Experts in the field of architecture and landscape design have reached a broad consensus that the Chinese literati garden is a type of built environment that seamlessly integrates architecture and landscape with exceptional cultural, artistic, and historical values. However, previous site-based studies have often leaned towards either a subjective description of the experience or a technical analysis of the space. Both approaches may result in oversimplified interpretations of the Chinese literati garden, failing to adequately capture its fundamental spatial-experiential structure. This paper aims to address this challenge through the lens of phenomenology. Specifically, it examines an essential spatial-experiential structure—the FS-FW structure—embedded within the Chinese literati garden. The term FS-FW structure, as meticulously established in this paper, refers to the spatial-experiential structure formed by the relationship between one's experience within a single “focusing space” (a space built for visitors to linger and mindfully appreciate their surroundings) and that within its “focused world” (a phenomenal world of surroundings generated during visitors' stay in the focusing space). Using the Master of the Nets Garden as a case study, this paper investigates how the FS-FW structure shapes one's experiences within a literati garden and explores several important mechanisms related to it. A variety of methods are employed throughout, with GIS-based spatial-visual analysis being particularly significant. The case study leads to a series of original results, including some significant mechanisms, that explain how Chinese literati gardens shape visitors' experiences. This paper concludes that the FS-FW structure is a key factor responsible for shaping a continuous, rich, and clearly formulated experience within the Chinese literati garden.

Spatial-visual landscape design vocabulary is important for landscape architects to understand, design, and communicate about landscape spaces. Despite the importance, there is no comprehensive overview available. This article aims to fill this gap by reviewing and categorising the spatial-visual design vocabulary for the field of landscape architecture and to provide a systematic framework for understanding landscape spaces inter-subjectively. Based on the analysis of the vocabulary used in the extensive body of literature available in landscape architecture and related disciplines, four dominant categories are selected in describing spatial and visual organisation. The categories identified and discussed are sequence, orientation, continuity, and complexity. In addition, a landscape design syntax is developed to understand and to describe the visual manifestation of landscape spaces, how space is organised, and what ordering principles play a role from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives.

Mapping landscape spaces by means of manual and modern technology enables landscape architects to describe, understand, and interpret spatial-visual properties of landscape. This can help to strengthen the body of knowledge of spatial design in landscape architecture through measurement and visualization of common concepts in the field, as well as through the possibility to explore spatial-visual landscape features that was not possible before. Despite the wide ranging possibilities and the methods available for mapping landscape spaces, there is evidence that its potential is often still underutilized mainly due to a lack of awareness. This paper aims to contribute to the increase of awareness by providing an overview of mapping methods and tools that can be used to study spatial-visual characteristics in the field of landscape architecture, and show the potentialities of its application by brief examples. This paper introduces six categories of mapping methods: compartment analysis, 3D landscapes, grid cell analysis, visibility analysis, landscape metrics, and eye-tracking analysis. These methods are used to explore, for spatial design in landscape architecture, crucial spatial-visual categories sequence, orientation, continuity, and complexity in an analogue and digital way. The Vondelpark, a well-known urban park in the Netherlands, is used to exemplify how the spatial features can be mapped by means of the mapping methods.

Building on the mystery/complexity/legibility/coherence model of Kaplan and Kaplan (1989) and up-to-date landscape visualization techniques, this paper presents a case study analyzing people's aesthetic preferences for scenes with varying levels of enclosure created through vegetation. Participants were asked to view 48 computer-generated urban park scenes with different levels of enclosure and to rate them for three aesthetic preference factors: coherence, complexity, and legibility. The results are as follows: (1) If the visual and/or physical setting is enclosed, participants will give lower ratings for legibility than in open scenes. (2) Physically open scenes are rated as more coherent than physically enclosed scenes. (3) Participants rate complexity for physically enclosed scenes lower than for physically open scenes. It is concluded that enclosure as a predictor variable for landscape preference has a practical significance for future urban landscape research and designs.