A Pattern Language - Christopher Alexander

I have finally decided on a title for my critical study "The relationship between theory and design; Kingston upon Thames", it goes on about something that I have always had a very keen interest on which is theory in Landscape design. This book is amazing for my title, it really goes into amazing detail on how towns and cities should theoretically work and not work. It looks at neighbouring boundaries, shopping, water, buildings, transport everything I could possibly imagine it has, a great resource in tackling my critical study.
Here is an Abstract from my work:

As I have spent the last few years in Kingston studying I have always thought it was a well likeable place and attracted many people to its walls. It’s one of those rare towns that seem to have it all and people seem to want to live there. In all the years I’ve been there I’ve rarely seem much crime and the town centre itself seems clean and inviting. As I’m studying Landscape Architecture at Kingston University naturally my curiosity as to how the planning and design behind it all has created what seems to be a successful layout. So then if I think it is successful then perhaps I can use that knowledge of how it has been achieved and apply it to planning and design for my own work. Then I began to think about how since my first year at university I was introduced to the idea of how theory can shape design. I believe that paying attention to theoretical ideas can enhance our own ideas of what design and planning should be like. So by doing a comparison I can begin to comprehend if that statement is correct or wrong.

Digital Drawing for Landscape Architecture

This is another book that will enhance my software skills, this book focuses on photoshop, Illustrator and touches on AutoCAD. It helps me to illustrate my ideas and concepts in a manner that is professional. Luckily the university has this as an E-book which means I am able to read this for free.

AutoCAD 2011 No experience required

One of my aims is to become better at software programmes and AutoCAD is one of those programmes. This book will give me a great start and base for developing 2D and 3D based diagrams that will enhance my work and skill. The reason I got a book as oppose to looking at tutorials online is because I work better looking at books. This is an important skill and strength that I have identified.

Constructing Landscapes, Astrid Zimmermann (ED)

Constructing landscapes is a mammoth version of Landscape Architects Pocket book. This is one of my favourite books as it has so much detail in how to construct a site from the most basic materials. It has rich colourful images that compliment the size of the book adding more detail. This book has helped me better understand what goes on underneath a landscape project and shows things that are normally hidden.

Detail in Contemporary Landscape Architecture by Virginia McLeod

Detail in Contemporary Landscape Architecture is a great tool when needing to look at precedent; it has a wide variety of projects across the globe. It comes with very rich and colourful images of the projects as well as the detailed structural designs that go with it. At times I was stuck on how to create my construction detail so I would look at similar designs and adapt them to my design. A CD also accompanies the book with images of all the construction detailing of the projects. You could open the images up on AutoCAD but the layers have all been flattened.

Landscape Architect's pocket book by Siobhan Vernon (Author), Nicola Garmory (Author), Rachel Tennant (Author)

The Landscape Architect's pocket book is a great way of looking up essential information from various materials to the correct measurement needed to plant a tree; it even goes into how the legal side works. The book itself is quite small and the print inside is in black and white with few images. This book has been a great source of information during my second year and is well worth purchasing and reading over daily to sink in the cast amount of information this small book holds.

Barbara Stauffacher Solomon

While working on a project to re design "the Quad" at uni, i was given a landscape Architect to study, this happened to be Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, who in my opinion has the most amazing presentational drawings that are incredibly imaginative and creative. She without a doubt has inspired me to draw like her, he drawings are beautiful and colorful.