While academic research on landscape architecture has been well-studied, little is known about the emerging research being conducted within professional offices. LARP Professor and Chair, Robert Ryan, address this critical gap in his new study, “Research in Landscape Architecture Design Firms: Lessons from Practice," published in the November 2023 issue of Landscape Journal, one of the top journals in landscape architecture.
During his sabbatical, Professor Ryan interviewed research leaders in the private sector, which led him to discover a breadth of project-based applied research within landscape architecture firms. These studies are addressing a wide range of topics, from structural urban soils to behavioral observations of urban plaza users. Professor Ryan also explored the motivations for different firms to engage in research, relationships between research and practice, and perceptions of the research skills needed by employees.
“Research in Landscape Architecture Design Firms: Lessons from Practice” was presented at the American Society of Landscape Architecture Conference in San Francisco in fall 2022.
This article is available for free until mid-December at https://lj.uwpress.org/content/wplj/42/2/129.full.pdf.