For the second year in a row, Sasaki landscape architect Ian Scherling and I had the privilege of leading design students and professionals in a collective sketching exercise in our workshop, “Radical Cross-Pollination: Sketching as Shared Language” at LABash 2026. The annual student-led landscape architecture conference was held at Ohio State University this year, but traces its roots to a group of visionary landscape architecture students who started the traveling conference in 1970 at the University of Guelph. The original organizers imagined a gathering “where new ideas can be cultivated in a collaborative environment.” This year’s theme, “Cross-Pollination,” was especially topical, aligning closely with our philosophy of integrated design at Sasaki. 

“I was so excited to invite Ian and Juan back to LABash for their sketching workshop because, relevant to the 2026 theme, the workshop makes use of many different drawing implements and canvases to allow students to loosely iterate and collaborate,” said Sam Clemente, LABash Conference Director. “This year’s attendees agreed—the workshop space was at maximum capacity, full of students and professionals eager to put their big ideas on big canvases.” 

Cultivating Common Ground

To a crowd of 70 students, professionals, and voices from adjacent fields, we posed a simple question: What’s the role of sketching in landscape architecture? 

Everyone has their own answer to this—for us, sketching is a fundamental building block for working together. It is not a skill reserved for a gifted hand or exclusive to the prettiest drawing. It’s the bridge between what lives in your mind and what can live in someone else’s. Any sketch is a good sketch as long as it communicates the idea in your head.

Attendees were given an overview of a Sasaki project site (for this year, Bonnet Springs Park in Lakeland, Florida) and tasked with designing an intervention within nine minutes. The tight timeframe challenged them to rethink what a “good” sketch is, reframing their output as a tool for testing and trading ideas rather than a polished product. We encouraged a focus on big moves and contextual connections, welcoming all drawing types in the spirit of speed and iteration.

For the last minute, participants were asked to distill their sketches onto a single napkin, which they then shared with their fellow group members. Over the course of 30 minutes, each group then worked to synthesize the various design approaches to create one collective napkin sketch, which was shared with the whole room in a round of two-minute, rapid-fire pin-up presentations. 

Reflecting Together

We closed the workshop by reflecting on our shared experiences. In our debrief, we asked the room: What was your group’s big idea? How did you decide which ideas to cross-pollinate? What was it like to share your ideas in a group? 

People were candid in their reflections, making the large room feel far more intimate and personal: 

“The workshop…pushed my quick thinking skills as we had a very limited time to develop plans and sections. The exercise forced me to really go with my gut in various decisions.” – Nadia Ndematebem, Conference Lead Liaison, The Ohio State University ‘27

“I felt like it was a really fun and effective way to quickly communicate some rather complex ideas through symbolism and collaboration. It allowed everyone’s individual skill sets to shine; those who came up with ideas quickly were supported by those who could sketch quickly, and those who were good at iteration and attention to detail could easily throw in their two cents, so on and so forth.” – Noah Dunn, Student Staff, The Ohio State University ‘28

“It especially made me realize that I need to work on just iterating and having fun initially without adding too many boundaries on my creativity…working with everyone made me realize how diverse ideas can be and how they can come together in parts to create an effective foundation for a wonderful plan.” – Sophia Novo, Student Attendee, The Ohio State University ‘27

The shared experience was humbling and grounding, reminding us why this work matters beyond the scope of the studio. Sketching isn’t just a design tool, but a democratic activity that lets us explore ideas both ephemeral and physical, experiment with idiosyncrasies, and see and listen to one another. 

At its core, sketching makes visible the motto of our office: better design, together.