ABSTRACT
What are maps and diagrams in the context of landscape architecture, and why do landscape architects use them? A diagram is a symbolic representation of information for the purpose of communication. For landscape architects, this might mean an abstraction of a complex physical system, a visualization of change over time, the interconnected network of inputs or outputs, or the explanation of a design concept. The word map, meanwhile, while conjuring cartographic projections in the minds of most, is really a synonym for diagram in the broadest sense. When we consider that map, taken as a verb, means literally to forge an association between one thing and another, it becomes clear that both maps and diagrams are simply after one thing: the mapping of information to visuals.
