Landscape+Urbanism

Category: planning

  • Source: Whatever Happened to Urbanism? – Koolhaas

    In 1995, Rem Koolhaas & Bruce Mau published ‘S,M,L,XL’, one in a line of oversized volumes so fondly disseminated by the Dutch.  Amazon mentions the work as “extraordinary, massive, and mind-boggling 1,300-page book combines essays, manifestos, diaries, fairy tales, travelogues, a cycle of meditations on the contemporary city–and complex illustrations…” giving shape to a mixed…

  • Reading the Landscape: The Emergence of Landscape Urbanism

    The next essay from the Landscape Urbanism Reader is by David Grahame Shane, entitled ‘The Emergence of Landscape Urbanism’.  This essay builds on Waldheim’s essay and further elaborates on the origins of the theory – with a broad take on the historical foundations and precedents around landscape urbanism as mentioned in the introductory text: “Shane…

  • Reading List: Landscape Infrastructure: Case Studies by SWA

    ‘Landscape Infrastructure: Case Studies by SWA‘ published in 2011, is edited by the Infrastructure Research Initiative of SWA including Los Angeles office principals Gerdo Aquino and Ying-Yu Hung.  This is supplemented with contributions from Charles Waldheim, Julie Czerniak, Adriaan Geuze, Matthew Skjonsberg and Alexander Robinson.  While ostensibly about landscape infrastructure, this type of book is…

  • Pruitt Igoe Now

    Another good ideas competition, Pruitt Igoe Now the infamous St. Louis housing complex that was demolished in 1972 and considered one of the touchstones in the ‘death’ of modernism.  The site is typical of the towers in the park ideal most notably ascribed to public housing and derived from version of Le Corbusier’s Radiant City…

  • Greatest Grid

    An interesting competition I am ruminating on proposing for, The Greatest Grid – from the Architectural League of New York along with the Museum of the City of New York – seeks ideas related to the grid and to reflect on the role of the grid, now 200 years old, impacts and shapes New York,…

  • The Red Brick Chronicles – ‘Advancement verus Apocalypse’ by Rem Koolhaas

    As I mentioned in the recent reckoning of the L+U blog, I wanted to focus on a number of recent texts that I’ve had the chance to delve into (by disconnecting myself from the nefarious teat of the RSS feeder)  Of significance is finally getting around to expanding on the initial readings of the book…

  • Kunstler on Landscape Urbanism

    James Howard Kunstler joins the LU/NU ‘debate’ with a completely Kunstlerian commentary with some rhertorical tidbids like LU displaying “a complete lack of interest in the basic components of urban design”… “incorporates lots of high tech ‘magic’ infrastructure for directing water flows and requires massive, costly, complex site interventions” and is “…against density and vehemently…

  • Ecologies of Gold

    Brilliant study of the meshing of urbanization and gold mining in Johannesburg, South Africa by Dorothy Tang and Andrew Watkins (on Design Observer).  As mentioned in the article and accompanying photo essay;  “ In particular, the 80-kilometer mining belt between the two cities is riddled by deep-shaft mines, where companies built an extensive network of…

  • LU Conference in the Central States

    I just received this announcement of a conference sponsored by the ASLA Central States Chapter entitled “Landscape Urbanism: Economics of Healthy Communities” – (a remarkably odd title imho, but) including keynote speakers Andres Duany, John Crompton, and Brad McKee… topic session submittals are due tomorrow so late notice, but the conference itself is on May…

  • The Urbanism Wars: AD v. CW

    Turns out you have to read and write a bit in doctoral studies – which sometimes cuts down on the time for blogging… who knew?  But glean and collect I still do, and lots of good reading since the last dispatch on the ongoing dispute/feud/discussion/turf-war on who controls urbanism – aka the LU/NU debates (which…