Grounding landscape design in high-resolution laser-scanned topography

Abstract Topography in landscape design is understood as the foundation on which the dynamics of climate, soil, vegetation and human impact are negotiated. Surprisingly, topography plays a secondary role in the process of designing modern cities, despite being an ineluctable factor on large spatial and temporal scales of built environments. We argue that topographic representation and conceptualization in urban design has been neglected recently despite possibilities of high-resolution scanning techniques. The resulting shortfall of topographic inclusion in design methods limits the achievement of a coherent relationship between terrain, land cover, building and urban space deemed necessary to support evidence-based design methods. This text presents a design method that draws on topography to compose new landscape forms based on site-specific features. The method merges survey and digital modelling to achieve a selective manipulation of georeferenced point cloud models, which are used to represent the measured physical form of the environment. The topic of topography is discussed by first explaining shortcomings of topographic representation and its inclusion in design development, then by devising a design method that draws from point cloud models to handle the physical form of the environment, and finally by discussing the generative role of topography and the new design possibilities offered by this method.