Subject: Re: Landscape - The Millenium Approaches

From: Roberta Hardy <[email-masked]>
Date: 25 Jul 1995 15:30:30 GMT

[email-masked] (Ed Armstrong)

Thanks for the general invitation to gab about my favorite subject! Ed,
your interests are very close to my own (and I considered applying to U.
of Ore. because it's so beautiful there). I'm
currently working on my MLA at the Univ. of Michigan, and I don't yet
know for sure what my thesis topic will be, but what I think I'd like to
do is this: pick a small, neglected urban site--something like an alley
or courtyard. Small is the key word. Then research techniques on 
conservation of space and especially enhancement of perception of space,
or maybe just limit
it to the latter of my topic turns out to be too big. Then I'd like to
create several alternative
designs of the space utilizing some of these techniques, and do a 3-D
computer visualization
of each one. Then I'd test the designs on some subjects to see which they
found most satisfying. I haven't talked to any faculty yet about this,
and maybe it's way too ambitious,
since I haven't yet learned CAD, but it sounds really interesting to me.
What's basically motivating me in this idea is: 1. a fascination with
small, intimate, yet
mysterious spaces  2. an interest in the psychological aspects of
landscapes  3. an interest in beautifying cities  and  3. a strong hunch
that CAD is the wave of the future in LArch, and in particular, *my*
future. 
If you're ever in Ann Arbor, drop me a line and I'll give you a tour of
the LA studios at U of M.
--Roberta