Landscape Design

Abstract

Landscape design and landscape architecture are in their basic forms a manifestation of humans’ passionate care for nature. The two concepts are similar, with landscape design focusing more on the artistic merits of design. This entry briefly reviews the history of landscape architecture and then considers the role that it can play in the future. In an era when we acknowledge the ecological damage and the imbalanced growth that humanity has inflicted on the Earth, landscape design has a significant role to play in the procurement of resources and materials and in the interaction with natural form and elements toward creating livable communities. It also offers solutions for global climate change and warming and peak oil (i.e., the maximum global output that occurred recently and the subsequent gradual decline). Throughout human history, landscape works such as the Greek and Roman gardens shared a commonality of an incessant love for greenery ...