342 



LANDSCAPE DESIGN 



Representation 

 of Design 



Models 



which are the work of an artist. Still more must the superintendence 

 of landscape design require designing skill, and properly the skill of 

 some one who has been familiar with the design from its inception, 

 and has in his mind therefore, as things to be attempted in the finished 

 work, a multitude of excellences which have been nowhere else recorded. 

 This is one of the reasons why a young landscape architect who fol- 

 lows his own work from start to finish may well be more successful on 

 a small job, as we have said, than a large ofiice would be, however 

 experienced, where the work is passed from hand to hand. Still, as 

 far as it is possible, definite record of the determined design must be 

 made. 



Like the architect, but unlike the painter and the sculptor, the 

 landscape architect is obliged to have the actual work, which bears his 

 name as designer, executed by other hands ; he has therefore to repre- 

 sent the design in some way before the real construction begins. He 

 has to convey his idea of the completed work first to his client, and 

 then, after acceptance by him, to the contractor. And as the work of 

 execution takes time, there must be a fairly permanent record of most 

 of the proposed work, which shall serve as a source of information about 

 the landscape architect's idea to the client and to the contractor or 

 whoever executes the work. 



In actual practice this means of conveyance and record takes four 

 forms : — models, more or less accurate three-dimensional representa- 

 tions of the thing proposed, at some convenient reduced scale ; pictures, 

 namely, perspectives, elevations, plans, sections ; written words, for 

 instance, reports and specifications ; and spoken words, explanations 

 to the client, directions on the ground, and so on. Each form of expres- 

 sion has its own advantages, each can do what no other can ; but each 

 has its own disadvantages — it does too little or too much. 



The model * has the great advantage that it gives all the different 

 aspects of the design, — its appearance from any point of view, its ele- 

 vation as well as its plan, and to some extent even its color and texture. 

 But if the model is to do all this, it must be very well executed : con- 

 sistency of scale, even reasonable representation of texture, is hard to 



* See article by G. C. Curtis, Landscape in Relief , in Landscape Architecture, Jan. 

 I9I3> V. 3, p. 49-58, with illustrations. 



