Designing in a different place

Abstract

Landscape architecture's ability to address the challenge of designing in a different culture is limited by its own reliance on standardized methods of representation. Using the village of Bandafassi, Senegal, West Africa as a study site, this thesis employs digital video as a way to critique the process of understanding the landscape of a different culture. The body of this work is divided into two parts; an experimental portion consisting of a DVD that explores video’s potential as landscape inventory, analysis and design representation, and a written theoretical portion serving as an interpretation of the DVD, and a broad conceptual inquiry into video and its relation to space, place, time and perception in the landscape. This product aims to contribute to a continual rethinking and redefining of a representational vocabulary within the field of landscape architecture with the intent to portray landscapes as dynamic living systems rather than static images.