How Useful are the Concepts of Erasure, Origination, Transformation and Migration in Teaching?

The concept of landscape urbanism favours an open-ended approach to landscape design. It questions the use of traditional methods of teaching design, which have, it argues, led to fixed landscape architectural solutions. A student project was developed, whose aim was to assess the educational value of such an approach to fieldwork within this theoretical debate. It used an open-ended, randomised and dynamic method to understand existing conditions and speculate about future landscapes. The quality of the educational experience and outcome was investigated using questionnaire and SWOT analysis. The fieldwork method chosen was based on the concepts of erasure, origination, transformation and migration. Findings showed that the randomisation of sites visited enabled a different set of analytical constructs to be established, which might otherwise have remained obscured by traditional preconceptions about the landscape. However, some students found the vocabulary of erasure, origination, transformation and migration (EOTM) to be confusing, repetitive and overlapping. They also had difficulty in recognising that the processes of EOTM can occur simultaneously. Whilst they linked the method with some visual explorations, it proved more difficult to relate to the vocabulary and methods of conventional landscape character analysis. The study concluded that the method was applicable at a landscape planning scale and in a variety of development scenarios. It also proved successful in engendering active group discussion and engagement, which could provide a model for real life consultation. However, to be fully effective, process led and student-centred methods of teaching design should be used earlier in students' development in the design studio and related to other ways of understanding landscape.