Before we get into the next phase of Landscape Architecture as Storytelling design process I want to return to my journey. I was so excited with what I was learning by playing with The Analogy; so excited I wanted to share it with other design students and instructors. I got the chance. I shared The Analogy and my excitement with a University of Virginia design studio. It turned out to be a necessary yet unexpected turning point in my search for an easy, fun way to approach and develop landscape designs.
At the conclusion of my presentation of The Analogy and after some Q & A, the late Harry Porter asked “What’s the moral of the story? What do I do with The Analogy?” I had no idea. I was having too much fun learning about design to consider going further. Harry’s question made me realize I hadn’t gone far enough in my thinking. I know I gave Harry a response but not an answer. That question not only bothered me but also stuck with me for years. While I really wasn’t comfortable with any kind of answer I came up with, it lingered in some recess in the back of my mind preparing me for when I met and started a lasting friendship with John Conron. John was an English and American Studies professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. His passion was landscape as depicted though history in texts (diaries, ships’ logs, cargo manifests), literature, poetry, and paintings. John became my mentor and, through various exercises and studies, made me realize the answer to Harry Porter’s question, “What do I do with The Analogy?” Even so, it took a while to sink in. I can be slow on the uptake at times. Eventually, the answer was “the development of a narrative,” specifically a landscape narrative as read by people who participate in landscape designs. Stated differently we can now consider designers as authors, landscapes (structures and interiors) as texts, and those who participate in the final designed environments as the readers of those texts – or narratives.