Landscape Architecture

What landscape architecture designs and how it differs from gardening; the profession (Olmsted, Central Park 1858); and a global and Indian garden history — the Persian/Mughal char-bagh, Japanese and Chinese gardens, the Italian, French and English traditions, and India's kunds, temple tanks and sacred groves; the formal-to-naturalistic shift.

The given natural elements (landform, water, vegetation, climate) and the design palette of softscape (the vertical planting layers — canopy, understorey, shrub, groundcover, climber — and plant form/texture/colour/seasonality) and hardscape (paving, steps and ramps, walls, water features, pergolas, furniture, lighting); landform and grading; and plants used as a spatial material.

The inventory-led design process (site analysis → concept → zoning → circulation → composition); the principles of landscape composition (unity, balance, scale, rhythm, focal point, sequence, enclosure and openness); the genius loci; planting-design principles (massing, layering, succession, seasonal interest); and microclimate design for thermal comfort in India.

Ecology as the modern core; Ian McHarg's Design with Nature and the layered overlay analysis; native planting and biodiversity; water-sensitive design (rain gardens, bioswales, permeable paving, constructed wetlands, rainwater harvesting); xeriscaping; the urban heat island and how landscape cools it; green infrastructure, green roofs and walls; soil, trees and ecological restoration.

The typology of landscape projects (parks, plazas, campuses, streetscape, waterfronts, restoration, roof gardens); landscape's relationship to architecture and the city; the Indian context; the consultant's role and the landscape drawing set (layout, grading, planting, details); phasing; and — the discipline's deepest idea — maintenance as design intent over the living timescale.