Landscaping

Computerized design has its advantages and disadvantages, but overall, as a tool, it has contributed to advancements in the process of landscaping. To greater or lesser degree, computerized design benefits all phases of landscaping, from design to construction and maintenance.

I. Landscaping Design

Creativity: Many people can make the mistake of assuming that a computerized landscape design is better than a non-digital landscape design. In fact, many landscape designers today still do not use computers to design, or use them as just one tool in their tool kit. Good landscaping projects are designed by good designers, regardless of what tools are used to design. Quality landscaping is not measured by which tools were used, but in the end result, the landscape project itself. No matter what the tool the designer uses to design with, at the end of the day it is just a tool in the designer's hand, no more, no less. The computer, a mouse, a rolling trackball mouse, a graphic tablet, a pencil, a ruler, technical pens, a drafting table, a tape measure, a camera, a sketchpad, a graph pad, stakes and string on the ground, and paint lines on the ground, are all examples of tools a designer may use today. Many designers avail themselves of all types of tools to facilitate creativity and bring out the best in their designs.

Arguably, the hand-eye connection with "analog" tools can be stronger than the "mouse-eye" connection, tapping more directly into the designer's imagination and creativity. This is especially true in the initial creative stages of landscape design, where the "concept" is first developed. In later phases, computers become more helpful when translating the concept into documents that can be read and understood by clients, construction crews, and government agencies, as may be required.

Examples of beautiful works of art in landscaping, such as Versailles, Ryoanji, and the Taj Mahal, were of course not developed using digital tools. I have seen poor or mediocre quality designs, beautifully rendered in full color plans and 3D images. I have also seen black-and-white hand drawings of sensational landscape designs.

In summary, someone who is gifted in design but not gifted in computers will still produce great landscape design, but not the other way around.

Communication: Computerized design benefits landscape design most in the area of communication, improving the design team's ability to communicate design ideas and to translate those ideas across different platforms for each phase of landscape design and construction. Specifically, computerized design improves the design team's ability to replicate drawings quickly, the ability to execute design changes with relative ease, the ability to distribute this information to the clients, the design team and the construction team instantly via electronic means, and to electronically store documents.

Computerization does not guarantee that designers will communicate better, but it does give them the ability to do so. On the upside, in a complex project, ease of distribution and relative ease of executing minor changes is indispensible. Complex commercial projects are a prime example. On the downside, in a simple project, it can be cumbersome and even a hindrance in the design process. For example, a simple black-and-white drawing of a backyard design done on vellum with pencil or ink on mylar in skilled hands can be just as fast as a drawing done with equivalent CADD based computer skills.

From a client's perspective, computerized design can help visualize the finished landscaping project. Some people cannot look at a black-and-white 2D drawing and visualize the end result in the physical world. A landscape is multi-dimensional, with seasonal cycles and a process of growth and maturation over time. It is quite a leap to go from a flat drawing to seeing a full 4 dimensional landscape in the mind's eye, after all. So taking the extra time and rendering a 3D model or a 2D full color plan can aid the client in understanding the designer's vision.

Not every project calls for this extra step of visualization. Then and now, it is really up to the designer and client whether to allow for this extra step in the project's budget and timeline.

Prior to computerization, renderings were done by designers or professional architectural illustrators to help clients visualize the built projects. These could be hand-colored plans in perhaps marker, colored pencil or watercolor. Or, these could be sketches showing traditional views in the form of perspectives, elevations, and sections, in black-and-white or color. Sometimes physical models were constructed using balsa wood, cardboard, foam, etc. Today, we have computerized versions of all of these visualization options, as well as some new forms of visualization: 3D models, with walkthrough or flythrough videos. The computer is also able to take a 3D model and, from it, rapidly generate any number of views, such as perspective, elevation or section.

II. Landscaping Construction

The greatest benefit of computerized design is likely more on the construction side than on the design or maintenance side of landscaping. Computerized designs are much easier to use to do calculations known as "takeoffs" necessary for bidding and installation. Takeoffs are measurements such as counts, distances and areas, to determine quantities of materials required for construction. These quantities are then used in calculating project construction costs. Computers greatly assist in automating this process.

The most recent breakthrough in construction technology using computerized design is what is known as "BIM" or Building Information Management. This type of computerized design is intelligent, because each point, line or polygon in the CADD system has attributes with information that are used to greatly automate the construction cycle. Normal CADD drawings are just lines drawn in cyberspace instead of on paper. BIM drawings are CADD drawings with intelligence, that can automatically output documents from one centralized "smart" drawing database that bridges across the entire construction process. For example, instead of just drawing lines to represent windows, walls, fences or plants, the designer tells the computer what he or she is drawing. The computer can then take the "smart" drawing and "know" what each line means, then further generate the entire suite of documents that bridge across the entire project cycle. The "smart" drawing can be controlled to output pretty visualization images, output construction documents for pulling permits and for use by the construction crews, calculate material schedules telling the project manager how much board feet of lumber to order, or how many plants to purchase, and generate construction timelines that show the construction schedule. This has enabled people to create buildings we otherwise would not have been able to create. One of the first examples of a building built using BIM is the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. Most landscaping programs today utilize attributes to some degree to assist landscape designers in automating the creation of documents for communication, such as LandCADD, Dynascape, Vizterra, and others. In the future we can anticipate continued advancements in BIM to improve the landscaping industry.

III. Landscaping Maintenance

The ability of a landscape maintenance crew to have digital versions of the landscape drawings to reflect as-built conditions is a vast improvement over "hard-copy" printed versions of drawings. The maintenance division can update drawings over time to reflect current conditions, to be more informed when maintaining a complex landscape. This is like having a live map. It can be kept updated in real time, and accessed digitally from remote devices. Improved information increases speed of quality and maintenance when running irrigation systems, managing large collections of trees and plants throughout the project, and managing seasonal maintenance schedules.

This type of mapping system is founded in the principles of GIS or Geographical Information Systems. GIS is basically "smart" maps. It is related to the BIM technology of "smart" construction. You probably use GIS every day when you use an online map or "GPS device" in your car. GIS is the same technology that drives online maps which coordinate with feeds from the GPS (Global Positioning Satellites) system. The GPS tells you a point of latitude and longitude, but the map tells you your proximity to the post office or restaurant. In the case of a landscaping maintenance map, this map would probably not need to coordinate with the GPS system, but would rather inform the managers about what type of trees are located where, and the location of underground pipes and utilities, and so forth.