23 - Breaking Bad
23 - Breaking Bad
23 - Breaking Bad
Ryan A. Hargrove
Introduction
This chapter begins with the acknowledgement that design students must go beyond
skill acquisition and develop a unique way of seeing and experiencing the world.
Educating future problem solvers involves a balance between finding their creative
muse and acquiring the technical skills and expertise to be valued as a professional.
In a perfect educational model, these two objectives come together, develop in par-
allel, and complement one another. However, not everyone as creative thinkers
develops in the same way or at the same pace. This journey is far less prescriptive
and requires one to look inward to find a creative balance between skilled develop-
ment and ways to apply it in creative ways. The willingness and ability to do so is
not easy for an 18-year-old who is just entering college, nor is it easy even for most
individuals regardless of age. Many students come to a university and have to over-
come preconceived notions and barriers that have been placed on them since the
time they were perhaps the most creative: when they were 5 years old. Many stu-
dents arrive to college life as teenagers and in a few short years they graduate and
reenter the outside world as young professionals. When they enter the profession,
their focus is typically not on creative thinking. The system is broken unless the goal
is to produce and employ professionals who are utilizing a full spectrum of creativ-
ity. The pedagogical approach highlighted in this chapter calls for landscape archi-
tecture educators to lead a radical change in education and outlines a roadmap for
adopting what may be the ultimate creative challenge of our lifetime: to produce
landscape architects who are as creative as they are skilled in their profession.
In this chapter, educators in landscape architecture are challenged to step outside
of their traditional role and answer a call to action to innovate in a current education
R. A. Hargrove (*)
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
e-mail: ryan.hargrove@uky.edu
system that may not fully endorse this perspective. This step would extend beyond
the built environment, and require landscape architects to look inward and share a
more creative approach in seeing and experiencing the world. This proclamation is
based on the realization that landscape architects are uniquely qualified to transform
the model of education in the United States (Berk, 2016; Davis, 2017). Landscape
architects can become agents of change on a much larger and impactful scale, help-
ing shape the creative capacity of the next generation.
It has always been important for students to be technically prepared and profession-
ally competent. However, the future requires a very different kind of person with a
very unique skill set (Florida, 2002; Hawkins, 2001). We are now a part of a new
world in which creative thinking is essential (Pink, 2006). Developing an under-
standing of creative processes can help to extend beyond the predictable outcomes
to create new, more innovative solutions to problems. Today’s decision makers must
use a variety of thinking styles, methodologies, and creative processes. They must
learn to leverage their unique perspectives that use tools and techniques that are
based on cutting-edge research.
If the goal is to develop students who are able to express a higher level of creativ-
ity, then educators must link educational activities to existing research in learning
theory and metacognition and develop approaches to learning that more effectively
enhance creativity (Sawyer, 2015). These approaches to learning must go beyond
those of the past with iteration and reflection as essential parts of the process. This
will enable us to go beyond teaching the way we were taught, to understand why
some strategies work and some do not, and to find new approaches that will develop
creativity in all of our students.
Design education is built upon the development of creative problem solving, a
skill that is largely absent in much of current K-12 educational enterprises (Davis,
2010a, 2010b; Wagner, 2012). The iterative process of discovery is fundamental to
how designers solve problems and ultimately engage in issue resolution. Landscape
architect educators in particular are trained to teach their students to serve as media-
tors, communicators, and empathizers—all skills identified as essential to creative
mastery (Brown, 2009; IDEO, 2015). They acquire a fundamental understanding of
the creative process and establish a shared language across many disciplines and
ways of thinking. Furthermore, fostering the ability to see the world with fresh eyes
and understand how to frame problems is essential to ensuring that future genera-
tions are equipped with the same creative capacity to thrive (Dorst & Cross, 2001;
Horowitz, 2014). The interplay of divergent and convergent thinking throughout the
phases of planning, guidance, modeling, and evaluation must all be part of even the
most ambitious and challenging design problems (Brown & Kuratko, 2015).
This chapter is a call for landscape architects to accept the challenge of helping
build a culture equipped to collectively innovate. In addition, this chapter will
23 Breaking Bad: The Role of Landscape Architecture in Shaping the Future… 275
The following collection of projects was all heavily influenced by a course devel-
oped at the University of Kentucky entitled LA 111: Living on the Right Side of the
Brain. This course challenges students to explore their creative thinking process
through the framework of metacognition, thinking about thinking. The course was
originally conceptualized and offered to landscape architecture students as an elec-
tive to supplement their studio curriculum. Several years ago when the university
implemented a new general education core curriculum, this course was chosen to
serve as one of the first offerings in the Creativity Inquiry category. This shift opened
the course to a countless number of students across campus who would never have
been exposed to the concept.
The goal of this course is for students to gain an understanding and awareness of
creative strategies that may be used in future problem solving. These strategies help
encourage creative thinking that leads to more innovative and novel solutions.
Students practice a metacognitive approach by reflecting on their own thinking in an
effort to enhance self-regulation and ultimately realize creative potential.
There are six major learning outcomes included for students participating in
this course:
• To be able to appreciate the influence of personal experiences on the creative
process.
• To successfully outline their creative process from early awareness and concep-
tualization to a more detailed realization.
• To evaluate various creative thinking strategies in relation to problem solving,
select a path of action, and justify their choice.
• Be adept at understanding the relationship between cognitive choices and per-
sonally or collectively held values.
• Be comfortable documenting their personal approach to the creative process.
276 R. A. Hargrove
• Be capable of applying the ongoing design and realization of their creative pro-
cess to not only their entire educational experience but more broadly to their
daily lives.
Students are exposed to modes of thinking, including the discovery, application,
integration, and the sharing of knowledge. This is accomplished in lecture format,
discussion sessions, and a variety of contemplation exercises. The latter are assigned
requiring writing enhanced with supplementary diagrams, sketches, and photos.
While asking students to reflect on content introduced throughout the semester,
these exercises are intended to externalize, articulate, and chronicle the develop-
ment of students’ creative process. The five reflective exercises include the follow-
ing subjects: Creative Self, Creative Making, Creative Reflection, Creative Search,
and Creative Lessons Learned.
An essential aspect of students’ reaching their creative potential is learning
through experience (Kolb, 1984; Moon, 2004). Therefore, in addition to the assigned
exercises and activities, part of this class involves requiring students to post and
comment on the class blog. There are two different types of activities on the blog.
The first activity involves reading responses. Students are required to participate as
an author on a weekly basis. The blog serves as a forum for reading discussions and
allows for the sharing of ideas. Ultimately this fosters discussion of various topics
related to this course and beyond. The second is response to the weekly Chatter
lecture series. Chatter promotes interaction and reflection with a collection of cre-
ative professionals who serve as guests throughout the semester. These interactions
focus on each individual and the role creativity has had in their past, present, and
will have in their future lives. Students are asked to post reflections/responses on the
blog in an effort to broaden their perspective on the creative process.
Finally, students’ work throughout the semester on a comprehensive thinking
exercise entitled the “Design Thought Model.” This project is intended to provide
students some scaffolding in the construction of a personal creative process.
Students’ creative and metacognitive thinking is assessed through this final design
project for the course. In this summative, performance-based project students are
required to construct a three-dimensional personal philosophy of their creative pro-
cess (Fig. 23.1). The project is non-discipline-specific in nature and places an
emphasis on the awareness and understanding of one’s personal creative thought
processes. The project guidelines are provided at the beginning of the semester to
allow students the duration of the semester to consider their response. The process
requires students to first provide a written summary of their design process during
the semester. Next, they transform their written explanation into a three-dimensional
expression of their philosophy. Last, at the end of the semester, an exhibit is held in
which students are required to present to neutral judges how their philosophy is
represented in their model. Giving students the opportunity to create a physical
artifact affords them the opportunity to externalize the cognitive processes of cre-
ative problem solving.
Students are also responsible for attendance and participation in weekly work-
shop sessions, first participating in hands-on problem-solving activities and then
23 Breaking Bad: The Role of Landscape Architecture in Shaping the Future… 277
One of the projects that evolved from the LA 111 course is an experience called The
Creative Study Tour. Born out of the overwhelming positive impact of the Chatter
Series lectures, this project was conceived as the next step, seeking creative insight
and perspective from leading designers across the country. Led by a landscape
architecture educator, this experience provides small groups of students who are the
first generation of their family to attend college the opportunity to travel and interact
with various creative professionals. Through the support of the University of
Kentucky First Scholar Program, past trips have included Louisville, Nashville,
278 R. A. Hargrove
St. Louis, Chicago, Indianapolis, New York City, and many others. The group typi-
cally consists of only six to eight students to allow for interactions to happen in a
very personal way. The meetings are typically informal and explore the themes of
person, place, and story. Usually the interactions occur in a meaningful space; a
studio for an artist, kitchen for a chef, building being constructed for an architect,
library for a children’s book author, etc. Discussions are generally interactive and at
times revealing on many levels. Basic subjects relative to a participant’s story, their
current work, lessons they have learned about their creative process, etc., are all
common elements, but often the discussion opens a window into their creative spirit
and way of being.
Each year a trip is planned around multiple stops with a collection of participants
(graphic designers, landscape architects, children’s book authors, chefs, singer/
songwriters, architects, illustrators, fashion designers, and many more). As the
Creative Study Tour has evolved so has the documentation component. The first two
trips were captured through books detailing students’ reflections. Three years ago, a
videographer was hired to follow the group and capture the experience with student
narration. In addition, students were asked to record audio after each stop in an
effort to capture their reflections in the moment. The past 2 years have focused on
trips to New York City and included artist Veronica Lawlor documenting the entire
trip through a series of illustrations (Fig. 23.2). These reportage style illustrations
help capture the dialogue and emotion of the encounters between students and pro-
fessionals. They include a beautiful melding of reflective and instructive content
from both students and professionals. Finally, it is important to emphasize just how
transformative these trips are for everyone involved. The more than 50 students who
have participated in the tours identified this experience as one of the most influential
in not only their academic careers but their lives. Perhaps the greatest impact is
simply building students’ creative confidence as they recognize the shared experi-
ence of all who engage in creative problem solving.
Gear Up Kentucky
In 2017, an opportunity arose following the success of LA 111 and the Creative
Study Tour to impact a younger demographic across the state of Kentucky. Gear Up
Kentucky was a six-year grant program funded by the U.S. Department of Education
from 2011 to 2017. The program served 29 middle schools and their corresponding
high schools in the state of Kentucky. Students who attended a Gear Up school and
entered the seventh grade in 2011, 2012, or 2013 were Gear Up Kentucky students.
The program provided services for students beginning in seventh grade continuing
until at least 2017. One of these services was the Summer Academy offered during
students’ junior and senior years of high school. These immersive experiences were
offered in partnership with universities across the state of Kentucky in order to best
prepare students for college and career readiness.
23 Breaking Bad: The Role of Landscape Architecture in Shaping the Future… 279
Fig. 23.2 Illustration capturing an interaction between students and a professional during the
2017 Creative Study Tour
The 2017 Summer Academy at the University of Kentucky shifted from previous
iterations and focused on developing students’ creative thinking capacity. A four-
week deep dive was designed and led by landscape architecture instructors and
students to foster creative growth through the framework first established in LA 111
and The Creative Study Tour. With an emphasis on self-reflection, experiential
problem solving, and interaction with a diverse group of creative professionals the
Summer Academy became a wonderful laboratory in pursuit of creative knowledge
relative to both problem solving and pedagogy (Fig. 23.3). During the 2017 Summer
Academy, 22 high school students and their instructors engaged in an immersive
creative problem-solving experience designed to investigate the future of education
programs like Gear Up in Kentucky and generate innovative pathways moving for-
ward. For these 4 weeks, students were introduced to a new way of thinking, The
Creative Process.
Of particular importance is the role landscape architecture faculty and students
played in stepping outside of their traditional role in both designing and leading this
experience to high school students. Landscape architecture students and subse-
quently the participating high school students helped reimagine education at all
levels and across various modes of engagement. This project and others represent a
model upon which a larger effort can build to effect change in education.
280 R. A. Hargrove
Fig. 23.3 Working with Gear Up students to pitch their creative solutions
Into the Fog
The third project to be highlighted was most recently completed and represents a
collection of all that was learned in the previous examples. Into the Fog worked
closely with a multidisciplinary student team from the University of Kentucky and
Vanderbilt University to explore ways to foster individual and team creative growth.
Together the team focused their efforts on (1) solving a design challenge “How
might institutions of higher education develop creative problem solving through
immersive educational experiences?” and (2) creative process documentation of the
entire project. This documentation was collected throughout the semester through a
variety of digital mediums and shared on the project webpage. In addition, a series
of exhibition boards were created as a final project deliverable that directly addressed
the original challenge question.
This project is worthy of recognition, as it provides a window into how any cre-
ative individual might pursue their own creative growth by stepping Into the Fog.
This project was conceptualized by a landscape architecture faculty member and
executed by a landscape architecture student as a part of their senior project. By
their very nature landscape architects must be creative in their professional pursuits.
However, this project offers a framework for any student seeking to develop profi-
ciency at solving creative problems and does so through the exploration of self.
The purpose of this project was to illuminate three foundational beliefs regarding
creativity and personal growth. One, everyone is creative. It is a learned compe-
tence, defined broadly, realized differently for each person (Runco, 2004). Two,
23 Breaking Bad: The Role of Landscape Architecture in Shaping the Future… 281
Fig. 23.4 Outline of the Into the Fog project highlighting the interplay of production and reflection
Looking Back
Moving Forward
This chapter describes how landscape architecture educators have embraced the
challenge to shape the future of higher education at the University of Kentucky with
the hope that it will serve as an example for other institutions to follow. A response
to this call may take many forms and levels of involvement. Therefore, in continuing
the progression of experiences highlighted in this chapter, this final example is pro-
vided to first show that one such commitment is possible and second that ultimately
this goal will be achieved through action in a continuous cycle of refinement. This
timely and comprehensive initiative that was directed by a single landscape archi-
tecture educator at one university was ambitious but was well positioned to be suc-
cessful. The goal is for this program to grow into a more permanent fixture at the
University of Kentucky and become a more commonly followed model across the
country.
Beginning in the fall 2018 semester at the University of Kentucky, a cohort of
landscape architecture students and faculty will pilot a program that engages stu-
dents across undergraduate and graduate education in creative problem solving with
a focus on fostering creative leadership. As shown in Fig. 23.5, the newly launched
program, titled Muse, borrows from all of the previous experiences outlined in this
chapter while attempting to create a truly immersive experience aimed at elevating
284 R. A. Hargrove
students into creative agents of change. It will ask senior undergraduate students in
landscape architecture to lead diverse groups of freshman students enrolled in LA
111 through the beginning stages of creative inquiry before transitioning into a sec-
ond semester involving the latter stages of prototyping and testing with stakeholders
and professional partners. In this model, the landscape architecture students are
developing skills as leaders in creative problem solving through the engagement,
teaching, and reflection with less experienced students. They will then be chal-
lenged to develop these ideas, insight, and experiences into real solutions and test
each in collaboration with various communities of interest. This model is proposed
as a vital step for students post undergrad to acquire expertise in creative leadership
through a collective deep dive into a complex problem. It is the experience of work-
ing in a leadership capacity, negotiating the problem while helping others find their
creative muse that will equip them to fill a void so desperately needed throughout
our world. The impact of the lone creative genius is insignificant compared to the
capacity to foster in others the ability to see and experience the world through a
creative lens.
This pilot model will include a two-semester experience that begins with land-
scape architecture students serving in a leadership capacity and transitions into ver-
tical creative studio with these landscape architecture students being assisted by
graduate students from various disciplines, community and industry partners, and
high school students seeking college credit. This team will seek to test, prototype,
and model potential solutions before proposing a final action plan and helping
stakeholders launch the solution into action. At the end of this pilot period, the pro-
gram will be evaluated and modified for university approval as a permanent certifi-
cation or degree.
By building off of the previous experiences, this model incorporates aspects that
help foster creative thinking while adding the critical piece of leadership. It is this
last piece that elevates the student into a position of influence and action and pro-
motes the notion of creative problem solving as a foundation to higher education.
The goal is that responses to this call for action, such as this program, will empower
other educators in landscape architecture to seek opportunities to influence. And in
doing so build a network of experiences aimed at illuminating complex problems
and elevating students with the capacity for transformative change.
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