Landscape Systems

Related Staff : Matthew Pryor

The ARCH7151 Landscape Systems course frames ‘landscape’ as an assembly of natural systems (geological, hydrological, climatic, and ecology) in continuous dynamic interaction with human systems (building development, urban infrastructure, materials / waste). Through multiple landscape case-studies, readings, and technical exercises, the class examined some of the theories that underpin our ideas of landscape, and explored the relationships between the built and the natural, at site, district and territorial scales. The course also focused on foundational skills in ‘reading’ landscapes and assessing specific qualities and functions of landscapes. In addition to developing our landscape architectural language, we reflected critically on terms commonly used (and abused) in practice today such as ‘sustainability’ and ‘resilience’, ‘performance’, and ‘productivity. We centred our landscape mapping and description studies on Shek O, the historic village set on the exposed southeast corner of Hong Kong Island, where both the landscape and the village are very much he project of the environment.