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This thesis investigates the communicative qualities of visual landscape design representations. The main subjects of inquiry were (1) visual design representations in their many forms and appearances; (2) the meanings that are attributed to, or derived from, those representations by designers, planners, and project stakeholders; (3) the participatory planning and design processes of the multifunctional flood defence landscape projects wherein those representations are used. The meaning-making processes of visual design representations are conceptualized as a relation between the semiotic complexity of images, interpretive habits of stakeholders, and visual discourse of design producers. The shaping of participatory planning and design processes by design representations is categorized into a typology of nine semiotic qualities. This thesis suggests a way of looking at visual representations and organizing planning and design processes that enables planners and designers, as process facilitators, to determine the most appropriate communicative strategy at a specific moment, for specific participants.

Visual landscape design representations facilitate communication and knowledge exchange during participatory planning and design processes. The production of representations is considered to be a discursive act: actors and institutions construct knowledge with a certain authority and credibility through the use of visual expression. We aim to study the context in which the production of representations is embedded and how this context manifests itself in the communicative qualities of design representations. We present a visual discourse analysis of landscape design representations, employing empirical examples from the transdisciplinary design competition Rebuild by Design. The analysis uncovers interdependencies among three components of the visual discourse: the arrangement of participatory processes, media interactivity and the visual rhetoric embedded in the composition and style of the image. A conscious use of these discursive components could help prevent miscommunication, manage participant expectations and increase the validity of participatory design process outcomes.

To address visual communication issues in landscape planning and design processes, an analytical framework that enables the study and possible anticipation of the interpretation of visual design representations is presented here. This framework consists of a hybrid theory of Peircean social semiotics and Laclaudian post-foundational discourse analysis (PDA). The semiotics of Peirce, through the concept of the interpretant, enable the conceptualization of the discourses that make up the socio-political contexts of design projects as so-called ‘interpretive habits’. This framework is demonstrated by partly reconstructing the socio-political context of Rebuild by Design, a design competition organized in the wake of hurricane Sandy in New York. It is suggested through this demonstration that the sign systems and discursive networks that influence the interpretations of design images by different stakeholders can be partially uncovered during the design process itself. By recognizing these interpretive habits during specific phases of the design process, planners and designers could potentially better anticipate the productive and counter-productive interpretations of their design representations.