Adapting Computation to Adapting Landscapes

RESEARCH BACKGROUND: 'Adapting Computation to Adapting Landscapes' offers speculation around the contribution that computational design practices might make towards the discipline of Landscape Design. Belesky explores how computational methods might be adapted to align with landscape systems, but also activate landscape architects' understanding of these systems that they work with and within. This written piece appeared in Kerb: Journal of Landscape Architecture, Issue 21 (2013). RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: This research builds on Belesky's ongoing engagement with and contribution to two fields: computational design and contemporary landscape architectural practice. Noting that architectural applications of computer programming often focus on developing complex geometries, Belesky argues for an approach that works with the specific disciplinary aims and realities of landscape architecture. This involves the use of computational processes in order to 'analyse and understand how our designs interact with the complexities of dynamic landscape systems'. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: At the time of this publication, when the subject of computational landscape design was becoming more widely discussed, Belesky's research and writing on this topic was at the forefront of expanding disciplinary views. Established in 1995, Kerb: Journal of Landscape Architecture is a long running, annual cross-disciplinary design journal produced by the School of Architecture and Design, RMIT University. It focuses on contemporary landscape architecture issues from an international and national perspective. Each edition is rigorously compiled and edited by a group of interested students, from a range of articles invited from its audience, and as a critique of current student work.