Synopsis
Landscape architecture is a unique discipline where art, nature and the city converge and enter into an exciting dialogue. In the USA, the country of vast open plains and spacious towns, the great tradition of life in confrontation with nature plays an equally important role in landscape architecture as the acute problems of the built environment or social problems within the community. Design methods and practise in landscape architecture form the focus of this book, complemented by an analysis of the theoretical aspects of the subject. Perceptive portraits of 13 offices span the whole breadth of landscape design, from the post-ecological utopia of Michael Sorkin (New York/Vienna) to the urban pragmatism of the Roma Design group (San Francisco), from the ecological approach of the Philadelphia group Andropogon, also active in Japan, to the minimalist landscape art of Kathryn Gustafson (Seattle/London/Paris). The author is a freelance landscape architect in New York. His detailed knowledge of the contempo
Reviews
The image of the garden is ever changing, reflecting the styles, needs, and technology of the times. These three books are fine examples of the current approach to the planning, development, and realization of gardens that utilize human-made materials and innovative spatial design to create nontraditional settings. Cooper's The New Tech Garden employs materials and methods quite unlike anything in the past, e.g., metals; plastics; glass, recycled or new; synthetic fabrics; and solar panels. Examining various sites, both public and private, throughout the world, Cooper provides a glimpse into radical designs for unconventional spaces that result in instant, mobile, and architectural gardens. What is most interesting about these gardens, which the book effectively illustrates, is the feeling of serenity and space afforded by even the most unconventional designs. In The Modern Garden, English cultural historian Brown offers a more conventional work, tracing landscape design and its most important figures over the past century. A wide geographic range of gardens is featured, along with 11 "masterworks," specific sections examining in detail the work of one important artist, from Gropius and Barrag n to Kiley and Burle Marx. Political, cultural, and ecological thinking, which shaped modern garden movement in Europe in the 1920s and the United States in the 1930s, is well explored in the lucid text, which is accompanied by excellent photographs and extensive plans. Finally, Keeney's On the Nature of Things offers an image of landscape architecture from the studios of American professionals. Taking a much more theoretical approach than the other two works, this book deals with a sense of the community and its interaction with nature in the many public spaces addressed. Many of the sites, in the United States and across the world, are new or still in the planning stage, and the philosophy behind their construction is the major component of this work. The final decision as to the universality of the designs and their eventual utilization remains to be seen, but the author does present an interesting aspect of the unique discipline of the architecture of our landscape, external and internal. Paula Frosch, Metropolitan Museum of Art Lib., New York
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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