Landscape Architecture
With centuries of development, the environment has suffered a huge impact affecting our lives. In such an era, maintaining a healthy balance in our surroundings including air quality, ecology, and natural resources is no longer an option. Landscape architecture, or the design of the indoor and outdoor areas, is focused on achieving aesthetic and environmental outcomes while ensuring sustainability by removing pollutants from the surroundings.What is Landscape Architecture?
Landscape Architecture can be defined as the art of designing outdoor and indoor environments or varying sizes including aspects of environment, art, engineering, architecture, and sociology. In the urban context, one can describe landscape architecture as the creation of life between buildings. Landscape architects use small spaces in urban areas to create roof gardens, pocket parks, etc. The urban landscape design usually includes sustainable and cost-effective development of natural spaces with a lot of plants.
Usually, a landscaping architect offers consulting services to help create an ecosystem that suits your needs. However, it is important to remember that a landscape requires regular care. Hence, if your lifestyle does not permit enough time, then you can opt for ecosystems that are self-sustaining and ensure that they run seamlessly without any manual intervention. By automatically cleaning pollutants, such systems can help improve the quality of life of you and your loved ones.
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Importance of Landscape Architecture
While most people understand the benefits offered by landscape architecture, they are unsure if they need it in and around their homes. Here are ten reasons that will help you understand how landscape architecture can help you live a better life:
1. Helps combat toxicity and other environmental issues
Most people are unaware of the fact that a majority of the products used at home like the furniture, upholstery, building materials, fixtures, etc., emit toxic pollutants in the environment around them. While the reasons can vary from the oxidization of heavy metals to toxic gases, the impact is the same. Of these, air pollution is the primary area of concern.
With landscape architecture, you get a sustainable and efficient option to clear the environment of such toxins. With green plants in and around your home, carbon dioxide levels are always under control. Also, plants absorb toxic materials helping you maintain a healthy living space.
There are various tools that can help you balance the ecosystem in your vicinity and find indoor plants like Aloe Vera, Cacti, Ferns, etc. to clean the environment around your home. Many landscape architects also use phytoremediation techniques to remove contaminants in the soil and groundwater and revitalize them.
See also – 10 Ways to Make your Home from Toxic to Eco-friendly
2. Offers customizable and sustainable development avenues
Many people think that landscape architecture is all about gardening and the planting of green plants to make the place look beautiful. However, landscape architects create garden designs using concepts of climate and ecology after a careful analysis of the surroundings. They customize solutions based on the specific surroundings of each house and target the environmental issues in the area.
Every household and locality has different causes of pollutants. These causes are identified by civil engineers or landscaping architects and they select indoor and outdoor plants for cleaning the air, creating a cooling effect, absorbing toxins, and balancing the natural ecosystem. While this process can take time, it can help create a sustainable natural environment around the house and the area.
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As the world embraced industrialization, factories and manufacturing plants cropped up around the world. This led to the degradation of the natural resources in the areas surrounding it. Air, water, soil, and the general habitat around these commercial spaces were contaminated and landforms faced severe damages.
While the damage cannot be completely undone, landscape architecture can assist in rejuvenating the soil and cleaning the air by planting the right plants in these areas. While the regeneration of the natural ecosystem might take many years, this approach can help stop the spread of the toxins to the nearby areas and cause damages to the human body.
4. Storm Water Management
Rainwater harvesting has gained popularity around the globe as a sustainable solution for water scarcity around the globe. While rainwater harvesting is about collecting and storing rainwater rather than allowing it to run off, most of the rain manages to run off, especially from non-building surfaces. This water is called storm water. Using the right equipment and tools, storm water can be used to fight water scarcity more efficiently.
Typically, the storm water is supposed to trickle into the soil and rejoin the water table below. This water table is an additional source of water for many regions. However, with many areas having concrete roads and pavements, a lot of storm water is prevented from seeping into the soil.
By using landscape architecture techniques, the soil can be loosened to help storm water find its way to the water table faster and rejuvenate the natural resources. Hence, the locality will have a natural water resource at all times.
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A landscape architect uses the principles of ecology, hydrology, horticulture, geology, and design technology to create a green space that allows for sustainable urban living. The soil, climate change, pollutants, and various other factors are evaluated carefully to choose the plants and trees. They also keep design aesthetics in mind to finally create a natural environment that boosts the well-being of you and your loved ones. Hence, landscape architecture offers better management of land resources and reduces the impact of urban living on the environment.
See also – Architecture Design Language Standards
6. Innovative Troubleshooting of Natural Environments
Most of us have heard about vertical gardens, wall garden, and other innovative ways of bringing nature into our homes and living areas. This has been made possible by innovative landscape architects constantly striving to balance modern living with environmental sustainability. In other words, landscape architects use horticulture to add biodiversity to urban design.
ASLA or the American Society of Landscape Architects has redefined the works of Frederick Law Olmstead to highlight the importance of landscape in urban areas. The methods primarily included handpicking creepers and plants to create an aesthetically pleasing effect and clean the environment.
See also – Create Eco-friendly Interior Design
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7. Weather Control
Since the turn of this century, climate change has been a concern for environmentalists and people around the world. In the urban areas, deforestation and excessive use of concrete has depleted the quality of air and resulted in an increase in temperature. Landscape architecture can help control the weather and dampen the impact of climate change.
In urban settings, small ecosystems like rooftop gardens and pocket parks can help in purifying air and crating a cooling effect. There are many tools available that can help you find plants that can work optimally in your environment, create a virtual landscape, and check its efficiency before you implement it. As an increasing number of people start using landscape architecture, the weather around you can start getting positively impacted.
8. Outdoor Public Recreation
When you live in an urban area, public parks and outdoor spaces are the only natural retreat. If you are living in New York, then the natural environment of Central Park offers regular respite from the concrete city.
Similar open places in cities can be developed to create spaces where people can relax outside their homes. In cities with tighter spaces, pocket parks, elevated parks, etc. can be developed to achieve the same result. With greener patches, air in the cities can improve and boost the well-being of its inhabitants.
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9. Psycho-Social Benefits for Humans
It is believed that being in nature can help us improve our mental abilities since it calms our mind allowing it to explore the unknown. However, with constant deforestation, natural surroundings are getting harder to find. In such times, landscape architecture seems like the only solution. With technology-aided tools, architects can create pockets of nature across urban areas and breathe life into an otherwise concrete city.
10. Therapeutic Final Products
Working with nature has been known to have a calming and therapeutic effect on the human mind. The same holds true with landscape architecture. When all the planning and preparation finally comes to life, the result is blissful.
We have been constantly talking about tools that you can use to aid you with landscape architecture. One such tool is MagikTour. It offers a clear idea about what can you expect as the final outcome from your landscape ideas. It helps you create ecosystems that are cost-effective and is easy to use. Every living space is unique and needs customized natural surroundings to ba;ance the toxins and pollutants around. With MagikTour, you can plan the natural environment based on your needs. Landscape artists find this tool very useful since it allows them to visualize their landscape designs and share them with their clients before getting started.
With the world trying to look for sustainable and greener options in all aspects, landscape architecture is evolving as a fast-growing field. We hope that this article helps you gain clarity about the importance of landscape architecture in our lives.
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Landscape architecture is a fast-growing field and we hope this article makes it easier to deliver the green space as per your client’s requirements.
See also – Best Architectural Tools & Software
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