Landscape.is… Inspirational

What inspires us as people? What draws us onward to bigger and better things? What makes us want to push the limits? Well surprisingly I’m not going to say landscape, however, try asking yourself a different set of questions; why do we have to go some place to find ourselves? Why do we need space to think? Why have mankind’s greatest pursuits always been about finding the new frontier… the North Pole, America, the Moon, Mars? The answer is; it’s what we find there! One more question… what’s gonna be so special about your landscape that’s gonna make people wanna go there?

Ben Morgan

Photograph: www.flickr.com (under landscape)

Landscape.is… Personal

“The project is yours… Well what are you going to do with it? Well?”
This is your chance, a project is not just work, at least not unless you treat it as such. No, a project is your chance to make something that thrills you, an opportunity to express yourself, it’s your chance to be daring, so use it to your full advantage, surprise yourself and have some fun in the process. This is never truer than in first year at university when the tutors are doing everything they can to draw out your creativity. However, it is a good principal to remember throughout your career. How can you personalise this landscape? What little piece of you can you leave in it? Where can you write your signature?

Ben Morgan

Photograph: www.flickr.com (under Rural Studio/Samuel Mockbee memorial)

Landscape.is… Public/Private

Place can be experienced in many different ways but two of the most intense and meaningful ways are private and public: Do you want to be alone in your wilderness? Or do you want to share it? It’s ok to differ and most landscapes can accommodate both expressions, but a landscape can also be tailor made to be a social place or a private place, or both. Don’t allow yourself to be swayed by your current mood, again, try to be sensitive; what does the location lend itself too?

Ben Morgan


Photograph: The Poor Boys Enterprise
"Zustands Design "Installations expérimentales, 1991-2000

Landscape.is... Life

Think about it, in some respects a building is the negative of its landscape, the one is dead and consists of dead materials whilst the other is living and life giving. A landscape is truly alive, something to consider wouldn’t you say? In Landscape Architecture we have made it our job to reshape life, to change existence, to alter nature’s course. We can make thousands homeless, or we can give thousands homes, now that’s a responsibility, a responsibility to treat a life with care.

Ben Morgan

Photograph: www.flickr.com (under nature)

Landscape.is… Experiential

It’s like sniffing your Grandpa’s tobacco pouch, it’s like eating your favourite food after fasting, it’s like diving into cool water on a hot day and it’s like your first kiss with the one you love, its sensory overload. Landscape will have played host to a lot of these experiences but it is often the added experience of the landscape itself that made those times into memories. Was Grandpa’s pouch in the glove box of his old Morris Minor? Did you sit there sniffing it on cracked old leather seats? Did your first kiss happen after a long day of working for it, in the cool of the evening on the couch round her place? Sometimes all you have to do to create something special is to accommodate it, I wouldn’t expect to find myself experiencing any of those things whilst visiting some architectural wonder, I’d expect to be somewhere comfy somewhere that allows a special time to happen like its supposed to. Sometimes all you have to do to create something special is to accommodate it!

Ben Morgan

Photograph: www.ruralstudio.com

Landscape.is... Therapeutic

For many years now landscape has been acknowledged as having therapeutic influences which people cannot entirely do without. This has resulted in the wide spread creation of inner city parks and open spaces, places that people can relax in and escape. People dont retire to that little flat in the city, they retire to that big house in the country. The physical representation of the freedom of the soul is seen to be in unrestricted space, Place without boundary. For practising Landscape Architects the bulk of work has this as a backbone; making urban spaces suburban, bringing the country to the city. Whilst this might seem restrictive it isn't, Landscape has no rigid precedents, unlike Architecture it has vast and unlimited room for experimentation... Landscape.is... Freedom, Landscape.is... Therapeutic.

Ben Morgan

Photograph: Ben Morgan Landscape Architecture, project one 1st year

Landscape.is… Domain

Landscape Architecture like every other profession can be a harsh reality of a professional world. Starting in your first year at university you will come across many boundaries that will at times make you feel insufficient or incapable, that your work is not good enough to take you as far as you want it to, that there are too many obstacles or simply that you don’t fit in, STOP! Take a deep breath, draw back the veil that says “I cant” and ask yourself; is doing this what makes me come alive? If so, then “you can”, don’t just give up, rise to the challenge and make Landscape your domain.

Ben Morgan

Photograph: www.ruralstudio.com

Landscape.is… Belonging

As much as you may feel at home in the familiar landscape of your upbringing, you must remember that often, so do the people in the area’s that you are working on and strong sentimental ties are not easily broken, nor is it usually necessary to do so. Site sensitivity is the key to this lock but it has also been the one failing point in many prestigious projects. Not only do the local people not usually want a piece of work that doesn’t fit with the locality, but to anyone else it becomes obviously out of place. This doesn’t mean that there is no room for daringly bold projects in our world, quite the contrary, but it does mean that as a designer you need to be sensitive in addressing your site. When all the other questions have been asked, ask yourself one more; how does my site proposal relate to my site.

Ben Morgan

Photograph: www.flickr.com (under Rural Studio)

Landscape.is… Responsible

One of the biggest changes currently taking place in all aspects of Architecture is the swing toward sustainable thinking. Put simply this entails making decisions in your project work based on a desire to better the environment. In Landscape Architecture this is in some ways easier as it does not incorporate designing buildings! However, the onus is on us to design with an eye for the future, not allowing our work to greedily eat up tomorrow’s resources whilst only providing for today’s needs. Remember that nine times out of ten your project will have a long term effect on its surroundings, (something you need to design for) but ten times out of ten it will have a long term effect on our environment.

Ben Morgan

Photograph: www.flickr.com (under Rural Studio)

Landscape.is… Permanent

It is easy enough to roughly gage the age of a building by its style or the degree of wear and tear that it shows, however, this is not usually the case with a landscape. The trees you see beside buildings are often much older than the buildings themselves and the land the building presides on was there long before and will likely be there long after the building. Bearing these things in mind will enable you as a Landscape Architect to look for the long term possibilities in your designs and discover their full potential. Remember that the great artists only usually gained recognition after their deaths.

Ben Morgan

Photograph: www.flickr.com (under landscape)

Landscape.is…Transient

As much as landscape is permanent it is also transient, ever changing, shifting in purpose and meaning, adapting itself to varying uses, allowing both subtle changes and drastic. From day to night, from winter to summer, it is worth remembering the variables in the landscape you are working with. By doing this you will begin to appreciate your sites qualities better, becoming more site sensitive and allowing your project to express previously hidden subtle and beautiful qualities that will enable it to become not just a project, but a work of art.

Ben Morgan

Photograph:Jason Lupton 1st year Landscape Architecture

Landscape.is... Solidity

Once past the point of conception, it is important to remember in further development of your designs that what you're creating will one day be represented physically, that it will be solid, material and inviting people to experience it. When remembering this, a useful skill to develop is to detach yourself from the passion you feel in your project and look at it with the eyes of a stranger: What needs explaining? What tiny detail would help to make it truly come alive? How would I feel in this place? Does what I have created accurately convey all that hoped it would? Even after all these questions have been asked, you will likely find that another’s opinion will open your eyes further, just don’t be afraid to ask, its your career and its worth a little disappointment to get there.

Ben Morgan

Photograph: NL Architects
WOS 8Leidsche Rijn, Hollande, 1998

Landscape.is... Psychological

Whatever creative path you take as a landscape architect, the chances are that you are unlikely to create anything entirely devoid of past influences in your life. This is something that all artists share as a likeness in their work. It does not, however, restrict an individual from creating a unique work of genius. The key to success in this endeavour is to study the work of others with care and allow it to be an influence equal to that of your own past. In this way fresh ideas will begin to filter into your subconscious, your working vocabulary will increase and your portfolio will reflect this, making you the new must have asset for every cutting edge practice.


Ben Morgan


Photograph: www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/images/index_mid_off_06.jpg

Landscape.is... Conceptual

A concept is a string of thought, the idea before the revolution, it is a reflection of the involvement necessary in shaping some new creation and it is... anything you want it to be! When given Location it becomes something more, it is given solidity and deeper meaning, it is given actuality. But while it remains in state conceptual, its self is unique while its placement is not, it is a free agent with the ability to be placed in any situ, the only restrictions are the boundaries of the mind. Ask yourself, how far can you push it?

Ben Morgan

Photograph: Ben Morgan 1st year Landscape Architecture project three

Landscape.is... Location

Location as we know today is a man made portrait of our environ. The simplicity of creation, though never the same in two places is too subtle for acceptance by a peoples thirst for difference. Multiplying with rapidty we scrawl across our scape, changing, corrupting and damaging, but what beauty found through human eyes in anothers daily grime. It is here that belonging is forged in the fires of creative difference.

Ben Morgan

Photograph: Ben Morgan 1st year Landscape Architecture project three