Invisible Landscapes - Ryan Davis

How is an invisible landscape a valuable asset in design?

In all landscape design projects a comprehensive site analysis must be undertaken through mappings, meetings, research and site visits. It is on these site visits that the invisible landscape begins to unveil itself to a designer, early stages of this include relationships being evoked in a designers mind between a characteristic, a feel, a memory or a small otherwise insignificant element on site and something else off site. As a designer spends more time on site the invisible landscape will become more detailed, it is then that a designer can begin use these ideas of the invisible landscape in a design. Using the invisible landscape to help drive a design in any scale from a paving pattern to a complete layout can begin to create a layered outcome, with the invisible landscape elements only becoming clear when a person truly experiences a site and is able to dwell on what were the drivers of the design. As the invisible landscape unveils itself to a designer the relationships can begin to create form on site, the Toronto Central Waterfront designed by West 8 takes on the form of an oceans waves, giving pedestrians different experiences as they pass by the water. The flat lake although having no waves, through the invisible landscape has a direct relationship to an ocean and its waves. It is not always possible to speculate how an invisible landscape has affected a design or whether it was intentional or not. The invisible landscape of Schiphol Airport before West 8’s projects Landscaping Schiphol Airport has been given form through circular planter boxes plated out with red and yellow flowers this is clearly reflective of a runways indication lights. Designing with invisible landscapes to create new spaces and form on a site gives a site a new invisible landscape it is now these invisible landscape which will drive new designs.