A Design for Life

What are the special challenges of communication in the information age? It is ironic that in an age of rapidly developing communications technologies, people are in fact turning inward and becoming more withdrawn. There is no doubt that the development of the Internet, e-mail and similar technologies have made possible instantaneous global communication, unrestrained by national borders. The technology itself is neutral, it can be a force for good or for evil, bringing people closer together or fuel hatred, depending on the motivation of the people using it. We have not yet seen the new communications technology being fully and wisely utilised to bring people together. The result is that while the physical and technical barriers to communication are coming down, the walls separating people in their hearts are in some senses growing higher. The more we rely on one-way communication, like radio or TV, static words in print or images on a computer screen, the more I feel we need to...

I found Foster's analysis of Landscape Architecture to be not only thorough but exciting and diverse. The personal interviews offer a variety of creative approaches, values, and career paths, a human touch often lacking in career reference materials. The literature also illustrates the artistic, environmental and social aspects of a profession that, while fast-growing, is still frequently misunderstood.  Reading this book was energising for me as a landscape architecture student. The beautifully designed book by Kelleann Foster is well-written and carefully crafted. It is inspirational in the way she defines the exciting field of landscape architecture and its future through the words of a diverse range of practicing landscape architects and students. Foster skilfully portrays and presents how landscape architects differ from other design professionals in how they approach problem solving and create innovative solutions through a range of skills in tune with both the natu...

Somewhere in the Czech. I remember a wonderful poem we studied and had to learn at school by Robert Frost an American writer from the deep South of America - Alabama. As a fifteen year old girl, it was too great for me to contemplate, but now I truly understand it. Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length O stormy, stormy world, The days you were not swirled Around with mist and cloud, Or wrapped as in a shroud, And the sun's brilliant ball  Was not in part or all Obscured from mortal view-- Were days so very few I can but wonder whence I get the lasting sense Of so much warmth and light. If my mistrust is right It may be altogether From one day's perfect weather, When starting clear at dawn The day swept clearly dawn To finish clear at eve. I verily believe My fair impression may Be all from that one day No shadow crossed but ours As through its blazing flowers We went from house to wood For change of solitude. Frost is talking about how mixed experience is and how...

Biophilia, humankind’s innate biological connection with nature, compels us to seek particular types of habitats, refuges and vantage points. As much as we might build and arrange our homes around seemingly logical and practical considerations, our biological instincts often beg to differ. If I reflect on my life over the last twenty years it is apparent to me that despite the many care free years spent as a child where being outdoors and unaware dominated my days, a large portion of those years was spent inside at a desk, more often than not using a computer. I am greatly inspired by the principle of the Attention Restoration Theory, referred to in the article, which highlights how 'nature can replenish our mental and attentional capacity after we’ve tired our brains out from too much “directed attention”. That is, nature can reactivate the tired parts, and so we can enjoy “effortless attention” for a short while at least.'  I recognise the huge significance of living my life ...

' Aesthetic - originates from the Greek term aesthetics - what is perceived through the senses. From its origin arose a concern with how we respond to what we see. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, aesthetics concerned ideas of beauty and claims to judgements of taste. In the later part of the nineteenth century, aestheticism was a movement which attempted to situate art outside of context or history. More recently the word aesthetic is often used to refer to an artist's overall practice or style, ie. 'Picasso's aesthetic'. '  Aesthetic is crisp off the tongue and sounds medicinal like it belongs in a jar on the shelf of a French pharmacy. ' Grand Tour - an eighteenth century custom and rite of passage whereby the wealthy travelled to centres of classical culture, especially Rome and Naples, in order to complete their social, moral and aesthetic education. The more intrepid travelled on to Sicily and Greece.' A Grand Tour is such a privilege ...

The one ingredient on which any recovery from serious mental illness depends is also one which, curiously and grievously, never makes an appearance in any medical handbook or psychiatric diagnostic, namely love. The word is so fatefully associated with romance and sentimentality that we overlook its critical role in helping us to keep faith with life at times of overwhelming psychological confusion and sorrow. Love – whether from a friend, a partner, an offspring, a parent – has an indomitable power to rescue us from mental illness. We might go so far as to say that anyone who has ever suffered from mental illness and who recovers will do so – whether they consciously realise it or not – because of an experience of love. By extension, no one has ever fallen gravely mentally ill without – somewhere along the line – having suffered from a severe deficit of love. Love turns out to be the guiding strand running through the onset of, and recovery from, our worst episodes of mental unwellnes...

A time of renewed hope.  Is the purpose of life to find a mode of being that is so purposeful that the fact that life is suffering is no longer relevant? Do not assume malevolence where ignorance is sufficient. Humility - thinking of yourself less.