Date of Award:

5-2014

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA)

Department:

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning

Committee Chair(s)

Caroline Lavoie

Committee

Caroline Lavoie

Committee

Sarah E. Gordon

Committee

Phillip S. Waite

Abstract

For as long as humans have designed spaces, they have done so not just to meet basic physical needs but in quest of higher aspirations, including those spiritual and intellectual. These were spaces of contemplation, conducive to the transcendent experience, found in abundance in premodern times, and generally communal in nature. They are less prevalent now, yet there is ample evidence that the need for spaces of contemplation as well as transcendent experiences is as real as ever, despite the current lack of spaces providing such a transcendent connection. Past communal landscape design that provides for the possibility of the transcendent is found to incorporate a unique array of underlying principles guiding the physical attributes of spaces, including design criteria that: create a sense of vastness, incorporate archetypal design elements, minimize distracting stimuli, orient individuals within a larger order, and have harmonious spatial qualities. Reintroducing these commonly held design characteristics of contemplative spaces into public landscapes, though now experienced individually rather than communally, is a fundamental and necessary way to reflect this renewed interest in and need for transcendent experiences in the landscape, and could aid in addressing the modern Western phenomenon of spaces that lack the structure to support contemplation. Little research has been done, however, to evaluate the current use of and potential for existing public spaces as spaces of contemplation and possible transcendent experience.

A literature review of historical precedents establishing the five guiding categorical design criteria listed above, guides three case studies of public spaces in the Seattle, Washington area. Sites are selected from the Seattle area because of concentration and variety of spaces designed by well-known landscape architects and their proximity to the author. Individual sites were selected based on their public nature, variation in scale, purpose and location. These case studies, comprised of comparative analysis and my personal experience, highlight the benefits of further identifying and understanding necessary design elements of spaces of contemplation.

A discussion of implications related to possible benefits shows that incorporation of such spaces into community fabric presents many community and personal benefits to users. By looking at existing contemporary spaces as well as those from the past, this study seeks to describe the implications and unique opportunities available to landscape architects in addressing this aspect of integrated design. Analysis of these spaces strives to benefit future design of spaces that would be conducive to the transcendent.

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