The Original Landscape Cartoonist on The Future of Sustainable Design

An Interview with UC Berkeley Professor Chip Sullivan

Photo by Micha Dunston, Triple Spiral Productions

Chip Sullivan is a landscape architect and artist who maintains a lifelong commitment to the exploration of the garden as a sustainable environment. He devotes his career to promoting landscape architecture as an art form. Chip has expounded on the meaning and perception of landscape through innovative forms of pedagogy, representational techniques, and writing. The philosophy and application of sustainable design, through art and ecology, has been a constant topic lectured upon throughout Asia, Europe, and North America. His graphic work, illustrating the balance between humans and nature, has been exhibited in galleries throughout the world. Chip’s site-specific environmental installations incorporate optical devices such as the Claude Mirror, Spectra Scope and Camera Obscura to heighten the observer’s perception and insight of landscape. Sullivan has taught landscape architecture and drawing for over three decades and is dedicated to helping students develop their creativity through design. At UC Berkeley, he teaches a variety of courses, ranging from basic drawing to advanced courses on representation, studios and seminars.

What is sustainable design?

In my landscape architectural education I was taught that sustainable design can be defined as a closed-loop system in which net energy loss is counterbalanced with net energy gain, so that there is a balance. I believe that the basic premise of sustainable design is not to be dependent on inputs from the energy grid. The goal is to attain self-sufficiency not just in terms of energy, but also to achieve a balance in the hydrological cycle. Every drop of water that falls on a site should be captured and stored; grey water should be recycled, and ultimately the aquifer recharged. Sustainable agriculture should also be considered an integral element in our goal to attain balanced ecosystems.

Conceptually, landscape architecture by its very nature is “sustainable” because of the inherent regenerative properties and processes of ecosystems. Bioremediation and phytoremediation are processes which serve to restore degraded landscapes. Much more than a trend, sustainability is a noble philosophy to which everyone should adhere and a goal for which we must constantly strive.

Why are you passionate about sustainable design?

I have maintained a lifelong commitment to exploring the potential of the garden to create sustainable environments. My journey in the search for a methodology to create new garden forms began while I was an undergraduate in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Florida.

The first oil embargo in 1973–74 made me painfully aware of America’s dependence on imported oil, and I begin to think of how we as landscape architects could address this problem. How could we use the vocabulary of landscape architecture to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel? In the late 1970s I began my research, analysis and experimentation into new garden forms for microclimate modification. The second phase was to reinterpret traditional garden elements for microclimate modification through the creation of a series of experimental garden prototypes. While working full-time, five days a week, I developed a routine that would enable me to explore the ideas I was passionate about. I would leave the office and head home each evening to take a nap; I would wake up, make a pot of coffee, and work late into the night exploring how to apply these concepts. These years of exploration culminated in the publication of my book Garden and Climate. The book is a manual that explores the adaptation of traditional garden elements into entirely new landscape designs for energy conservation.

While employed in a corporate design firm, whenever possible I would subversively infuse the passive landscape design principles I was developing into the office’s projects. Eventually I was able to promote the passive design fundamentals from Garden and Climate through lectures across the country at garden clubs, professional conferences, and colleges, as well as through art exhibitions in galleries and museums, or wherever I could find an audience.

Since the beginning of my teaching career, these principles of sustainable design have been the core of my teaching pedagogy. I have steadfastly held onto these beliefs, even as the concept of passive design has gone in and out of fashion and suffered through an incredible variety of name changes.

How does place influence design?

In Roman mythology, the genius loci was the guardian spirit of place, an outward revelation of the inner spirit of a particular locality or habitat. The genius loci could reveal itself in a variety of ways — for example, through sensation and perception of atmosphere, or unique patterns of flora, fauna, and geological formations — representative of the context of a specific landscape. In the 18th century, English poet and critic Alexander Pope referenced spirit of place as an important principle in garden and landscape design. Pope believed that a built landscape should artfully enhance the hidden qualities and natural features of a site. In his Epistle to the Earl of Burlington, he famously proposed that designers “Consult the genius of the place in all.” Similar aesthetic impulses helped define the core concepts of the profession of landscape architecture in the late 19th century.

For millennia, earth spirits were venerated and worshiped as peoples across the globe altered the landscape in accord with what they believed to be the sacred qualities of place. I believe that a reappraisal of the role of the earth spirits can help guide the development of place-based design vocabularies that artistically enhance the natural features and ecology of a site and form a critical foundation for sustainable design.

Early Passive Garden Design from Chip Sullivan’s ‘Energy and the Garden’ Series

How do you think about energy in design?

While an undergraduate at the University of Florida, I was exposed to Howard Odum’s groundbreaking book, Energy Power and Society, in which he developed a system for diagramming the flow of energy through ecosystems and was able to calculate the net energy production for different ecosystems. We all have a book we read in college that changed our lives forever, and Odum’s text made me realize that we could design landscapes that could reverse the net energy loss in our built environment. This critical text inspired me to search to for a passive energy design philosophy.

Odum’s environmental observations made it clear that landscape design should be based on using plants with the highest ecological potential. During my final year in the undergraduate landscape program at the University of Florida I developed a methodology for evaluating, selecting and arranging vegetation that can produce the greatest amount of oxygen, water transpiration, wildlife habitat and sustenance. The Ecological Evaluation Score for Trees, was developed as a means to gauge the positive impact of vegetation in the creation of sustainable landscapes.

How do you approach materials in design?

Ideally, all building materials should come from the site, or at best be from renewable resources, such as employed at the Earthship in Taos, New Mexico. One can use recycled materials, or build structures out of rammed-earth excavated from the building location. Forestiere Underground Gardens in Fresno, California, built from 1906–1946, is an excellent example of the use of earth as a building material. Paolo Soleri’s silt-cast structures at Cosanti, near Phoenix, Arizona, use the earth from the site to shape the building forms onto which the concrete is then cast. When the concrete has cured, the earth is excavated and a semi-sunken structure is revealed. Additionally, the construction material of landscape architects is by nature ‘green’ in that we create spatial form with living vegetation. Specifying non-invasive, climate-appropriate, and pesticide-free plants is vital to the creation of healthy environments.

Do you subscribe to certain sustainable design frameworks like Cradle to Cradle or Biomimicry?

I think these are both innovative and great philosophical concepts. I support the goal of not just minimizing the negative impacts to the ecology of a site, but to enhance an ecosystem which can be regenerative and produce net energy gains. Biomimicry has great potential is the realm of botanic architecture. We can actually grow structures to become truly “green” architecture!

What do you think about rating and credentialing systems like USGBC’s LEED framework?

I think these systems have helped raise awareness and public consciousness about energy conservation and sustainability. But, I have mixed feelings about bureaucratic regulations, which can stymie innovation. Many LEED-certified buildings look no different than energy-wasteful structures, and it is impossible for certain building types or projects to actually be sustainable. SITES is a good attempt to apply these rating systems to a larger, landscape context.

What trends do you see in sustainable design?

My students are committed to designing and creating a sustainable future. The climate crisis has had a profound effect on this generation, and I see a great amount of motivation and innovation in their search for alternative methods of design. The inclusion of green roofs, green walls, rain gardens, pollinator habitats and sustainable agriculture are just a few of the practices that reduce carbon footprints and expand the framework I initially explored. I also think there is fantastic potential for botanic architecture.

What is on the horizon for sustainable design?

It is purely a matter of survival. We live on a planet with finite natural resources, and we must conserve and create pathways to alternative and renewable sources of energy. We have the tools and the knowledge; the future will be bright (and green!) if we all commit to the imperative of these shared goals.