Ecology, Community and Delight examines three principal value systems which influence landscape architectural practice: the aesthetic, the social and the environmental, and seeks to discover the role that the profession should follow.
This book examines the three principal value systems which influence landscape architectural practice: the aesthetic, the social and the environmental, and seeks to discover the role that the profession should be playing now and for the future. The book integrates an investigation of historical sources with contemporary research into the beliefs and values of practitioners. The book raises questions such as: should landscape architecture aspire to the status of an art form? What is the relationship between aesthetics and ecology? Does landscape architecture have a social mission?
From bestselling author of The Book of Delights and award-winning poet, a book of lyrical mini-essays celebrating the everyday that will inspire readers to rediscover the joys in the world around us. In Ross Gay’s new collection of small, daily wonders, again written over the course of a year, one of America’s most original voices continues his ongoing investigation of delight. For Gay, what delights us is what connects us, what gives us meaning, from the joy of hearing a nostalgic song blasting from a passing car to the pleasure of refusing the “nefarious” scannable QR code menus, from the tiny dog he fell hard for to his mother baking a dozen kinds of cookies for her grandchildren. As always, Gay revels in the natural world—sweet potatoes being harvested, a hummingbird carousing in the beebalm, a sunflower growing out of a wall around the cemetery, the shared bounty from a neighbor’s fig tree—and the trillion mysterious ways this glorious earth delights us. The Book of (More) Delights is a volume to savor and share.
How are greenways designed? What situations lead to their genesis, and what examples best illustrate their potential for enhancing communities and the environment? Designing greenways is a key to protecting landscapes, allowing wildlife to move freely, and finding appropriate ways to bring people into nature. This book brings together examples from ecology, conservation biology, aquatic ecology, and recreation design to illustrate how greenways function and add value to ecosystems and human communities alike. Encompassing everything from urban trail corridors to river floodplains to wilderness-like linkages, greenways preserve or improve the integrity of the landscape, not only by stemming the loss of natural features, but also by engendering new natural and social functions. From 19th-century parks and parkways to projects still on the drawing boards, Designing Greenways is a fascinating introduction to the possibilities-and pitfalls-involved in these ambitious projects. As towns and cities look to greenways as a new way of reconciling man and nature, designers and planners will look to Designing Greenways as an invaluable compendium of best practices.
This book offers practical and theoretical tools for more effective sustainable design solutions and for communicating sustainable design ideas to today's diverse stakeholders. It uses Integral Theory to make sense of the many competing ideas in this area and offers a powerful conceptual framework for sustainable designers through the four main perspectives of: Behaviours, Systems, Experiences and Cultures. It also uses human developmental theory to reframe sustainable design across four levels of complexity present in society: the Traditional, Modern, Postmodern, and Integral waves. Profuse with illustrations and examples, the book offers many conceptual tools including: - Twelve Principles of Integral Sustainable Design - Sixteen Prospects of Sustainable Design - Six Perceptual Shifts for Ecological Design Thinking - Five Levels of Sustainable Design Aesthetics - Ten Injunctions for Designing Connections to Nature
This book is a cutting edge study examining the attitudes to both nature and the built environment of the designer, the client and the society in which an intervention (be it architecture, landscape design or a piece of art) is made. The legacy of the Modernist view of nature and the environment is also addressed, and the degree to which such ideas continue to impinge on contemporary interventions is assessed.
For decades, landscape architecture was driven solely by artistic sensibilities. But in these times of global change, the opportunity to reshape the world comes with a responsibility to consider how it can be resilient, fostering health and vitality for humans and nature. Landscape Architecture Theory re-examines the fundamentals of the field, offering a new approach to landscape design. Drawing on his extensive career in teaching and practice, Michael Murphy begins with an examination of influences on landscape architecture: social context, contemporary values, and the practicalities of working as a professional landscape architect. He then delves into systems and procedural theory, while making connections to ecosystem factors, human factors, utility, aesthetics, and the design process. He concludes by showing how a strong theoretical understanding can be applied to practical, every-day decision making and design work to create more holistic, sustainable, and creative landscapes. Students will take away a foundational understanding of the underpinnings of landscape architecture theory, as well as how it can be applied to real-world designs; working professionals will find stimulating insights to infuse their projects with a greater sense of purpose.
Sustainable Surface Water Management: a handbook for SUDS addresses issues as diverse as flooding, water quality, amenity and biodiversity but also mitigation of, and adaptation to, global climate change, human health benefits and reduction in energy use. Chapters are included to cover issues from around the world, but they also address particular designs associated with the implementation of SUDS in tropical areas, problems with retrofitting SUDS devices, SUDS modelling, water harvesting in drought-stricken countries using SUDS and the inclusion of SUDS in the climate change strategies of such cities as Tokyo, New York and Strasbourg.