Rather, one is informed by the past and the knowledge accumulated suggests a new design or adaptation of ideas stored and processed in the mind.

Ideas that eventually lead to a concrete design proposal begin to emerge when we first start thinking about a project, visit the project site and gain familiarity with the surrounding context, and meet with the client. Early ideas may emerge during these three activities; often