As found in the Nordic tradition of the Ting and the proto-parliamentary German Ding, Things once pertained to landscape-based community assemblies for discussing matters of importance. Over time, as these forums moved indoors, the meaning of the word thing drifted towards its current use to refer to inanimate objects or events to which we are indifferent. Divested of its thingness, the concept of landscape also shifted from an active agent in cultural practice to a physical scene. Set within this historical context, the article explores design mechanisms for re-envisioning the landscape-thing in the present day. Drawing on concepts from the diverse cross-disciplinary field of thing theory, the article sketches a framework that considers the role, shape, and representation of contemporary landscape-things. This framework contributes to the advancement of landscape agency in the field.

Despite on-going advances in digital visualization technologies, the messy complexity of the corporeal landscape remains a challenging subject to represent. Nevertheless, realism-oriented rendering software developed in other fields drives an escalating supply and demand for hyper-realistic visualizations of design propositions. Through the lenses of perception, technology, technique, practice, and education, this paper argues that the limitations associated with hyper-realism in landscape design visualization are profound. In its place, the paper frames an adaptable visualization rubric that is more suited to the varied nuances of the landscape, while also complementing the intermediate skills of many designers who undertake landscape visualization.

Despite resurgent interest in landscape, the viability of landscape architecture has been questioned from within the field. The article positions this uncertainty as a symptom of shifts among the spatial design disciplines, which are enmeshed in a process of appropriation, relinquishment, and overlap of territory. Whereas the convergence of the spatial design disciplines has been interpreted as emblematic of landscape-based trans-disciplinary practice, a more contested cross-disciplinary interaction is identified and explored through analysis of design competition prizes and professional magazines. The discussion focusses on the interactions between architecture and landscape architecture, and considers potential implications for education and practice.

Many post-industrial cities are infused with ready-made spaces for non-vehicular circulation in the form of webs of linear voids that often result from industrial era infrastructure. There have been many successful conversions of individual linear easements into greenways, although attempting to craft continuous green-networks from these residual spaces is often problematic. This paper considers how designers and planners might start to reconcile the aspirations of the green-network as a model and an idea with the actual opportunities on the ground as typically found in post-industrial cities. Central to the discussion is an extension of Robert Searns' greenway generational rubric, whereby the present generation of greenways is described as complete webs to rival the grey infrastructure of the incumbent city fabric. Within this framework, the paper elaborates on a number of themes: (1) how effective green-networks are at influencing urban form; (2) the green-network as a counterbalance to the city; (3) speed versus slowness; (4) issues of intersection and grade separation; (5) the concept of interwoven green/grey space; and (6) the greenway network model versus the standalone circuit. The paper concludes with a call for expanding the greenway nomenclature to reflect the actual diversity of the genre. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.