The Better Forests, Better Cities report developed by the World Resources Institute (WRI) is a compelling compilation of the many benefits offered to cities by inner forests (within cities), nearby forests (in the watersheds surrounding cities), and faraway forests (remote and far outside city boundaries).
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.
Interdisciplinary design firm Sasaki has introduced the Carbon Conscience App to help designers assess carbon-related impacts from the early stages of planning and encourage them to think holistically about carbon in their projects. Most standard carbon assessment tools available to designers are appropriate for projects already in advanced design stages. After reviewing several internal projects, Sasaki found that key decisions early in the master planning process have significant impacts on the embodied carbon of a project.
In LandDesign’s podcast Pragmatic Visions, Episode 24: Measuring the Impact of a Landscape, LandDesign’s Allison Peckett and Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) Program Manager Megan Barnes discuss the importance of landscape performance for practitioners and the Case Study Investigation (CSI) program as a way to test landscape performance evaluation methods and buil
Each year, SWA Group awards the firm’s Patrick T. Curran Fellowship to employees who look to challenge thinking in the landscape architecture profession and provide tools and resources for the firm and industry. Landscape designer and 2021 Curran Fellow Kelly Mathiesen took a landscape performance approach, looking at which elements are important in creating successful urban trails for runners and cyclists and how the rise of these recreational communities will affect the future of trail design.
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. They produce Case Study Briefs for LAF’s Landscape Performance Series.
NOTE: As of June 2024, PlanIt Impact is no longer available.
Architect Dominique Davison AIA, LEED AP, principal of DRAW Architecture + Urban Design, knows the value of landscape performance in achieving a sustainable, carbon-neutral built environment. That is why her collaborative performance assessment tool, PlanIT Impact, takes a holistic approach that models performance for both buildings and sites – unlike many of the building-centric modelling platforms available in today’s market.
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. They produce Case Study Briefs for LAF’s Landscape Performance Series.
In September 2010, the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) launched its Landscape Performance Series as a new long-term strategic research initiative. This online portal and set of initiatives was developed to build capacity to achieve sustainability and transform the way landscape is considered in the design and development process.
In 2010, the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) debuted our Landscape Performance Series to catalyze a discipline-wide movement toward integration of landscape performance planning, evaluation, and reporting in practice and education.
