Landscape Design Project
For our semester in art, we were prompted with one of the most real and impactful tasks for our community that I've ever done for a school project. We were assigned to redesign and re-landscape a portion of the front of the school, shown above. We decided that the space served no purpose and didn't look all that great either, so why not make a change?
Above are a few more pictures of the original site.
So, where do a couple of tenth graders even start with a huge project like this? Well we do what High Tech High does best. We critique the current landscape.
We got into our design teams of six or seven people and thought up what we thought we could change with the area. What kinds of things could we incorporate, if we had infinite possibilities, well realistic infinite possibilities at least.
We went outside and sketched up what we thought we could do with the space, if it was based solely on our input, and at the end, met back up with our groups and shared what we thought the space could incorporate, or what it was lacking.
Here are a few of my personal rough sketches.
So, where do a couple of tenth graders even start with a huge project like this? Well we do what High Tech High does best. We critique the current landscape.
We got into our design teams of six or seven people and thought up what we thought we could change with the area. What kinds of things could we incorporate, if we had infinite possibilities, well realistic infinite possibilities at least.
We went outside and sketched up what we thought we could do with the space, if it was based solely on our input, and at the end, met back up with our groups and shared what we thought the space could incorporate, or what it was lacking.
Here are a few of my personal rough sketches.
After getting together with our groups, we tried to find some commonalities between all our drawings. Using what we found, we made a list of survey questions that we would use to interview other students and teachers on what they thought the space was lacking, or ideas of what they would want to see in that space.
Here is the list of survey questions my group and I came up with.
After surveys students from all different grades, and teachers, we then compiled our data and organized it by grades. Another group member and I conducted most of the interviewing and compiling of the data. If things were repeated more than once, we said how many times it was mentioned.
Here is the list of survey questions my group and I came up with.
- Thinking about the space out front, what’s our school lacking out there?
- Do how do you want it to feel?
- Color schemes?
- More shade?
- Hang out space or solitary?
- Open or closed space?
- What are important components you’d want in this area?
- Do you want lots of water areas?
- Walk through area, scenery, or sitting?
- How would it look from the commons?
- Plant life?
- Lots of structures?
- Themes of area, regarding plants and/or structures?
After surveys students from all different grades, and teachers, we then compiled our data and organized it by grades. Another group member and I conducted most of the interviewing and compiling of the data. If things were repeated more than once, we said how many times it was mentioned.
Ninth Grade
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Tenth Grade
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Eleventh Grade
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Twelfth Grade
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Teachers
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Using the data we collected, we started making new drafts of what people wanted to see happen with the space. We came up with several main compnenets that the majority of people wanted, including shade, a pathway to walk through the space, and bright trees and plants.
Before moving onto creating more designs, one of the tasks was to create a scale drawing of the original site. I took on the task of measuring the area, doing the calculations to convert it to scale, and then drawing the model so it was accurate. I included the perimeter of the area, the trees, and where other plants were located. The minimum requirement for this was just the regular drawing, but I decided to color it and make a key.
Before moving onto creating more designs, one of the tasks was to create a scale drawing of the original site. I took on the task of measuring the area, doing the calculations to convert it to scale, and then drawing the model so it was accurate. I included the perimeter of the area, the trees, and where other plants were located. The minimum requirement for this was just the regular drawing, but I decided to color it and make a key.
After this was complete, we had something we could overlay tracing paper on and create new designs based on the current site, that was also to scale. Now that we had more to build off of, we started making newer, better, and more realistic designs. We incorporated our own ideas as well as the rest of the schools.
But one of the most important parts of this project was not only making designs and being creative, but to research plants, grasses, seating, pathways, ponds, and more. This was definitely one of the more challenging aspects of the project, especially in the beginning, because we had no idea where to start. We ended up having each person in our group research and become an expert about five different plants that they would like to put into the design. We had to find out if they could sustain our climate, when they were in season, how big they got, colors, and more. Here is a list of plants we researched.
But one of the most important parts of this project was not only making designs and being creative, but to research plants, grasses, seating, pathways, ponds, and more. This was definitely one of the more challenging aspects of the project, especially in the beginning, because we had no idea where to start. We ended up having each person in our group research and become an expert about five different plants that they would like to put into the design. We had to find out if they could sustain our climate, when they were in season, how big they got, colors, and more. Here is a list of plants we researched.
- Trailing Lantanas
- Monkey Flowers
- Pink Murphy Grass
- Palo Verde
- Kangaroo Paws
- Grevillea
- Pepper Tree
- Lantanas
- Beach Sunflower
- Jacaranda Tree
- Marigolds
- Lewisia cotyledon 'Sunset Strain'
- Eco-Lawn Fescue grass
- Orange Cape Honeysuckle
- Mock Orange
- Jade Plant
- White Lily of the Nile
- Australian Flame Tree
- Fraxinus Velutina
- Arizona Ash
- Honeylocust, Thornless
- Desert Evening Primrose
- Hummingbird Trumpet
- California Lilac
Next we started our first draft of our design. Our group went through many rough sketches to find what we wanted to call our first draft, and actually ended up with two first drafts. Here are some of the photos of our sketches and first drafts.
After completing our first draft, we got critique from our teacher, and then continued onto our second draft.
After having some really good critique and knowing what direction we were going with with the design, things started to come together. At this point, here is what we have going into our second draft.
After having some really good critique and knowing what direction we were going with with the design, things started to come together. At this point, here is what we have going into our second draft.
After our second draft, we were given a few new requirements that changed our design. We couldn't use a water feature and we had to incorporate a statue that the senior class would be building, a six foot metal raptor, representing our schools mascot. So we took out the pond and bridge completely, and replaced the fountain with the raptor sculpture. We also included moveable wooden tree stumps that can be used as seating, to make the area more customizable to different groups of students using the space.
Here is our final top down view of the space and four vignettes of different point of view of the area.
Here is our final top down view of the space and four vignettes of different point of view of the area.
After completing that, we finished our elevation drawing, a pie chart of the survey data, the design team logo, a scale model of the site, a google sketch up of the site, and paragraphs explaining why we did the things we did in the design.
Here is our final design board, which I designed and put together in photoshop.
Here is our final design board, which I designed and put together in photoshop.
We also had some of our drafts of the design and how we got from point A to point B.
All in all, this project turned out extremely well and I believe it is a perfect example of beautiful work. All of the time and effort that all the members in our group put in really paid off, and I believe our design board was the cleanest most professional one out of them all.