Landscape plants in architectural design

This creative project has explored the design methods to integrate landscape planting materials and architectural elements. A demonstrative architectural design is proposed to apply these research methods. This report comprises two major sections: one is the description of landscape materials and their characteristics; the other is an architectural design to demonstrate the usage of these landscape materials. The first section of this report has emphasized on an inventory of landscape materials with the descriptions of their individual functions and characteristics in architectural design as well as the samples of those landscape elements in spatial organization. About 40 most popular plant materials were collected and their growing patterns and spatial geometries were integrated in various building typology. The case study has demonstrated the practical application of those landscape materials. The cultural and aesthetic values of plant materials were evaluated according to the cultural and historical background of selected prominent landscape designs. In the second section, a creative architectural design was developed based on a proposed Tree Museum located in Muncie, Indiana. The objective of this design was to apply the design principals developed in previous research, and to demonstrate how the landscape materials could be properly integrated with architectural design. As a trial approach, the tree museum has presented a unique perspective of architectural design in which the organizations of both building structures and plant elements are highly implemented.