Table of Contents
Landscape
Lexicon
Lecture
1-1 --------------------1-10
Project Reading Response 2-1 --------------------2-4
Lecture Discussion 3-1 --------------------3-4
Individual Insight 4-5 Spring 2015 LA 203 Chun Pan
Ecosystem
Lexicon Ecosystems: temperate deciduous forest, desert, rain forest, taiga, tundra, wetland, and grassland with the animals. The current ecosystem is off the balanced, because the human factor are too great. The ecosystem should be cycle, but human factor the life cycle. The current ecosystem being shift to inverted pyramid. The natural lost balance to human, and ecosystem have hard time to support the human.
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Controversial
qual People
eating animals
eating fruit Animals
animals eating plants
Tree
Understory Plants
Root taking up nutrients
Leaves falling
Leaves falling
Forest Floor
Food for the plants Ecosystem 1
Food for the plants
Soil The diagram shows the cycle of the ecosystem has being off balanced, because the human interaction and damage to the system.
Controversial: giving rise or likely to give rise to public disagreement. The human evolution start with idea and innovation. We don’t always know what we want or needs, even the majority people don’t like it. But we can’t denies bad innovation can still give us more idea in the future. 1
Extinction
hange
Controversial 2
The human evolution from not knowing to know. People from loving the classic building to modern buildings, the idea for people can change over time. Even you don’t like something, ou may grow to it over time.
Extinction: The effect from people, or natural evolution to a species, family, or larger group being or becoming extinct. 1
Conservation
volution
Extinction: The effect from people, or natural evolution to a species, family, or larger being or becoming The after humangroup species, the world would beextinct. still the same, extinction The after human species, the world be still the same, opposite is evolution. People think wewould are most powerful beingextinction in the world, but didn’t realize earth is morewe powerful. It being through major opposite is evolution. People think are most powerful being in the change wedidn’t can image. world, but realize earth is more powerful. It being through major change we can image.
Extinction
Conservation: preservation, protection, or restoration of the natural environment, natural ecosystems, vegetation, and wildlife. After hundred years we start realize we have to save the environment for the next generation. We start built the natural parks, and save the pristine place in the world.
3 1
Pristine
ontrol
Conservation 4
Pristine: having its original purity, uncorrupted or unsullied. The natural haven’t be human directly change or pollute, still has own natural choices. Even people go through or touch but didn’t change the outcome the place.
The human race start understand we cannot continual the path we are on. We have to protect and save the environment. We start fencing and border the natural environment. 1
Invasive
ereception
Pristine
Invasive: tending to spread prolifically and undesirably or harmfully. The aggressive species grow or will adopted to the environment, we can’t just said they are invasive. Because if the species are will adopted the environment are invasive the human race are the most invasive species on the earth. People love to conquer the wild, but after people leave. The human effect is minimal, and the wild continual them natural process. The wild without human effect it’s pristine.
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1
Migration
mperial
Invasive 6
The human domination over world, over used the resource heavily populate the plant. The image shows human are over capacity the earth, and slowly destroy it.
Migration: movement from one part of something to another. People and animal has being moving around the world for century, but the world we are living in, is getting smaller every day. We don’t migration anymore because we can own the house in the different country, and take less than a day to get cross the world. 1
Swaths
erge
In the 21st century people stop the migration, because the world getting smaller and smaller. The people can live one country and work at different country at same time. Also the internet become so powerful, we don’t even need to get out the house anymore.
Home at US
Work at europe
Swaths: a row or line of grass, grain, or other crop as it lies when mown or reaped. Swath can use in some many way in the design, figure ground, cluster.
Migration 7
The row of line can show so much information just by changing the composition of the line or change the density of the line to show hierarchy or the dayton. 1
Corridor
paration
Swaths
The image shows the straight line can be use as pattern, or figure ground. The line become figure background, to shows space into black hole.
The corridor configuration of the path network connect different disparate system together. It can be in the architecture use as hallway, passageway to provide access between rooms and buildings. In the path for migration of the plants and animal. 1
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AR A NT
AV E
HO ND O SA
RI
O
E VALLEY BLVD
El Monte Airport
ITA
ROSEMEAD BLVD
RUBIO WASH
EAT ON WA SH
Border
onnect
AN
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Whittier Narrow Golf Cource
ROSEMEAD BLVD
boundary breaker
launch
Corridor 10
The Rio Hando Channel has multi-layer corridor built into the site. The channel and wash create the path way for water flow to the ocean. The road and bridge create the path for vehicle passing through the channel.
Border: The invisible lines separate field or areas. The boundary of the line can be in any form or contents and it can be invisible and visible. 1
arrier
The border can be visible or invisible, the change of elevation on the flat surface can create natural border, or the change of the materials in single content can easy achieve create border line. The wall separation can be invisible border because you can’t see through wall.
Border 9
Reading Response 2
The relationship between architecture and landscape architecture is the relationship between the building and the land surrounding it. In the 1 year that I have been studying landscape I have started to get a grasp on what landscape is. The “house” and the “building” is there to complement one another. Throughout history, design has always been presented to us with multiple layers design and meanings. The book “Composing Landscapes” helped me understand why it is so important to visit the site you are designing for. We have to understand the site and surroundings, analyze the site condition, the history, and culture of the people that live near the site. After our initial site visit as a class, I understood why we can't just research the information we need from the internet. The images on the internet cannot convey to me the unique feeling I get from standing at bottom of the channel. On the internet I can't find what kind of ecological system is operates along channel, nor can I find the homeless sleeping in the channel. Some of the most important things I learned from this quarter where from the multiple visits I made to the site. I found that every time I went back to the site, I would discover something new and interesting about the site. Before, I never thought site visits were as important as they really are, and I often never visited the sites either. Now that I look back on my old designs, I can understand the reasons behind the countless times my professors said that my design wouldn’t work. Much of my old designs were without meaning from the community and people. 1
2
The Rambunctious Garden readings were eye opening for me. Chapter 6 is about how exotic species are dangerous to new environments because of the lack of predators or how they adapt better than the native species. Prior to the reading, I already knew that exotic species can create a problem with native species, but chapter 6 gave me a different perspective. I saw that exotic species can be helpful to the place if the designer or the planters understand the exotic species that will help the current environments. From the chapter, I learned that exotic species are not the problem, the problem is the human species. The Rio Hando channel is created by humans; we destroy the natural habitat for the native species. Now we have to introduce new species and bring back the native species to the place. I realized that we need to help the environment, not destroy it. Destroying the environment is easy, but when we need to rebuild or keep it pristine, that is 10 times harder. When we introduce new plants to parks they adapt to the park and create better spaces for people to hangout, but these same plants also grow in the channel and create cracks in cement. This damages the channel and weakens it. That's why we need to monitor the species we bring in. Landscape become the architecture
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2
IV
IVE
Natural Channel
ER
Human destory the Natural Channel
Once again we try to recreate the natural 2
After reading “Field Conditions� by Stan Allen, it gave me inspiration and a deeper understanding of the deep meaning of the definition. Before reading, I thought of field conditions as the size, materials, and what's in there, but after the reading I understand now that field conditions contain no matter or material points. Rather, there is the function of the site, vector and speeds and conditions of the site. And the intricate local connections, interval, repetition, and servility are of the concepts. The Rio Hando channel has really important infrastructure, which are the bridges that connect both sides of the city that is separated by the channel. The designs of the site always come with purpose and inner meanings. In the conventions of classical architecture dictate not only the proportions of individual elements but also the relationships between individual elements. After researching, I found out that the channel curves the way does because it follows original stream of the San Gabriel Mountains. It is a channel that is a combination of the algebraic, working with numerical units combined one after another, and the other geometric, working with figures (lines, planes, solids) organized in space to form larger wholes. For the Rio Hondo, the engineer used algebra with precise calculations to direct the flow of the flood water, and the sloping channel to guide the water to the Pacific Ocean.
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You can seen bridge and who use it, but you can’t see the who living under the bridge till visit the site.
3
The storm we always feared has come into existence. Hurricane Katrina was our worst nightmare, and now New Orleans will forever exist as two separate cities: the one that existed before that day, and the one after. After the storm, the city became a valuable case study for the discussion of how to understand how ecology is affecting the city currently. We need to find a better way to rebuild New Orleans. Urbanization is a global multidimensional process paired with increasing uncertainty due to climate change. Because of the climate change in California, we have been in a drought for several years. We also need to learn to use the New Orleans hybrid ecological system to help the California ecological system. Drainage problems in New Orleans started about 300 years ago. Since then, we are still in the process to build an urban drainage that lasts for years. We believed that we could overcome the hydrological and ecological processes of the Mississippi River and that we could control them. We were wrong and the river had unexpected and dynamic consequences that were created by us. We were widening the river and raising the dam, but we didn't fix the drainage for the inland. The water level is higher than the land; the drainage did not drain fast enough when the Hurricane Katrina happened. As for the designers we have to understand the consequence, like we can plan the wrong plant in the garden. It can damage the ecologic system.
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New Float House
4
Lecture Discussion
Going to the Future Not everything that is great is great forever. Just because we love the current status quo of design today doesn't mean we'll still have the same affection for it in 10 years and history is proof of that— if we have any affection for it at all. The history of design has been changing over time. But in last few decades, the design world has changed faster than it has ever before. This happens all time, when we design a project it takes years to build and after they finish the building, we don't like it anymore. The lecture by Liam Young "City Everywhere" led me to understand that we have to design based on the future thoughts of today’s ideals. The lecture has really good points for me as a student of landscape architecture. At the time we were learning about the implications of emerging urban development. The things l learned is that every good designer or architect is always going to different places to gather information and ideals. Also good designers make really detailed analysis for the project site and the site relationship to the community. This is a concept that we learned and used on the Rio Hondo project. We have to design based on the surroundings and community needs. Another thing we learned is that we have to design with "Tomorrow's Thoughts for Today.� In California, time is going faster than other places. The state is a hub for constant change which demands for newer and better designs. We need to base our designs on the current ideal to design future landscapes, so future comes people can still love and enjoy the place. Today science and technology are growing faster than ever. The internet is so advanced that the world is getting smaller and smaller. The world is losing its borders; design breaking culture differences.
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The unspecified amount of affinites in our daily life is so incurable. From the lecture I understand that everything in our life has relationships to architecture and landscape architecture. As the designer, we always design with multiple layers and meanings to the each layer from our experiences and site analysis. I believe that's why good architects travel thought out the world to study and experience different cultures and their histories. From the history we can create new objects that add different layers of the plan to create a "New Object". We always use existing shapes, colors, and materials and merge them together within modernistic architecture. I think in the 21st century, we have become more aggressive and overcome the rigidness of classic buildings. In our new generation, we have started to focus on "organic architecture", which is a philosophy of architecture. We focus to ensure harmony between human habitation and the natural world by concerning some design attitudes such as sympathetic and being well integrated into the site and buildings so that they become part of unified interrelated composition. In order to represent buildings and landscape as a whole structure, materials motifs and basic ordering principles are used in a certain and continuous order to merge together. The principal of organic architecture is to represent itself as a unified organism to its surroundings. That's relationship of our life with every structural elements, urban components and landscape principles. This is really important to landscape architecture, because we have to create the ecological with individual equal to organic.
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Architectural Integration What does an architect do? Architects design all kinds of buildings. They design schools and skyscrapers. They design hospitals and hotels. They also design churches, train stations, plain old regular houses, and buildings that are sued by the people. That's misled by our media. The meaning of the architect or designer is someone who loves to design, someone who understands the desire of humans. We use verbal statements of artists and architects to represent a conscious surface of rationalization, or defense that may well in sharp contradiction with the deeper unconscious intentions giving the work with it own life and purpose. As an architect and designer, Greg Lynn shows us how we can use line, form, shape, or a combination of everything to create structure. He has shown that architectural design is not just limited to the building. Architecture can be about the story of our lives. I was really inspired by the speed boat design built by Greg Lynn. I love the speed boat not because of its unique shape or form. I love it because the architect who designed it can use his knowledge and inspiration to design and built the boat. He used computer software to design and test the speed boat function and any insufficiencies of the design. It's important for us to understand that we are not only limited designing a place or a park. We design things to improve people’s lives as well as our own. The world to us the ideal is unlimited; in the world not buildings are the same.
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Less is more The famous quote "Less is more" by the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe has always been stuck in my mind. I still remember a midterm project I did on the Barcelona Pavilion, one of Rohe’s many creations. His use of simple form and extravagant materials created one of the most prestigious modernist buildings in the world today. It has inspired many important modernist buildings. From Heatherwick’s lecture at the Hammer museum, I found proof that the concept of "less is more" is still inspiring the current generation and beyond. The first time I learned about Heatherwick is from his Seed Cathedral, which won the BIE gold award for best pavilion design with half the cost of other pavilion designs. Heatherwick used the simple concept of storing seeds into plastic capsules and arranged in a pattern to convey the action of seed dispersal. After the World Expo, the cathedral was dismantled and donated to schools around the world, a way to spread these seeds into the world. From his design, I understand that we don't need to create something complex to allow people to have unique experiences. Heatherwick had similar ideas, for his Paralympics Cauldron design. The design is not something we only can look at, but also something people can take home with them.
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Individual Insight
This quarter, I learned a very important lesson from this project, which is how the site visits is a reflection of analysis and creating the design. This quarter project is a really interesting and good learning experience because project one, project two, and project three are all connected to that lesson. The project started with a site visit; from the site visit we can understand the real site conditions of the Rio Hondo. This is the first project that I did repeat site visits for. From the repeated site visits, I understood that internet research is limited. Before the site visit I did research about the Rio Hondo, I got lot image, and Google Earth to understand the site condition. But it can't compare to the site visit, when I reach bottom the channel. Then feeling I wouldn't ever feel in the pictures from the internet. On the internet I can't find what kind ecological system at channel bird nest under the bridge, or the homeless sleeping in the channel.
Channel become turrel 4
After I reading “Rambunctious Garden�, it made me feel sad. The problem with our generation is that we are reckless and self-centered. Since the 1800s, we have started creating national parks to preserve forests, but the sad part is that we destroy them faster than we can save them. Once we admitted we can't make things back to the way they were before, we started to choose between goals that sound pretty good enough. I believe that is wrong because we have to start thinking about the consequences. I don't think we should use our imagination to create pristine, natural landscapes. Nature has its own process; I don't think we should interfere with them. In California, I think we should replace the plant with native plants, and preserve what we have.
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