The November 2024 issue of the open-access Oceania-based journal Landscape Review is devoted to the topic of landscape performance, with a special focus on the connection between academia and practice.
LAF is pleased to share two new resources – developed and released for COP29 by friends and partners – that use examples and data from our collection of 200+ Landscape Performance Series case studies.
The Landscape Architecture Foundation’s Case Study Investigation (CSI) program is a unique research collaboration and training program. LAF-funded faculty-student research teams work with design firms to assess and document the environmental, social, and economic benefits of exemplary high-performing landscape projects.
The Landscape Performance Series offers resources for faculty to give landscape architecture students the awareness and skills they need to design for, evaluate, and communicate the impact of their work. When students have these skills, they are better equipped to design high-performance landscapes and to advocate for the value of landscape solutions upon entering the workforce.
A landscape performance approach focuses on quantifying the benefits of landscape, but how can something as multifaceted and relatively subjective as exposure to nature be quantified? NatureScore™ and NatureDose™ represent a new, technology-based approach to evaluating nature exposure for human health and well-being.
How does design influence the use of playgrounds and the benefits they offer children, adults, and communities? The National Study of Playgrounds is the first observational study to examine the influence of design on use and physical activity in 60 playgrounds in the United States. The study was conducted over the summer of 2021 by Meghan Talarowski and her team at Studio Ludo, Dr. Deborah Cohen of Kaiser Permanente, Dr. Thomas McKenzie, and other partners.
The Landscape Architecture Foundation’s Case Study Investigation (CSI) program is a unique research collaboration and training program. LAF-funded faculty-student research teams work with design firms to assess and document the environmental, social, and economic benefits of exemplary high-performing landscape projects.
An Arizona State University (ASU) team made up of practitioners and researchers are using landscape performance metrics to support a new vision of Sustainable Urban Ecology as they plan for ASU’s future landscape management. ASU’s Sustainable Urban Ecology plan focuses on managing and incorporating natural systems, with particular attention to enhancing biodiversity, water conservation and extreme heat mitigation, with a particular focus on the Sonoran Desert Biome that is home to four ASU campuses.
The role of zoos have evolved over the centuries to become complex spaces that blend natural and built landscapes, property operations, and institutional goals. As public institutions, they are redefining their purpose to focus less on entertainment and more on conservation, species protection, and education. How do zoo landscapes support the key roles and functions that zoos have within society and for the environment, and how does their design achieve their institutional goals?
Ron Koudys, FASLA, FCSLA, is a landscape architect in London, Ontario and founder of Ron Koudys Landscape Architects, Inc., a practice with projects in southern Ontario and further afield in the United States, the Caribbean, and the United Kingdom. Ron is currently pursuing a Doctor of Design at the University of Calgary, which he sees as an opportunity to reflect on past projects and attempt to capture the essence of what has been accomplished over the course of his career.
