The Hybrid Practitioner

The practice of architecture manifests in myriad forms and engagements. Overcoming false divides, this volume frames the fertile relationship between the cultural and scholarly production of academia and the process of designing and building in the material world. It proposes the concept of the hybrid practitioner, who bridges the gap between academia and practice by considering how different aspects of architectural practice, theory, and history intersect, opening up a fascinating array of possibilities for an active engagement with the present. The book explores different, interrelated roles for practicing architects and researchers, from the reproductive activities of teaching, consulting and publishing, through the reflective activities of drawing and writing, to the practice of building. The notion of the hybrid practitioner will appeal strongly to students, teachers and architectural practitioners as part of a multifaceted professional environment. By connecting academic interests with those of the professional realm, The Hybrid Practitioner addresses a wider readership embracing landscape design, art theory and aesthetics, European history, and the history and sociology of professions.

Urban Andes

Climate change in the Andes is affecting the relation between urban development and the landscape. Design-led explorations are reframing landscape logics and urbanisation patterns within the Cachi River Basin of Ayacucho, Peru. A co-production of students, researchers and designers, the book suggests alternative futures, crossing scales of landscape systems to new settlement typologies. Urban Andes marks the start of the new series LAP on innovative design research in architecture, urbanism, and landscape. It is the result of a two-year collaboration (2018–2020), initiated by the CCA in cooperation with KU Leuven and various partners, including local organisations and the VLIR-UOS.

BIM for Landscape Design Improving Climate Adaptation Planning: The Evaluation of Software Tools Based on the ISO 25010 Standard

This paper investigates the capabilities and limitations of different software tools simulating landscape design adaptability. The evaluation of tools is based on the ISO 25010 framework, which investigates software functionality, reliability, performance efficiency, usability, compatibility, and information quality. These quality characteristics of software are analysed during objective experiments where five software tools are used for a case study project at the conceptual design phase. These experiments reveal that the existing software tools for climate adaptation planning are focused on different aspects of climate adaptability, generating different types of information. Moreover, all tools deal with some limitations in terms of compatibility, performance efficiency, and functional operations. The ISO 25010 quality model provides a comprehensive framework to compare the capabilities of different software tools for climate adaptation planning. This paper is part of a wider study including an analysis of the needs of project stakeholders regarding climate adaptation software tools. However, this article focuses on technical capabilities of current climate adaptation software tools.

Simulation and Formation Mechanisms of Urban Landscape Design Based on Discrete Dynamic Models Driven by Big Data

Urban landscape design as a contemporary art embodies postmodernist philosophical thinking, aesthetic thinking, and breaking the traditional concept of art, and it is a new way of creating and presenting art. Big data technology characterized by large scale, speed, variety, value, and uncertainty of data is used to achieve urban landscape design. In this article, during the research process, we strive to raise the revelation of the design layer rather than the brand new level of cross-fertilization and interaction between big data-driven discrete dynamic model and urban landscape design; we also reveal how the benefits of promoting urban development and harmonious life are achieved in the interactive expression of the urban landscape after the application of the big data-driven discrete dynamic model, which provides designers and related professionals with more detailed and novel design ideas at the theoretical level and makes the theory of big data-driven discrete dynamic models in landscape design interactive methods more enriched. Finally, this article puts forward its thinking and outlook on the design of the big data-driven discrete dynamic model in the interactivity of urban landscape design, hoping that artists will strengthen its functional and material design elements when creating performance. Moreover, more design means of emerging technologies of modern science and technology should be integrated so that modern urban landscape can achieve ordinary and uncommon benefits and promote the rapid development of the big data-driven discrete dynamic model in urban landscape design development.

Exploring Visualisation Methodology of Landscape Design on Rural Tourism in China

Rural tourism has become a hot topic in China in the context of the nation’s rural revitalisation. Rural tourism allows tourists to experience local life and promotes local economic development. However, there is considerable controversy over the landscape design of ancient Chinese villages. Many problems, such as how to design and protect the landscape of these ancient villages and how to improve the tourist experience, are not resolved. For our research object, we selected the ancient Gaotiankeng Village in Kaihua County, Zhejiang Province. Using questionnaires, image interviews, and some user experience techniques such as mental maps, we collected user experience data by assessing design cases. The visualisation method presented a wide range of experience in the landscape and planning field. This study primarily used computer image processing, image entropy calculation, and colour mapping to process the data. A visualisation framework was defined to highlight the landscape aesthetics, landscape service, and tourists’ emotion. The results indicated the relationship of three elements. The objective of our study was to develop a method of landscape design and planning that can effectively enhance tourists’ experience and provide practical suggestions for rural landscapes and relatively better services.

Color Enhancement of Low Illumination Garden Landscape Images

The unfavorable shooting environment severely hinders the acquisition of actual landscape information in garden landscape design. Low quality, low illumination garden landscape images (GLIs) can be enhanced through advanced digital image processing. However, the current color enhancement models have poor applicability. When the environment changes, these models are easy to lose image details, and perform with a low robustness. Therefore, this paper tries to enhance the color of low illumination GLIs. Specifically, the color restoration of GLIs was realized based on modified dynamic threshold. After color correction, the low illumination GLI were restored and enhanced by a self-designed convolutional neural network (CNN). In this way, the authors achieved ideal effects of color restoration and clarity enhancement, while solving the difficulty of manual feature design in landscape design renderings. Finally, experiments were carried out to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed image color enhancement approach.