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After watching a very interesting ‘Grand Designs’ last night, I found myself quite fascinated by the people involved. Not the clients who ended up with the wonderful home of their dreams, but rather the duo of industrial designers who had never built a house before and took a ‘product design’ approach to this new venture. I think it showed that, despite not having a background in construction, a thorough knowledge of materials and processes enabled them to design something that could be built to a predictable cost, timescale and quality whilst also having the ability to problem-solve and adapt ‘on the go’.
Not for the first time I found myself wondering if a loosely defined set of practical experiences should be a mandatory part of a Landscape Architect’s training. More time spent cultivating ground, planting shrubs and trees, laying kerbs and building walls – surely this should be an invaluable part of our learning curve so that we thoroughly understand the materials and processes of our trade? Industrial designers need to know materials inside out to make sure that their products work. I reckon this applies to us too. As a firm we regularly participate in CPD (Continuing Professional Development) to update our product knowledge and I find this extremely useful. The only way it could be improved upon would be to gain first-hand experience of using the products we learn about, so that we truly get to know the full capabilities and limitations of these materials – we could then apply this knowledge to make our designs even better. If that’s going to be my goal and I’m not spending much time on site, it looks like I’m going to end up with a product testing ground where my garden should be!
