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dead-ends, backtracking, leaps of imagination and
periods of creative design synthesis.
The case studies do not, as the editors point out,
resemble a set of guidelines or rules that will auto-
matically result in successful details in the future
(we may, however, care to measure the notion
of 'success'). That is not the nature of landscape
design or that of landscape detail. It still requires
individuals to have developed individual design
talent with the capacity to work productively in
the landscape field in whatever country or coun-
tries they are commissioned to work. Nor do they
absolve the designer of having to grasp the total
range of knowledge and skills in all other areas of
landscape architecture design, technology and con-
struction practices.
Instead, they provide a way of understanding land-
scape design through its detail, and, at the same
time, a way of looking at landscape detail through
design. In this, the purpose is to project landscape
detail beyond its current role as a complement to
other parts of the landscape design and planning
processes, and to establish it as an identifiable
subject on its own. This is a subject deeply con-
cerned with the intellectual activity of design, both
as a daily form of practice and a personal aesthetic
language.
It is also a way of rediscovering what has already
been recognized in the landscape design work of
previous historical periods, but today continues
to elude our full appreciation. Making landscape
detail form as a design activity requires a lifetime
investment of energy, resources and patience from
any designer. The notion of commitment to serious
detail investigation requires an obsessive mind,
while also giving broad attention to the particular
design challenges of landscape detailing, a clear
intellectual focus, and a deep understanding of
design history with as much practical site experi-
ence in varied cultures and climates as any designer
can muster in a professional life time.
In return a built form is produced which is intricate
yet strong in its resolution and execution, an art form
combining materials, ideas and meaning, which is
simultaneously poetic and pragmatic. In short, it
displays the practical dimensions and creative pos-
sibilities of landscape design detail. It is hoped that
this publication will be the first of many.
Niall Kirkwood
Professor of Landscape Architecture and
Technology Chair and Program Director,
Department of Landscape Architecture Director,
Center for Technology and Environment at the
Harvard Graduate School of Design
Foreword
