Category: books
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Reading List: The Infrastructural City
The Infrastructural City: Networked Ecologies in Los Angelesedited by Kazys Varnelis (Actar – 2008) :: image via NetLab If not for the impeccable timing of the release of this book, and the fact that the content within has inevitably been in progress for some time – I would say that ‘The Infrastructural City’ was a…
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Of Uncertainty in Urban Planning
I’ve been carrying around this pamphlet since a lecture by Thomas Sieverts at the University of Oregon last fall. Last night after dumping my bag of it’s acquired detritus, I had a chance to re-read this short essay entitled ‘Of Uncertainty in Urban Planning’, which furthers the dialogue in Sieverts work related to: “…the Zwischenstadt,…
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Reading List: The Sourcebook of Contemporary Landscape Design
As always, the holiday season came with a typically literary bent, as family and friends know of my bibliophilic tendencies – and I have a free moment or two to read – so look forward to some book reviews that have been waiting in the wings for a couple of months. One tome that was…
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Landscape on the Brain
Landscape is good. Landscape is healthy. Landscape is necessary. We all know this, innately, but a refresher is never a bad idea. This post made the rounds a few months back, quoting a study and article from the Boston Globe, ‘How the city hurts your brain, and what you can do about it.’ delves again…
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Reading List: Drosscape
Early in the life of this (still youthful) blog, I had a short throwaway post about Modes of Representation – and echoed a term I had heard regarding ‘visual masturbation’ – the analogue of the pointless drivel associated with verbal masturbation. While there are still countless examples of both in the design and planning spheres…
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Food for Thought
It’s been ages since I’ve posted anything on urban agriculture, and it’s long-overdue… I realize my neglect after spending a bit of time sifting through some research in finishing up the SDAT report text, as well as in preparation for a submittal for the first issue of [bracket] journal with the theme ‘On Farming’… which…
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Portland = Ecotopia?
In my third year of undergraduate studies, my Ecology instructor offhandedly mentioned the book Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach, as something to read if you want to see a potential model of ecological urbanism. While I was toying with my youthful and newly formed consciousness about an ecological ethic, I was both rapt and appalled. Rapt,…
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High Line Double
I just couldn’t resist discussing the High Line in some sort, after a week of withdrawls… keeping it professional, a couple of great resources. A few days ago I stumbled upon the High Line Blog – which features a range of posts from the great folks at Friends of the High Line. :: image via…
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Thinking Out of the Box, Pt. 2
Following the big box threads of the previous post, some of the speculative work of Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis (LTL) offers another viewpoint towards the idea of a tranformed development archetype. :: image via LTL I think half of my interest in LTL is the concepts, the other half is the interesting graphic techniques – many…
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Veg.itecture #43
Once again, with feeling… I have green roofs on the brain right now, because upon cracking open my new (and god-awful expensive) copy of Steven Cantor’s Green Roofs in Sustainable Landscape Design – to find a double spread of Multnomah County’s green roof on chapter one… a design I did while at my previous employer…