SWA | IDEAS | Page 2

Recent advancements in technology have sparked an emergence of motion-graphics, 3D visualization, and virtual and augmented reality tools in the architecture, engineering, and construction industries. Alongside the challenges of this new reality come tremendous opportunities, as designers gain access to the same technology used by Hollywood filmmakers and game developers. Such breakthroughs have immense potential for designers’ ability to accurately represent and effectively communicate their visions on projects of all scales. These technological leaps allow for the creation of scenes that are exceedingly realistic and expressive, capturing the imaginations of designers and developers in forms that are easy for broader audiences to understand and relate to, in record time. In a recent article in The Economist, “Engines of Creation”, Unity Technologies’ chief marketing officer, Clive Downie, explains that “the main advantage game engines give organizations is the ability to do instantaneously what used to take minutes or even hours.

Before the introduction of computer-generated graphics, most design presentations relied on two-dimensional plans and sections to convey ideas. These drawings could lead to misunderstandings between design experts trained to interpret these graphics, and clients and stakeholders who often struggled to translate the lines on the page into their vision. Perspective renderings improved matters, but could only represent a single angle or moment in time from any given vantage point. Today, we have the ability to invite our clients and collaborators to immerse themselves in our digitally conceived environments before they have even obtained the financing to realize them.

At SWA’s Laguna Beach studio, we have begun to integrate various new visualization strategies throughout our workflow, both as front-end design tools and back-end communications methods ranging in multiple scales and phases—from animated “fly-throughs” of 3,000-acre conceptual master plans down to construction details for custom structures and site furnishings. While building a digital site model can be a labor-intensive and time-consuming effort (costly), we have found it to be a worthwhile investment. Just about all projects on the boards this year have generated at least one model, if not multiple iterations, that have effectively informed major design decisions, instantly clarified a project’s scale into a tangible construct for all (this is especially effective with large projects), and conveyed a vision for the confluence of form, function, and pro-forma.

As design tools, our models are essentially feasibility studies. Design flaws are quickly revealed along with misconceptions about the project or site, and informative data unapparent in analog plans or sectional views can be easily extracted. We typically build several alternatives of the same element(s) as a testing ground to ensure constructability as we enter the detailed design phases of a project. In smaller-scale applications, these are often built down to the fastening hardware for amenities as a method to reverse engineer complex structures or abstract ideas. These exploded prototypes visualize the construction methodology and facilitate a level of documentation that in many instances exceeds contractor shop drawings and parallels Ikea-style assembly instructions. Parametric modeling can also play a role to rapidly prototype patterning and subtle variations of a particular object or component. The ability to leverage these tools can provide a substantial advantage in improving designers’ collective understanding of how ideas translate to realistic outcomes, which will likely lead to plentiful opportunities and more interesting work for the studio. Watch an example here.

As a vehicle for communication, our models offer a diverse range of possibilities for presenting design ideas that engages our audiences and immerses them into the project. For clients and stakeholders, we do often employ traditional two-dimensional renderings for printed documents but focus on building comprehensive models (in lieu of individual objects or portions of sites) that offer the advantage of near endless angles readily available to export. The next-level application is to compose an animated fly-through that showcases how various design components or segments of the project interact with one another, how they fit together, and what they offer in terms of value to the end-user. Integrating narrative and storytelling within the composition can sell your vision effortlessly as the motion-graphics converge on screen. Finally, virtual reality panoramas are decisively the most effective readily available communication and sales tool available to designers today (assuming you can convince your clients to put on a headset). The user can interact and engage with the digital environment distraction free, and focus on the tailored aspects of the model from the selected vantage point of the designer. As we continue to chase the next wave of innovation, these strides will certainly expand. Soon we may be plugging our designs into systems of motion-tracked virtual reality, augmented reality (projecting digital compositions over reality, as in Pokemon Go), and eventually immersive sense simulated reality (at which point we’re basically in “The Matrix”).

While the prospect of creating worlds beyond our own space or time is exciting in its own right, at the cores these technologies are tools to improve the environments that already surround us. From design exploration to client approval and construction proficiency, these technologies not only help showcase our ideas, but are integral to realizing them. The long hours and back-and-forth invested in developing each model can seem superfluous, but ultimately provides enormous value in facilitating efficient design explorations and effective processes of communication and decision-making. Through 3D visualization, moving images, and virtual environments, we can bringing our visions to life in relatable ways that help our clients, collaborators and end users see the possibilities, and believe in the appealing futures we’re working to help realize.

Associate Pavel Petrov is a designer in the Laguna Beach studio.

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Posted by Pavel Petrov
in Education
on 21 August, 2017

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The Pearl River Delta is characterized by a uniquely Chinese dike-pond system of integrated agriculture and aquaculture, which is operated on a geographical and economic scale unrivaled elsewhere in the world. The emergence of the dike-pond is tightly associated with flood control. Its highly flexible production system contributes to its wide dissemination in the Delta…. Read more »

In the past thirty years, however, pressure coming from two concurrent processes of urbanization—a city-centered urban sprawl and a dispersed rural-based industrialization—has compressed the space of the dike-pond landscape and caused its typological changes. Today, a large portion of the dike-pond is either converted or occupied, leading to severe water management and treatment problems. Since the late 1990s, approximately 4,000 square kilometers of farmland have disappeared every year in China. According to a national lands survey, 130,000 square kilometers of farmland—equivalent to about half the area of Germany—disappeared in the country’s rush toward urbanization between 1996 and 2009.

And it hasn’t stopped there. The Pearl River Delta is in the midst of large-scale ecological and economic shifts in its food production systems, and more change is sure to come. Current and future challenges of the dike-pond system include: the shrinking area of the dike-pond system and rising demand for fish protein; the discontinued practice of a traditional, organic food economy coupled with an increasing consumer desire for sustainable produce; and uncertainty and variability in freshwater supply due to the effects of water quality degradation and global climate change. This crisis calls for alternative models of food production amidst the irresistible urbanization.

Located in southwest Foshan City, Jiuquchong is an underdeveloped region that represents the trade-off between promoting economic growth through further urbanization and protecting fertile farmland against accelerated urban expansion.

Like many other villages in the Delta, Jiuquchong once enjoyed years of economic prosperity from its dike-pond landscape. Its closeness to the city hub, however, has cost the region a continuing period of pond infill by new development over the past few decades. The energy balance between the dike and the pond has also been broken since more dikes are converted into modern freshwater aquaculture ponds to satisfy the worldwide demand for fish protein.

Although a large portion of the dike-pond is preserved owing to a national farmland protection policy, it is not economically viable. The productivity of the dike-pond system is negatively affected by its sequential layout. Pond sequential layout causes a problematic concentration of nutrients for the inner ponds; pond water quality decreases, as it is further away from the irrigation channel; and the inner ponds tend to have a higher volume of sediment accumulation, higher phosphorus, higher nitrates, and a consequent lower water transparency.

As a territory in the shadow of the cities, what can we envision for the dike-pond landscape in Jiuquchong: losing the dike-pond to the urban expansion? A passive preservation of the dike-pond? Or a synergistic development with urbanism? Is a balance between ecology and economy even achievable?

Through learning about the complex historical model and the bottom-up wisdom, my recent graduate thesis at UC Berkeley attempted to re-envision a future for Jiuquchong, posing the possibility of reconciling the contradiction between urbanization and agrarian landscape preservation. The project proposed a central spine of hybridization for the future of Jiuquchong, on which new ecologies, new economies, and cultural identities are interwoven with the process of reclaiming the productive dike-pond landscape. This central spine is, at first sight, a 1.5-kilometer roadway that connects the village to the east with newly developing urban fabric. Upon deeper study, it is actually a landscape-based infrastructure that combines freshwater aquaculture, sediment harvesting, lotus tourism, and wastewater management and treatment. It is systematic, flexible, polyfunctional, and accessible to the public.

The whole region is interrelated through a complex set of hydrologic flows and material exchanges that link the multifunctional dike-pond with the local markets and factories. The new hydrologic infrastructure links the pond occupation, preservation, and conversion zones to improve the water quality and productivity of the whole system. It collects multi-source water, utilizes the nutrient-rich water, then treats and discharges it downstream.

The Jiuquchong vision is just one iteration of reconciling the contradiction between urbanization and agrarian landscape preservation. The dike-pond landscape is highly adaptive and complex, as demonstrated in its long history. Through subtle rearrangement and hybridization, the dike-pond system can adapt to different fluvial conditions and ecological adjacencies, become part of the adaptive response to climate change, and incorporate and support the regional economy development. Through learning from the historical model and “bottom-up” wisdom, we can reconcile the complexities and embrace a sustainable and productive future.

Xiuxian Zhan is a designer in the Sausalito studio.

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Posted by Xiuxian Zhan
in Ecology, Landscape Infrastructure
on 15 June, 2017

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As a new chapter begins at SWA’s innovation Lab, XL: Experiments in Landscape and Urbanism, we want to reflect upon what we’ve learned, accomplished, and hope to tackle in the upcoming months. Over the past year, XL developed four new investigatory projects in our foundational areas of focus: foresight, research, visualization and simulation, and issues. Our foresight project, Urban Sensorium, anticipates future scenarios in climate, ecology, energy, food, and transit for five major cities. Findings from Urban Sensorium will be featured in an exhibition at SPUR Urban Center in San Francisco this fall. In the research category, XL investigated what it means for a material to be “high performance.” The project, Rethinking High Performance Materials, was designed as a tool for SWA designers and made an argument for attributes such as convertibility, responsiveness, and deconstructability. For the visualization and simulation focus, XL tested virtual reality, mixed reality, 360 videos, and spherical panoramas in a project called Immersive Environments. Following the XL study, we released an open-source report on the state of these technologies for use in the AEC industry (see IDEAS post from Jan 25, 2017). Lastly, in our issues category, Mega Margin focused on coastal resiliency. XL developed a speculative proposal for the San Francisco Bay Area that used existing infrastructure and asked if planning for sea level rise could be a catalyst for addressing the region’s housing crisis. We’ve been pleased to have our work from these lab projects featured in Landscape Architecture Magazine, MARK magazine, Landscape Record, and Planning magazine.

Throughout the same period, XL has been working more broadly across the whole firm. We ran innovation workshops in seven SWA studios: Sausalito, San Francisco, Laguna Beach, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, and Shanghai. The goal of the workshops was to develop the innovation lab with firm-wide input, experience, and perspectives. We wanted to hear from everyone about what innovation and research means to them. As we begin the next chapter for XL, we are excited to announce an extension of that collective spirit, the expansion of the innovation lab into a network. SWA’s Executive Committee has moved to designate XL team members in three offices whose work will be closely tied to the past and present project work of each studio while feeding back into larger firm-wide efforts. They will work to address the increasingly complex environmental, technical, and cultural issues of our time through research and innovation initiatives. Over the next few months, XL will collectively pursue new projects in our four foundational areas of focus, daylight past research at SWA to mark its 60^th anniversary, and collaborate with colleagues in design research and innovation. We are excited to welcome our new XL team members from our studios in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Laguna Beach.

Anya Domlesky and Emily Schlickman are landscape designers and co-leads of XL. They are based in Sausalito.

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Posted by Anya Domlesky Emily Schlickman
in Education, News
on 1 June, 2017

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Last year, the Van Alen Institute held a flash competition that caught my eye. It called for ideas for a mobile structure to be located in a local park in Malmö, Sweden. A gateway city to Scandinavia, Malmö receives numerous migrants, refugees and asylum seekers every year. The mobile structure will be placed in the park during warm seasons, where the new arrivals could come for job information and skill development. It will also be a place for advocating social inclusion and creating community.

My personal experience as a migrant from China to Australia 15 years ago affords me some understanding of the loneliness and frustration one has to face in a new country. In the first a couple of years after arriving in Australia, I had a great deal of trouble communicating in English as well as getting my head around social, political and cultural expectations in school. Fortunately, I met many genuine and open-minded people, who made me feel like a member of that country. No matter how broken my English was, they always listened patiently and gave thoughtful comments. They invited me into their families, shared their personal stories, showed me a multifaceted nation, and influenced my views of the relationships between people. Kindness and open-mindedness have the potential to touch the innermost heart and endure for life. Their hospitality and kindness provided me with a sense of fundamental acceptance that allowed me to build my own way and identity within a new culture and, ultimately, gave me the ability to provide the same to others.

That is how the idea of a mosaic carpet came about, a place that conveys a welcoming message. Carpet-making is common and familiar to both Middle Eastern and Scandinavian regions. In many Middle Eastern countries, a carpet is not only a decoration, but an essential item that defines a shared space, where people socialise, eat, rest, and worship together. Even painted carpet patterns representative of different global regions communicate the commonality as well as the diversity of cultures.

For many refugees and asylum seekers, the lack of employment skills is the biggest barrier to their full integration into a new society. “Unemployment, not radicalization, is the biggest obstacle facing young Somali men,” reads a recent story in The Atlantic that quotes a community leader from Minnesota, one of the top destinations for refugees coming to America. The lack of a sense of belonging propels many young people to seek personal identities through extreme ideologies.

Alex Lahti, my co-designer in The Carpet submission, shared the story of his great grandfather, Alec, who immigrated to the Copper Country of Upper Michigan in the late 19^th century. He fled famine in hopes of finding prosperity in America; he spoke little to no English and the only job he could find was as a labourer in the copper mines. After observing how constant mechanical failures caused delays in the mine, he taught himself how to carve replacement castings for broken components. His skills gave him a job above ground, and eventually, served as a springboard for his future success as a respected member of the community. In fact, this success was multi-generational; his son, Leonard, served as mayor of their small town.

Gaining employment skills is critical for new families to get established and grow. However, many new migrants fail to seek help because of the intimidating formality of the process, which is so unlike the less formal cultural practices they are used to. To that end, The Carpet replaces the formal nature of desks with conversation pits that allow people to sit shoulder-to-shoulder in a familiar and homely conversational setting.

Women often take on the role of primary child carers, and therefore experience more obstacles in job seeking and social activities. We wanted to make a place for families, for everyone. More flexible than fixed structures, the individual elements and play blocks can be easily rearranged for a variety of uses, and their highly adaptable layout means the same Carpet that serves as a playpen in the morning can serve as a meeting venue in the afternoon.

According to the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) report, “During 2014, conflict and persecution forced an average of 42,500 individuals per day to leave their home and seek protection elsewhere.” In 2015, more than a million migrants entered Europe. The challenges of integrating the new arrivals will continue over many years.

Globally, the interest of designers providing proposals to address immigration underlies its importance as one of the major social forces at work today. In 2016, Johan Karlsson and IKEA Foundation made the flat-pack refugee shelter from recyclable plastic. The marquee-like shelter can accommodate a family of five; it also provides necessary thermal insulation that was often neglected in early versions and can be assembled in as little as four hours.

For design to begin to address the enormity of this issue, designers will need to look to affect it at many scales. Our proposal focuses on triage–or immediate intervention when an immigrant arrives–in order to provide them with the resources they need to integrate into society. Welcome Home.

Lei Zhang is a designer in the Houston studio.

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Posted by Lei Zhang
in News, Social Impact
on 1 May, 2017

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In 2000 Southern California became home. Drawn to Orange County during a construction boom, America’s final frontier had become active again. Unlike the traditional westward migration patterns of the past, my journey was from West to West. Western Canada had endured similar development patterns to California—gold rush migrations and natural resource exploitation, all giving rise… Read more »

Initial impressions of LA and Southern California are common amongst most visitors. Distances are vast, the pace of life hectic, and automobile rules the day. Arriving with a mindset ingrained in academic theories about landscape, it was hard not to observe Southern California as a commodity. A physical place gradually being eaten up by the processes of land development. The natural beauty of the California coastline that allures visitors and new residents, was also the fuel for the development industry that employs engineers, architects, and landscape architects.

An initial introduction to large-scale development “California Style” was Talega, located three miles inland from the coastline of San Clemente. More than 3,500 acres of existing hillside set to become home to over 9,000 future residents in just over 10 years. This was difficult to comprehend. It became apparent that this form of development, at a grand scale, was part of a process that had taken place in Orange County long before I had arrived. Predecessors to this development model included Laguna Niguel, completed in 1989 (9,600 acres); Coto de Caza, completed in 2003 (5,120 acres); Ladera Ranch, completed in 2006 (4,000 acres); and the ongoing developments along the Newport Coastline totaling over 4,500 acres. Therein exists the paradox between love of nature, and the need for development to ensure economic sustenance. Eventually I concluded that the landscape architect’s role is best served as a steward of the natural environment, with the crucial responsibility of keeping the development process responsible and well-balanced.

This leads to the final dilemma: When will all the land run out? At what point will the remaining developable land be gone? Los Angeles and Orange County have a finite limit to which they can expand. Mountains to the east, the Pacific Ocean at our doorstep, and a 125,000-acre Marine base to the south. Perhaps the heyday of large-scale conventional tract development is in its twilight phase and out of this will evolve new ways of expanding living opportunities for future residents of California. Constructing upward will be the only way to go as we grow within our geographical constraints. The classic California bungalow as we know it, with front and back yard, will eventually make way for a sea of multi-family dwellings and high-rise urban infill.

The West was once viewed as a vast, boundless space to be inhabited, and it is now, in some regard, disappearing. To see how development patterns have altered the landscape of Southern California, see https://www.disappearingwest.org/map/ .

In 1885, Horace Greeley, founder and editor of The New-York Tribune said “Go West, young man, and grow up with the country.” Perhaps it is now time to re-coin the phrase: “Go Up, California,” and follow the examples of the World.

Curtis Neukomm is a field specialist in the Laguna Beach studio.

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Posted by Curtis Neukomm
in Ecology, Urbanism & Planning
on 18 April, 2017

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Increasingly, the influence of social media and the popularity of iconic imagery determines how, when, and where one should travel. The more an image is shared, viewed, or liked the more credibility a destination has. Yet, standards based solely on a photograph don’t consider the essence of the place. It’s human nature to want to… Read more »

Aware of these trends, Norway has invested more than $250 million toward the re-development of 18 National Tourist Routes in order to contest the present-day loss of nature-filled charm. Commissioned by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, the 15-year project focuses on re-evaluating the concept of tourism by redefining these previously far-reaching spaces. Along the 1,025-mile expedition are 250 rest stops, picnic areas, and observation decks that seek to highlight the cultural, historical, and natural beauty of the spaces that many otherwise find themselves passing through. Each space exhibits an artistic or architectural intervention from an ever-growing list of noteworthy designers who do not pursue creating design spectacles, but more importantly seek to draw visitors outward, under, across, and within his or her surroundings. These projects epitomize the power of design to highlight the natural environment. Each project tells a story about the place and focuses on subtly complementing the surroundings in which they exist in order to allow for naturally occurring singularities to take center stage. In this way, these spaces begin to pull visitors further from their sometimes narrow, driven mindset toward one that allows them to construct their own awareness and interpretations within the spaces they inhabit. It is from these interpretations and experiences that we create our own unique spirit of places—the connections, moments, and individual identifications within a space that keep us returning.

As my graduation approached last year I decided to take the advice of many to invest in traveling. Three months, multiple countries, and countless peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches later, I found myself accessing many of the roadways along the Western regions of Norway. Regarded as one of the most beautiful roads in the world, the Trollstiegen Visitor Centre is one of 5 architectural projects along the 66-mile Geiranger-Trollstigen tourist route and was a high point of my trip. Trollstiegen, translated as the Trolls Path, was designed by Norway-based architects Reiulf Ramstad Architects with one goal: to highlight the uniqueness of the surrounding landscape. The team focused on delicate interjections as a means to more effectively present nature without trying to change it. These interjections manifested in the creation of form and also materiality, seeking to erase the barrier between man and nature. Perched overlooking a fjord, the 15-hectare site places visitors over the cliff’s edge and connects them more directly within with the mountains, river, and sky. To many, this project’s success lies in the harmonious display of dynamic and static elements that highlight the pure and captivating beauty of the site’s surroundings.

Although the project celebrated 60 percent completion this year, its impact is already speaking volumes. The National Tourist Routes governmental initiative has inspired smaller collections of foundations, national parks, and private concerns to invest in the progress of other equally inspirational nature-focused commissions across Norway and has also stimulated the development of tourist-related businesses within these regions to meet the growing interests from both local and foreign visitors. According to the World Tourism Organization Yearbook of Tourism Statistics, visitation has risen from 2.8 million travelers in 1995 to 4.8 million in 2015. Another recent study conducted by Innovations Norway states that the highest volume of visitor interest lies in “experiencing nature.” To that end, one thing remains clear: these places must be visited to be experienced, something I can confidently recommend.

Chris Anderson is a designer in the Laguna Beach studio.

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Posted by Christopher Anderson
in Arts and Culture, Ecology
on 27 March, 2017

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Posts Tagged: SWA

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Connecting Tourists to Norway’s Landscapes

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