Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Site grading is typically taught as a stand-alone course in the tech-
nology stream of a landscape architecture or allied discipline curricu-
lum. While this approach will most likely continue, there is a growing
consideration for greater integration of site grading, and technology in
general, with the design studio stream. This topic is written to address
the ambition to achieve a greater integration of design and site grading
by placing emphasis on the design implications of site grading and pre-
senting the material visually as well as textually. In considering how to
approach writing this text, the author recognizes that students enter a
program with an academic preparation and set of life experiences influ-
enced greatly by computer and other technology.
a picture iS Worth a thouSand WordS
Walking around a high school or college campus, one will quickly
notice that most of the students' heads are tilted downward as they
walk across campus or sit amongst their friends, with thumbs flying,
either texting or doing Google searches. College students come into
academic life well versed in and adept at a range of computer skills,
and they expect the computer to be their primary means of doing their
course assignments, including those in landscape architecture studio
courses. While these students are highly computer literate, they may
not have a sound grasp of the physicality of the world. I mean by this,
that they may not understand concepts of scale or have knowledge of
the physical attributes of the material world they pass through every
day (such as its dimensions, construction materials and details, and
design codes). This statement may not ring true for everyone, but it
would benefit students to give them more hands-on experience of the
materials they will be working with in solving for grading solutions.
This text attempts to provide as close a hands-on experience as pos-
sible of the physical elements that a course in grading must address
for the students. Actual examples, photographed in the everyday land-
scape, are integrated with the text (as in Figures 1.5-A and 1.5-B).
Figures 1.5-A and 1.5-B are examples of the type of diagrams
that have been developed throughout the topic. Photograph A shows
