Ideas lie at the heart of landscape architecture and should have the same place in the design process. This includes ideas about the natural world, about society, about culture and about the traditions of making cities, gardens and landscapes.
To integrate these ideas they can be represented with words and images.
Christopher Alexander used the terms 'pattern' and 'archetype' in his 1977 book: A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction and the Alexander patterns are archetypes for making good places. They need to be integrated with the patterns of the natural environment.
Other structural patterns can be identified with the help of psychology, ecology, geomorphology, art, design, geometry, planning and other subjects too. This gives us a structuralist approach to landscape architecture, drawing on aspects of philosophical structuralism.
Note: the three parts of this podcast have were published from July 5th, July 19th and August 2nd 2020. This podcast contains all three parts, together with an introduction and a conclusion. A fully illustrated version of this podcast is available on Youtube.