Landscape Urbanism and its Discontents: Dissimulating the Sustainable City - Softcover

Duany, Andrés; Talen, Emily

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0865717400 ISBN 13: 9780865717404

Publisher: New Society Publishers, 2013

Synopsis

In contemporary Western society, urban development is regarded as an unfortunate blight from which nature provides a much-needed respite. This apparent dichotomy ignores the interdependence between human settlement and the natural world. In fact, one of the most pressing problems facing urban theorists today is determining how to resolve the tension between the built and natural environments, in the process creating truly sustainable cities.

Landscape Urbanism and its Discontents is a collection of essays exploring the debate over urban reform, now polarized around the two competing paradigms of Landscape Urbanism and the New Urbanism. Landscape Urbanism is conceived as a more ecologically based approach, while New Urbanism is more concerned with the built form. Well-known and influential urban theorists such as Andrés Duany and James Howard Kunstler delve into the impact of the tension between the two perspectives on:

• Smart growth
• Neighborhood design
• Sustainable development
• Creating cities that are in balance with nature

While there is significant overlap between Landscape Urbanism and the New Urbanism, the former has assumed prominence amongst most critical theorists, whereas the latter's proponents are more practically oriented. Given that these two sets of ideas are at the forefront of sustainable urban design, the analysis– and potential reconciliation—offered by Landscape Urbanism and its Discontents is long overdue.

Andrés Duany is a leading proponent of the New Urbanism and is a founding principal at Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company.

Emily Talen is a professor at Arizona State University and the author of four previous books on urban design.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

the most articulate and insightful debate on urbanism to surface in decades. The issues raised should be at the heart of any serious dialog about the human prospect.
Peter Calthorpe, author of Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change

scrupulously expose[s] the extent to which Landscape Urbanism is but old modernist wine presented in new greenwashed wineskins.
Leon Krier, Louis Kahn Visiting Professor, Yale University

Landscape Urbanism and its Discontents explores the debate around two competing paradigms. Landscape Urbanism is conceived as ecological in terms of natural processes, while New Urbanism engages ecology in terms of sociocultural processes. In this collection of essays, influential urban theorists delve into the tension between the two perspectives.

While there should be significant overlap between Landscape Urbanism and New Urbanism, the former has assumed prominence amongst environmental administrators and critical theorists, whereas the latter has approached paradigmatic status in the market and among planning professionals. Given that both these power bases are at the forefront of sustainable urban design, the analysis and potential reconciliation offered by these essays may help catalyze a resolution to the various crises besetting the new century.

This important collection of essays lays bare the comprehensive wrongheadedness at the foundation of Landscape Urbanist theory We’ve known for decades that the best way to protect the landscape is to stay the heck away from it, collecting ourselves in dense, walkable cities. Any alternative to this time-tested model is still carbon-belching sprawl, however well it drains.
Jeff Speck, author of Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America

Andrés Duanyis a New Urbanist, a recipient of the Driehaus Prize, and principal at Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. He is the author of three previous books
on urbanism.
Emily Talen is a professor at Arizona State University and the author of four previous books on urbanism.
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... the most articulate and insightful debate on urbanism to surface in decades. The issues raised should be at the heart of any serious dialog about the human prospect.
― Peter Calthorpe, author of Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change

... scrupulously expose[s] the extent to which Landscape Urbanism is but old modernist wine presented in new greenwashed wineskins.
― Leon Krier, Louis Kahn Visiting Professor, Yale University

Landscape Urbanism and its Discontents explores the debate around two competing paradigms. Landscape Urbanism is conceived as ecological in terms of natural processes, while New Urbanism engages ecology in terms of sociocultural processes. In this collection of essays, influential urban theorists delve into the tension between the two perspectives.

While there should be significant overlap between Landscape Urbanism and New Urbanism, the former has assumed prominence amongst environmental administrators and critical theorists, whereas the latter has approached paradigmatic status in the market and among planning professionals. Given that both these power bases are at the forefront of sustainable urban design, the analysis ― and potential reconciliation ― offered by these essays may help catalyze a resolution to the various crises besetting the new century.

This important collection of essays lays bare the comprehensive wrongheadedness at the foundation of Landscape Urbanist theory... We’ve known for decades that the best way to protect the landscape is to stay the heck away from it, collecting ourselves in dense, walkable cities. Any alternative to this time-tested model is still carbon-belching sprawl, however well it drains.
― Jeff Speck, author of Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America

Andrés Duanyis a New Urbanist, a recipient of the Driehaus Prize, and principal at Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. He is the author of three previous books
on urbanism.
Emily Talen is a professor at Arizona State University and the author of four previous books on urbanism.

About the Author:

Andrés Duany is a founding principal at Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ) a firm which is widely recognized as a leader of the New Urbanism and has completed designs for close to 300 new towns, regional plans, and community revitalization projects. He has delivered hundreds of lectures and seminars, addressing architects, planning groups, university students, and the general public. Dr. Duany’s recent publications include The New Civic Art and Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. He is a founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism, which has been characterized by The New York Times as the most important collective architectural movement in the United States in the past fifty years.” He earned a Master’s degree in architecture from the Yale School of Architecture, has been awarded several honorary doctorates and many awards for his scholarship in architecture and urban design.

Emily Talen is a Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University. She is Co-Editor of the Journal of Urbanism and the author of 4 previous books and many journal articles on urban design and the New Urbanism. Dr. Talen sits on more than a dozen editorial and advisory boards and has received many honors and awards for her work, including being voted one of Planetizen’s Top 100 Urban Thinkers”. She holds a a PhD in urban geography from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

About this edition

• Publisher: New Society Publishers
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0865717400
• ISBN 13: 9780865717404
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336