This is a landscape pedagogical sketchbook beginning with space (as a container) and ground (the scene graph).

Space is the given that precedes the objects in it... space cannot be said to exist physically. (Arnheim, 1984)

The grid is defined in space. A base slab is constructed on the grid delineating ground, as yet with a total degree of openness.

A generated mesh (topographical contour) is constructed on the grid. With an artifact or obstacle (node) placed in it the scene now represents a figure and ground. This modification of the openness and approach to a settlement is the primal architectural act.

An archtypal obstacle, a column or tree, defines the corridor of movement through the scene. This path may grow into a labyrinth.

Another type of obstacle, a wall, can be the boundary in a scene. A garden can be contained in the enclosure.

Lastly, openness becomes closedness. A court is defined by walls and characterised by closedness and can be covered or have an opening to the sky.

The discourse now includes the narrative between access and obstacle, inside and outside, and transparency.

Form follows from movement through the scene.

Notes

1. "Meanings are not merely the whisper of bat in the night; they cohere

into flocks to sleep in the caverns of social thought and reemerge in thunderous

flight to ignite a million imaginations together." (Walker, 1997)

2. "Narratives...intersect with sites, accumulate as layers of history,

organize sequences, and inhere in the very materials and processes of the landscape.

In various ways, stories 'take place.'" --From Landscape Narratives. by Pottinger. 1998.

Links to other Haptic Experimental Resources

U.C. Berkeley, College of Environmental Design

http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/

Technosphere AI

http://194.80.29.2/technosphere/index.htm

References

*denotes a core work

• *Alexander, Christopher. 1998. The Nature of Order. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Beardsley, John. 1998. Earthworks and Beyond: Contemporary Art in the Landscape. New York: Abbeville Press.
• Bordwell, David, and Thompson, Kristin. 1997. Film Art. New York: McGraw-Hill.
• Cline, Ann. 1997. A Hut of One's Own: Life Outside the Circle of Architecture. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
• *Gilbar, Steven, and Brower, David. 1998. Natural State: A Literary Anthology of Califronia Nature Writing. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• *Groth, Paul, and Bressi, Todd W. 1997. Understanding Ordinary Landscapes. Ann Arbor: Edwards Brothers, Inc.
• *Heim, Michael. 1998. Virtual Realism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Kaplan, Robert D. 1998. An Empire Wilderness : Travels into America's Future.
• *Jackson, J.B. 1994. A Sense of Place, a Sense of Time. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Magee, Bryan. 1997. Confessions of a Philosopher. London: Weidenfield & Nicolson.
• Marling, Karal Ann. 1997. Designing Disney's Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance. New York: Flammarion.
• Museum of New Zealand. 1998. Dream Collectors: One Hundred Years of Art in New Zealand. Wellington: Te Papa Press.
• Oehme, Wolfgang, and James van Sweden. 1998. Bold Romantic Gardens.
• *Pottinger, Matthew, and Purinton Jamie. 1998. Landscape Narratives: Design Practices for Telling Stories. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
• Shingu, Susumu. 1997. Shingu: Message From Nature. New York: Abbeville Press.
• *Temple, Philip. 1998. Lake, Mountain, Tree: An Anthology of Writing on New Zealand Nature and Landscape. Auckland: Godwit.
• Walker, Peter. 1997. Minimalist Gardens. Washington: Spacemaker Press.
• Ward, Alan. 1998. American Designed Landscapes: A Photographic Interpretation. Washington, D.C.: Spacemaker Press.