Landscape Architecture: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) - Softcover

Thompson, Ian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199681201 ISBN 13: 9780199681204

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2014

Synopsis

Landscape architecture plays an important role in shaping the places in which we live and work. But what is it? Landscape architects are involved, amongst other things, in the layout of business parks, the reclamation of derelict industrial sites, the restoration of historic city parks, and the design of major pieces of infrastructure such as motorways, dams, power stations, and flood defenses, as well as the planning of parks and gardens. Taking a historical perspective, Ian Thompson looks at both the roots of landscape architecture and the people that established it.

This Very Short Introduction explores some of the misconceptions about landscape architecture and considers the discipline's origins in landscape gardening. Thompson takes a look at a number of areas, including the influence of Modernism, the difference between landscape design and landscape planning, and the way that planning legislation has driven the growth of the discipline. He also explores contemporary environmentalism, the debate as to whether landscape architecture is an art or a science, landscape architecture in the community, post-industrial projects, and its relationship with ecological urbanism.

About the Series:
Oxford's Very Short Introductions series offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects--from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, Literary Theory to History, and Archaeology to the Bible. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume in this series provides trenchant and provocative--yet always balanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given discipline or field. Every Very Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how the subject has developed and how it has influenced society. Eventually, the series will encompass every major academic discipline, offering all students an accessible and abundant reference library. Whatever the area of study that one deems important or appealing, whatever the topic that fascinates the general reader, the Very Short Introductions series has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable.

About this title

About the Author

Ian Thompson is a Chartered Landscape Architect and Reader in Landscape Architecture in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape at Newcastle University. He worked as a landscape architect from 1979 to 1992, mostly on work related to environmental improvement, derelict land reclamation and urban renewal, before taking up a lecturing post at Newcastle University. He was the editor of Landscape Research for four years and is currently on the editorial board. He has written many papers, articles and books, including The Sun King's Garden (Bloomsbury, 2006) and The English Lakes: A History (Bloomsbury, 2010). He is also one of the editors of the Routledge Companion to Landscape Studies.

Review

A great gift for the landscape architect to give to their in-laws who still call them a 'landscape designer' * Historic Garden Review, Aaron Suiter *

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0199681201
• ISBN 13: 9780199681204
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 160