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Shift into ‘Slow’ Gear
The Slow Food Movement has long been active in European countries, with it’s ubiquitous snail-mascot and new vocabulary (i.e. eco-gastronomy) making us stop (almost) and enjoy the concepts of local, fair, environmentally friendly food, and the idea of reconnecting to the pleasures of eating. :: logo via Slow Food International The concept is terribly European,…
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Veg.itecture: Super Sized
The next in a continual series of Vegetated Architecture, including some large scale examples from Pittsburgh, Singapore, Moscow, and Paris. From Inhabitat: “Architect Vincent Callebaut’s latest project balances public galleries, meeting rooms and gathering spaces over canals and abandoned railroad tracks in the 19th Parisian district. The prototype uses green technologies and techniques but is…
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Profession on the Rise: Landscapes at Risk
There is a significant wealth of historic works of landscape architecture around the world. While the profession has a mere 150 years of ‘official’ standing, and based on recent Occupational Employment Statistics survey results, it is well on the rise (growth of 59% in employees). What this means, at least by extrapolation, is that more…
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Materiality: Plant Knowledge
There has been much discussion lately on the L-ARCH listserv regarding the role and knowledge of landscape architects regarding plants and planting design. (ah, a listserv, how 1997, but i digress). To sum up, there’s a persistent theory that Landscape Architecture suffers from a deficiency of plant knowledge. Is this true? Well, I personally know…
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Flux Paroxysm: A Found Poem
Jumping the shark a bit, but here’s the first part of the found poem from the SoWa endeavors with David Oates, et. al. – enjoy!: II. Flux Paroxysmcomposers: Jason King and Claire Nail Giants movepoliticoshuddled together,a tribein KKK regaliarough pioneers, hard menact out Ahab after vengeanceunhinged by luckdirty quarrel, barks of laughterbones will crackrips of…
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Pioneers of Planning
The historical roots of ecological planning and sustainability are varied. Metropolis magazine may not acknowledge the role of landscape architects in sustainability, perhaps this is because no one has specifically outlined a definitive history of ecological landscape architecture and planning. I began some time back to trace some of this lineage, which i will include…
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Veg.itecture: New Additions
A visual tour of some of the latest in Vegetated Architecture. From the wonderful to the integrated to the sophmoric – the ideas are flowing and the concept is here to stay. A few recent projects: In todays readings, from Archidose, the amazing pioneer of vertical greening, Patrick Blanc is at it again, creating a…
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Reading List: A Pattern Language
Some books are classics. You read them, you reference them, you let them gather dust on the shelves until one day something jogs your memory and makes them vital again. This, along with other more obsessive reasons, is why I tend to collect design books with never any thought of letting them go. And design…
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Revisit: Olympic Sculpture Park
In light of the recent AIA Honor Award for 2008, some revisit of the fantastic Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle. Designed by internationally renown firm Weiss/Manfredi Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism along with local Seattle Landscape Architect Charles Anderson. The main theme of the project is a folded Z-shaped pedestrian spine that traverses a significant grade change between the…
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Bio-diversity
A meditation on plants, picking up on some earlier threads of vegetated abstractions, whether they be sculptural or metaphorical, aesthetic or functional. First is the idea of global warming, and it’s impacts on the biological functioning of plants. While often reported as a purely negative or neutral, the shifts of hardiness zone allows for greater…