Abstract
While landscape architects are adept at transitioning between the indoor and outdoor and blurring the threshold between, less attention has been paid to the liminal space between landscapes and how built landscapes interact with each other. Transitions in constructed environments can be critical spaces and key to the success of adjoining landscapes. However, built landscapes often have stark adjacencies, making the construction of successful transition zones a challenging problem.
Thematic design—the multidisciplinary practice of creating themed environments—is a language that evolved from filmic grammar. In cinematography, transitions between scenes establish continuity and narrative flow; cuts, wipes, and dissolves are common techniques that lead viewers through disparate settings with minimal disruption. These same techniques are employed in the spatial design of theme parks, moving guests between narrative elements of a themed space, and between distinctly different themes.
This paper suggests that many of the cinematographic techniques used to create thematic transitions can provide valuable principles for enhancing placemaking within and between built landscapes. Such themed environments are worthy of serious examination as they mediate multiple levels of content complexity and identity-laden forms across all the senses; seamless negotiations at once visual, tactile, auditory, and olfactory. Such filmic grammar may have wider application for landscape architects and other placemakers concerned with crafting environments which are simultaneously congruous experiences yet harmoniously diverse.