Landscape architecture design as an art creative practice: A studio teaching model

Landscape Architecture is defined as a blend of art and science. However, it has been acknowledged that configuration of design forms, which is related to spatial composition and element forms is the most challenging design aspect that the students face in learning the design process in the basic design course. This is not the case for the scientific aspects where students can establish their ability and confidence in learning landscape technical issues and functional requirements. This paper discusses the outcomes of the first Landscape Architecture Design Studio at the Department of Landscape Architecture at Imam Abdurrahman Bin Faisal University (IAU), which represents the first foundation stone for Landscape Architecture design education. The Landscape Architecture Studio has examined the role of creative practice in art plays in the landscape architecture design process in the light of Zangwill’s Aesthetic Creation Theory (ACT), and following the Form-Based Design (FBD) approach process defined by Stefano Fillip. In this studio, students were asked to design a private garden related to, hypothetically, an artist’s family house. Based on the FBD approach, each student chose a specific modern artist, supposedly owning the garden house, and studied his artistic principles of forms, patterns, colours and composition, and used them as an inspiration for their own art paintings. The students’ art pieces acted as the basis for conceptualising their design preliminary plans and 3D images. As a result of this studio, students showed a great interest in the studio artistic approach, and demonstrated a significant ability to translate the artistic principles and qualities existing in creative painting successfully into their landscape architecture design. At the end of the teaching process, a reflective student survey feedback from instructors indicated that students had learned about the aesthetic creative approach and were able to understand the role non-aesthetic properties played into manifesting the design aesthetic quality.