Ecologies, Techniques, Technologies IV

GSD 6242 Ecologies, Techniques, Technologies IV addresses the interdependence between site, technology and design in landscape architecture. The ambitions of the course are to develop a broader understanding of technologies in landscape architecture, to explore technology’s relationship to applied ecology and environmental and civil engineering and how this can result in more progressive and creative landscape design work. This course profiles a series of advanced practices, projects and processes concerned with Ecologies, Techniques, Technologies and related to landscapes constructed on different soils, structures and slab conditions. Introducing basic concepts and vocabularies as well as advanced methods and metrics, each weekly topic will index a series of in-depth processes and cutting-edge practices about the ecological engineering of urban environments. Guest Lectures are accompanied by readings focused on a series of topics that are specifically related to the design and management of urban hydrological flow across the full gamut of urban watersheds. With an emphasis on decentralized stormwater systems, each weekly subject forms a consistent and cumulative level of knowledge that focuses on water flows across surface and subsurface conditions, as well as hydrological patterns across a gradient of dry and wet eco-topes. From micro- to macro-levels, and from patches to corridors to networks, a range of urban sites are addressed ranging from vegetal roofs and green facades, rain gardens, phyto plots and retention ponds, bioswales & filter strips, ravines and riparian zones, tidal marshes and coastal wetlands, lagoons and estuaries.