Social science methods in landscape architecture design

Abstract With the clarification of a human ecological method in planning there has been increased demand for an improved social method applicable to problems of a design scale. The degree of discrimination necessary for design decisions is often not found in the social and environmental data collected through general ethnography and natural-factor maps. In response to this methodological gap, a series of specific methods and techniques has been developed and tested in landscape architecture studios, forming the basis of a social method for design. Such a method allows students and practitioners to elicit information at an appropriate scale and introduces methodological rigor which offers opportunities for socially responsive design.