LAF Calls for Case Study Submissions

The Landscape Architecture Foundation has announced a call for submissions for its online case study database, seeking examples of research based on the LAF Case Study Method for Landscape Architecture. “We are expanding the web-based resources of our Land and Community Design Case Study Series to better serve the landscape architecture community, including students, academics, practitioners, and design professionals,” said Executive Director L. Susan Everett, FASLA. “Enhancing analysis, research, and learning is a significant objective for LAF.”

LAF’s case study method was written by Mark Francis, FASLA, University of California, Davis and published by LAF in 1999. This methodology provides uniformity in format and method, combining observational, attitudinal, archival, historical, qualitative, and quantitative analysis.

LAF’s case study method recommends three unique study types: site-based studies, issue-based case studies, and hypothetical case studies for teaching (to aid in training and theory development). Aside from their research value, case studies have become an invaluable teaching tool in academia, according to recent interviews conducted by LAF.

“Our students benefit from concrete examples in addition to abstract discussions,” said Lorn Clement, associate professor at Kansas State University. “The case study method is a way to be organized intellectually.” Professor Patrick Mooney from the University of British Columbia uses the LAF approach in his teaching and graduate advising. “What I like about Mark’s methodology is that it is very rigorous…. If you weren’t using the case study methodology, you wouldn’t have an awareness of the information that you don’t have.” Dr. Annmarie Adams, professor of architecture at McGill University, agrees that teaching by example is an effective academic approach. “For instance, I teach an undergraduate course in architectural history since World War II, and I focus on a single place so deeply that it becomes ingrained in the students’ memories, and they can recall the material forever.” The result is a greater ability to use the case study method to take learning and performance to another level.

“Teaching by example raises the bar for everyone,” said Clement. “In some instances I tell my students, here’s how it was done before, but don’t just copy what you see. Modify, translate, and go beyond the examples.”

In addition to its online database, LAF has published four case study books. The fifth book, Greening Cities, Growing Community, will be published by the University of Washington Press in June 2009. For more information about submitting a case study for publication in LAF’s Land and Community Design Case Study Series, visit www.lafoundation.org.