Category: books
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Land Art Influence
As I muddle through the very dense and wonderful book ‘Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings’, it’s continually evident that 1) Smithson was way ahead of his time in thinking of sites within the context of emphemerality and change, and 2) the field of landscape architecture can learn significant amounts from the library of land art…
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The ‘Bill Gates of Sustainability’
There is little doubt that the reputation of William McDonough (WMD) and that of green design are somewhat synonymous. As one of the fore-fathers of this modern ‘green boom’ we are in the midst of, and one of the thought leaders of our time, WMD has occupied a spot near the apex of this architectural…
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Reading List: Materials for Sustainable Sites
It’s rare to find a must-read book for the profession of landscape architecture. This is not to say that there aren’t a bunch of amazing books to highlight a diversity of works – including projects, theories, styles and interests. It is, however, rather uncommon for the topical nature of a text to be able to…
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Sendak, Pre-Vegitect?
One of my favorite children’s books when I was a kid was the Maurice Sendak classic ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ (probably a close tie with Ferdinand the Bull). As many know, this tale of Max as the kid with the wild imagination and awesome wolf costume (which by god I will do for halloween…
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Eco-Boulevard Redux
Some more on a project I have touched upon this project a bit in a previous post, Eco-Boulevard, from Spanish innovators Ecosistema Urbano. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to delve into some more of the eye-candy from Arch Daily… and definitely don’t miss Ecosystem Urbano’s great blog as well… which gleans some great urban…
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Reading List: The Vertical Garden
The time has come. The fine folks at publisher WW Norton were nice enough to send me a review copy of The Vertical Garden: From Nature to The City, by Patrick Blanc about a month ago, and I’ve finally finished it off – at least for the most part. Suffice it to say – and…
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Hundertwasser
The Austrian Artist Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser is not a household name in either architecture, art, or landscape – but his contributions to all of these disciplines – and dare I say a unique brand of Vegitecture – is worth a look. L+U had a previous post that showed one of his most known works…
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Ten Books on Veg.itecture
A recent office desk move (and slogging multiple boxes of books in my personal library) made me think, that although I do an occasional review of books periodically – it would behoove me to summarize some of the classic tomes that define some of the key themes on the blog. While I intend to continue…
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Materiality: Textured Panels
As I mentioned back in March – the application of art, architecture and other detailing can have a significant influence on how we express landscape and urban interventions. While many materials are somewhat specific to architecture, or are artistically used in ways that aren’t typically functional – there are some great examples that have real…
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The Roots of Vegitecture
As I made reference to previously, Steve at The Sesqui.pedali.st presented me with a digital copy of the article ‘Vegitecture’ by Michael Sorkin, published in the 1979 issue of WET Magazine. After a quick read (it’s 3 pages illustrated) and a warning from Steve that it had NOTHING to do with Vegetated Architecture, here’s my…