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What is design? A lot of people have been misled by popular television and magazines that would have you believe that design is the same as decoration. "Designers" on tv often talk a lot about how things look or what they're made of. Design is really more about function. Aesthetics are very important, but a space must 'work' in a holistic sense. To 'design' is to solve a problem, usually by synthesizing diverse aspects from science, art, technology, psychology, economics, et cetera in order to solve a human problem.
Engineering, Landscape Architecture, Architecture, Urban Design, Industrial Design, Web Design, and Software Engineering are all design professions because they are all about solving problems.
The look of a room in your house is only part of the overall experience of being in, looking at, or passing through that space. In this sense, 'interior decoration' is the practice of decorating an existing space: painting, furnishing, wallpaper, window treatments, and staging. 'Interior design' begins with creating that space in the first place, starting with where the walls, floors, windows, ceiling and stairs are or aren't going to be.
The same relationship holds between 'landscaping' and 'landscape architecture'. Landscaping is landscape maintenance: trimming hedges, planting flowers, mowing the lawn. Landscaping also includes landscape construction, which is the installation of the materials in the first place including carpentry, masonry, concrete, plants, soil, water features, lighting, artwork, etc. 'Landscape architecture' is the design of outdoor spaces, meaning that landscape architects start with the question (as one of my professors, Walter Khem always said), "What is the nature of the experience?" How does it feel to be there? What are the social and psychological impacts of this space? How will it relate to its context? How does it function ecologically, socially, aesthetically? What does this space mean?
Landscape architects start with the basic patterns of a site: sunlight, seasons, wind, traffic, wildlife, water, rain, people, cyclists, etc. What are the major functional components of the site? What are we trying to achieve here? What is the purpose of this place? Who will use it? How and where do the buildings belong?
We don't start with "what species of flower goes here?" but with "what is here going to be?" Then as we work down to the details, the smaller aspects of the site are determined by the context of the whole plan.
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