LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE: What, Why, When, How, Where, Who and What Next?

Regarding landscape architecture as one of the world’s most important professions, Tom Turner asks and answers seven questions:
Q. WHAT is landscape architecture?
A The art of composing landform, water and plants with buildings and pavements to make good places.
Q When did landscape architecture originate?
A The art is at least 12,000 years old and as an organised profession dates from the second half of the nineteenth century.
Q How are good landscapes designed?
A By using good design methods
Q Why does society need landscape architects?
A The demand for what Jellicoe called a ‘collective landscape’ makes landscape architecture one of the world's most important professions.
Q Where do landscape architects create public goods?
A On land in both public and private ownership.
Q Who belongs in the Landscape Architecture Canon?
A1 WESTERN CANON: Senenmut 1450BCE, Hadrian 117 to 138, Vignola 1507-1573, Sixtus V 1520-1590, Le Nфtre 1613-1700, Kent 1685-1748, Olmsted 1822 -1903, Gaudi 1852-1926, Marx 1909-1994, Gustafson 1951-.
A2 EASTERN CANON Gilgamesh 2500 BCE , Cyrus 530BCE, Buddha 400 BC, Kautila 350BCE, Tachibana 1050, Enshu 1579 – 1647, Ji Cheng 1582– 1642, Shah Jahan 1592-1666, Shigemori Mirei 1896– 1975, Kongjian Yu 1963 -
Q What next for landscape architecture?
A A post-Postmodern approach drawing from Modernist and Postmodernist design theory.
This book was written as an introduction to landscape architecture for students, fellow professionals and members of the public. The answers are referenced to other publications by the author, including 8 print books, 12 eBooks, 30 Youtube videos and 2 websites: Gardenvisit.com and the Landscape Architects Association.

QUOTATIONS
‘My hope is that by giving short answers to these questions you will be able to spend less time on them than the 40 years it took me.’
‘Landscape architecture is the art of composing landform, water and plants with buildings and pavements to make good places’
‘An artist can always start with a new canvas and a writer with a new sheet of paper. Landscape design is different’
‘Le Corbusier’s design for the Capitol in Chandigarh is a really good example of really bad landscape architecture’
‘Landscape designers are not a special kind of person. Every person is a special kind of landscape designer’
‘The only software category to which landscape architects have made a significant contribution, GIS, is also the category with the most potential to localise and contextualise design’
‘Ideas come first and I like Kathryn Gustafson’s formulation of her own approach: Words > Diagrams > Models’
‘Too much landscape design is done with plans. Much too much’
‘The garden can be a crucible for the design of cities’
‘Learn from the work of painters, sculptors, architects, poets, musicians, philosophers, novelists and others’
‘Take Repton's advice. He said that “The plan should be made not only to fit the spot, it ought actually to be made upon the spot”’
‘John Dixon Hunt, gave a devastating critique of landscape history and theory’
‘In the 21st century, design-by-layers has the potential to reunify architectural and landscape design’
‘The landscape architecture profession’s major challenge is to rid the planet of concrete jungles’
The eBook has about 20,000 words, 100 illustrations and links to 30 Youtube videos by the author.