ABSTRACT
Landscape architecture and landscape architects may have three rather different, although naturally interconnected, modes of interaction with computation. Landscapes designed with computation, and with embedded computation – call them "Turing landscapes" – are emergent, but still rare. Landscapes designed without computation and without embedded computation are very familiar – the vast majority of landscapes designed and built before the year 1990. Coexisting with, and often dependent upon custom coding, this form of "computation-aided-design" entails the greatest challenge to conceptions of landscape, of interaction and of design process and representation. Some of the earliest computer software introduced to landscape architects came from civil engineering, for such calculations as hydrologic runoff, cut and fill mass balance calculations, and coordinate geometry for horizontal and vertical road alignment. Writing code is less common than using software among landscape architects, but is becoming increasingly normal, as some working knowledge of coding, in some language, is becoming part of everyday training for design professionals.
