Architectural Inspired Landscape Space

visceral connection to and appreciation for the desert. He was inspired in the design of his residence to respond and somehow capture the long, low sweeping planes of the high desert landscape as well as the color and indigenous rock material. While the native landscape informed his design of the structure, the gardens and immediate grounds were organized and developed spatially as an extension of the architecture (see Figure 5.12).

The symmetry of building architecture is often an Figure 5.12 Taliesin West, Scottsdale, Arizona, by Frank Lloyd expression of the modular nature of a building’s Wright. structure. Windows and doors are arranged in a modular composition, as are other architectural features such as columns, mullions, and panels of a building’s cladding or skin. Landscape architects either by their own choice and aesthetic sensibility or at the request of the architect will organize the outdoor space to project the visible modular building elements (windows, doors, and columns) out into the space and serve to organize the program elements. The extended building grid lines set the pattern for locating walkways, landscaped planting areas, gathering places, and other spatial elements programmed for the space between buildings and connecting to other functional areas such as parking.

The Telefónica office campus is the headquarters of the national telephone company of Spain. The buildings are a glass and steel-clad contemporary architecture sited to form a large internal landscape space for employees and an ample entrance to the street welcoming visitors. The internal landscape open space follows proportions established by the extension of the architecture’s modular structure. Walkways, gathering areas, and landscape planting beds align with this modular grid (see Figure 5.13). The grid is not always closely followed, therefore adding a layer of visual interest to a comfortably scaled variety of outdoor rooms. Employees can find individual quiet spaces to meet with others or informally conduct work. The positioning of trees also reflects the architectural module and at the same time allows the framing of views or provides shade where needed. The walks, walls, and seating elements are positioned within the module as well as a linear water feature that transects through the Figure 5.13 The Telefónica office complex, Madrid, Spain. space.

Figure 5.14A captures one of the defining design concepts for the High Line in New York City by landscape architect James Corner of Field Operations. Just as its name suggests, the park was built on the superstructure of an abandoned railroad line built earlier in the twentieth century. Remnants of the original tracks were left or repurposed in establishing pavement patterns, site furniture, landscaped areas, and other elements of the richly layered design of this highly successful and popular urban public oasis.

A glimpse of Santa Fe Railroad Park by landscape architect Ken Smith is shown in Figure 5.14B. The underlying structure of the park is the railroad tracks and buildings of the previous railroad station. Left-over equipment such as switches, rail, and train parts were incorporated as visual elements suggesting the narrative of railroad functions from the past. Some of these same railroad remnants were incorporated into the design of the innovative seating and other site furnishings.

The Chicago landscape architect Walter Burley Griffin and his architect wife Marion won an international competition for their design of the new national capital of Australia in 1912. Their solution employed a previous approach similar to Georges-Eugène Haussmann for Paris, France and Pierre Charles L’Enfant in Washington, D.C. At the heart of this approach is the creation of a network of organizing axes with each major street aligned to a significant building3 or landscape feature such as a prominent mountain or series of mountains, as was the case in the planning of Figure 5.14 A: High Line Park, New York, by James Corner of Field Operations, landscape architects; B: Santa Fe, New Mexico, Railroad Park, by Ken Smith, landscape architect.Australia’s capital city, Canberra. What is remarkable about Burley Griffin’s master plan was its use of the street axes to resolve a political conundrum involving the desire for two established cities (Melbourne and Sydney) engaged in a heated competition to be the nation’s capital city. The principal streets in the Griffin plan were aligned with major mountain peaks serving as landmarks for Melbourne and Sydney. The proposed plan for Canberra in essence stitched the country together by linking the mountain landmarks of the competing cities. The fact that the mountains were not visible from Canberra was not important. Conceptually the linkage of the mountains was made very direct