Progress of Research Through Design (RtD) in Landscape Architecture

“Design Research” has established the theoretical basis for the existence of the design discipline, and its branch “Research through Design” (RtD) has laid the epistemological foundation for the “design research” paradigm. The development of RtD in the landscape design field has contributed to the development of the academic research system of landscape architecture. This paper introduces the method of classifying RtD in landscape architecture with the Creswell framework (post-positivism, constructivism, transformative and pragmatism), reviews the design research results published in Chinese Landscape Architecture and Landscape Architecture over the past 5 years (2014-2018) to summarize the research progresses of RtD in China from the aspects of research problems, research processes and research results. It also analyzes and forecasts the characteristics and trends of design research to provide a direction for future research in this field.