• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.87-104
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• 2015

As the influence of Landscape Urbanism has grown, various criticisms on the discourse also have increased. A study on critical opinions of Landscape Urbanism is necessary to fully comprehend the theoretical structure of the discourse and its limitations. This study introduced the concept of Intension and Extension, which is used in the field of Logics and Semiotic, as an analytical tool to interpret various criticisms based on different views in a more objective and synthetic way. After examining the development of criticisms of Landscape Urbanism, 30 texts with important critiques on the theory were selected and analyzed. Criticisms can be classified as internal criticism and external criticism according to specific topics they are engaged with. The study only covers internal criticism as a research scope. The internal criticisms on Landscape Urbanism are re-categorized into topics of theory, practice and the relation between theory and practice. Vagueness of concepts and error in concepts are two types criticism related to the issue of theory. Lexical Ambiguity and Intensional Vagueness are the main causes of conceptual vagueness in Landscape Urbanism. Conceptual vagueness related with the problem of redefining an existing concept through expanding its meaning reveals a structural dilemma. There are three types of criticism included in the topic of practice: absence of practical results, form-oriented practice, and ambiguous identity in practical results. Ambiguous identity is caused by Extensional Vagueness allowing borderline cases. Because these borderline cases overlap with extensions of landscape architecture, it is hard to differentiate projects of Landscape Urbanism and those of conventional landscape architecture. Most criticisms on the relation between theory and practice raise the question on the practical method. Two types of criticism are engaged with the topic of the practical method: errors in practical methods and absence of practical methods. The absence of practical methods is a fundamental problem of Landscape Urbanism which is hard to solve by the proposed solutions. However, these structural problems are not only the weak point but also the factor that is able to prove the potentials expand the scope of Landscape Urbanism. In addition to the results of the study, internal criticisms on Landscape Urbanism should be examined in the following studies in order to predict the next direction of Landscape Urbanism.