Designing the Solution

Look out the window and you see a street, a couple of lawns, and maybe some sidewalks with some trees. Seems ordinary enough, but what you’re really looking at is landscape architecture. Before this project, I believed in the misconception that landscape architecture is just designing gardens, but I discovered that landscape architecture is actually all around us. It’s the mall parking lot, the Palouse bike path, soccer fields, the UI campus, East City Park, national parks, and so many other things.

Not only is landscape architecture all around us, but it supports our lifestyle and is a large part of the environment in which we live. Good landscape architecture is much more than appealing to the eye. It keeps us safe, directs us to where we want to go, provides relaxing areas to rest and get away from a busy life, and is functional, practical, sustainable, and just appealing in general. Landscape architecture makes the ugly beautiful and the useless important by designing areas both public and private to give them new life. Good landscape architecture is carefully thought out and takes into consideration the environment, multiple uses, possible future changes, and maintenance among other things.

In a growing world where space and resources are becoming increasingly limited, landscape architects are challenged to design smarter, more efficient landscapes. I am interested in landscape architecture because I believe that it is a large part of the solution to several developing problems, and I want to help in the process of overcoming these obstacles. Landscape architecture has the potential to solve many global problems, and I want to be part of the solution.
See the following video for more examples of landscape architecture and what landscape architects do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbx3FDDNeQM

~Isabell