Songlines and Groundlines: Music and Landform Shaping Each Other

Abstract

This thesis examines similarities in music composition and landscape architectural composition, towards establishing a hybrid practice. The thesis considers landscapes and pieces of music to both be "places", as designed experiences: music evokes a place in the imagination, while landscape architecture creates a place of the body. A literature review collects relevant research and work in the fields of landscape architecture, architecture, and music. An initial design exercise evokes a landform garden designed for a site on the moon, conveyed through music. The main design work of the thesis creates a large park on a post-industrial site in Yakima, Washington. The thesis concludes that music and landscape architecture are both collaborative, flexible, improvised, and ecological types of design. In this design, bass and landform are treated as analogues, as ordering elements in a changing landcape or an improvised music. Music is also used as a way of intuitively crafting an open-ended narrative, which can be utilized to create a landscape design.