Four Trace Concepts in landscape Architecture

I am interestes in how one recognizes sites through design.

In the course of my own work I have unraveled four operating concepts that serve as tools for landscape investigation and design, especially with regard to recovering sites. these I call trace concepts because they cluster around issues of memory...

Landing, grounding, finding, and founding. Each concept also designates a specific attitude and action that in turn nurtures a process of design and landscape transformation.

Landing: It describes the specific moment when a designer still does not know anything about a place and yet is prepared to embark on a lengthy process of discovery

During landing, nothing is allowed to remain obvious or neutral to the designer; rather everything is apprehended with wonderment and curiosity, with subjective and interpretative eyes.

The individual's sense of landing is what matters most in the beginning, and it is precisely this ontological trust in initial intuition that needs to be restored and nurtured.

Grounding: Landing only happens once, at the beginning, immediate and distinct, whereas grounding recurs indefinitely. Grounding is more about reading and understanding a site through repeated visits and studies.

Finding: Finding entails the act and process of searching as well as the outcome, the thing discovered... they are something unique (though hidden) that definitely belongs to a place and contributes durably to its identity

Founding: Founding can be also understood as bringing something new to a place, something that may change and redirect a particular site.

By contrast, trace concepts enable designers to come to grips with their intuitions and experiences of place, allowing these imp`ressions to direct the unfolding of the project.