Landscape Strategies in Architecture

Abstract

This thesis explores the ways in which landscape is relevant as a concept for designing architecture. Buildings that have been designed like landscapes have become a topic in contemporary architecture. The apparent distinction between architecture and landscape is questioned in exemplary theories and new designs. The core of this thesis is three case studies of architectural designs that use landscape strategies. The analytical model for landscape architectural composition that Steenbergen and Reh (2003) developed for the European gardens is applied as in drawing analysis of these building's inner space composition. By distinguishing the landscape composition into a four layer model - ground form, spatial form, metaphorical form and programmatic form - the analysis will alter the reading of three architectural projects. Rem Koolhaas and OMA's unbuilt Jussieu design for two university libraries in Paris of 1992 is visualised for the first time as it could have looked if built. The Rolex Learning Centre at EPF Lausanne was declared 'landscape' as architecture by its designers Japanese Architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa (SANAA) at the opening in 2010. The City of Culture of Galicia in Santiago de Compostela by American architect Peter Eisenman was designed in 1999 in a process of layering - similar to the layer model analysis of this thesis. This thesis will interpret and compare the three architectural designs. It distinguishes design strategies, methods and landscape attitudes that are specific or commonly applied to the projects. Original drawing analysis and critique reveals unexplored potentials for landscape strategies in the architectural discipline.