Design is Driven by Constraint

One of our last sessions, forever memorable, an Ex-Con stood breathless and dumbfounded in disbelief. No slogans? It was, after all, Don Walker's first year running The Conway School without founder Walt Cudnohufsky pitching his infamous design slogans. After a brief pause to collect and compose, timeless design idioms began pouring out one after another into our sponging minds. From that chilly Spring morning in the Conway sugarhouse, a seeming lifetime of sustainable landscape planning and designing ago, these principles and innumerable others continue to prove useful tools for living, as well as for planning and designing sustainably. 

One, design is driven by constraint, reminds me when life is difficult an opportunity to innovate using other design tools beckons. Say that my friend wants to go to a movie and I need exercise. Hmm, if design is driven by constraint then inherent in the problem is a solution. By parking some distance away or walking from home/work to the theater we both get our needs met.

The most difficult design is done in thin air on a blank slate. Even before site analysis begins, every landscape plan and design begins with a base map drawn to scale with: a scale, contour lines, a north arrow, significant existing natural and built features, and context.

 

Now digital layers or thin sheets of trace paper can overlay the base map to analyze the site's constraints. Constraints - winter and summer sun/shade, views in/out, vehicular and pedestrian circulation, vegetation and wildlife, drainage, microclimate, wildfire, summer/winter wind, snow - drive design.