3rd Edition

Elements of Visual Design in the Landscape

By Simon Bell, Simon Bell Copyright 2020
    220 Pages 143 Color & 105 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    220 Pages 143 Color & 105 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    220 Pages 143 Color & 105 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    What makes a visually appealing landscape? How can the design and use of a landscape be harmonized? In this significantly revised and updated third edition of Simon Bell's seminal text, he further explores the answers to these questions by interrogating a range of design principles, applications and ideas.

    Written for students, instructors and professionals, the book unveils a visual design vocabulary for anyone involved with landscape aesthetics including landscape architects, architects, planners, urban designers, landscape managers, foresters, geographers and ecologists. Structured around key design terms, which are explained and illustrated using an extensive range of examples from around the world, including North America, Europe and Asia, this book enables you to describe, debate and design the visual landscape. It starts with basic elements, before moving onto variable design components, and then the ways these elements are organized into compositions, in order to demonstrate how landscapes are created and how meanings and patterns are perceived within them.

    This new full colour edition contains over 240 images; an updated introduction; examples from China, Vietnam and central Asia; a chapter on how to read and understand visual design elements in the landscape; a teaching model for instructors; and expanded appendix materials including a glossary, references and further reading.

    Acknowledgements.  Preface.  Foreword Dame Sylvia Crowe  Introduction.  1. Basic Elements  2. Variables  3. Organization  4. Teaching reading the Landscape  Glossary.  References and Further Reading.  Index

    Biography

    Simon Bell is a forester and landscape architect. He is Chair Professor and Head of the Chair of Landscape Architecture at the Estonian University of Life Sciences and Associate Director of the OPENspace Research Centre at the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of Edinburgh, UK. He was president of the European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools from 2012 to 2018.

    'The third edition of "Elements of Visual Design in the Landscape" once again establishes Simon Bell's textbook as an essential and unique reference for landscape architects, planners, and anyone involved in large-scale landscape management. Bell offers theory and methods for considering landscape aesthetics in contemporary social and environmental contexts--an invaluable framework not available elsewhere. The additional material on global landscapes builds on the solid approach to teaching how to see and practice as a landscape architect.' - Ethan Carr, Author of "Mission 66: Modernism and the National Park Dilemma," and "The Greatest Beach: A History of Cape Cod National Seashore", Amherst, USA

    'As an academic teaching landscape architecture for several decades and a researcher in landscape architecture, I see "Elements of Visual Design in the Landscape" as an important contribution to landscape architecture education and research. The book is based on the most recent landscape architectural, aesthetic and environmental psychology theories. This revised edition is particularly valuable since it strongly correlates with the European Landscape Convention's fundamental vision. Numerous sketches and original photos from all over the world help to easily follow all theoretical explanations. A must read for students in landscape architecture and related disciplines as well as teachers interested in different aspects of landscapes.' – Maria Ignatieva, Landscape Architecture Programme Director, University of Western Australia and Honorary Doctor of St. Petersburg State Forest Technical University

    'I am working a lot with international landscape architecture students from various cultural backgrounds. In this context, Elements of Visual Design in the Landscape provides us a practical framework, based on sound theory, for exploring landscape aesthetics as a basis for planning and design. What I highly appreciate is that the book supports the social dimension of landscape. This has become very relevant especially since the European Landscape Convention suggests a people-centered approach to landscape perception.' - Ellen Fetzer, Academic Coordinator, Nürtingen-Geislingen University, Germany