Books to read

With populations decentralizing and cities sprawling ever-outward, twenty-first-century urban planners are challenged by the need to organize not just people but space itself. Hence a new architectural discourse has emerged: landscape urbanism.

In The Landscape Urbanism Reader Charles Waldheim who is at the forefront of this new movement has assembled the definitive collection of essays by many of the field's top practitioners. Fourteen essays written by leading figures across a range of disciplines and from around the world including James Corner, Linda Pollak, Alan Berger, Pierre B langer, Julia Czerniak, and more capture the origins, the contemporary milieu, and the aspirations of this relatively new field. The Landscape Urbanism Reader is an inspiring signal to the future of city making as well as an indispensable reference for students, teachers, architects, and urban planners.

One of the great strengths of the book is that while each contributor argues clearly, each has a different prod at the matter, so that by the time one has finished the last of the fourteen essays, one has a strong feeling not only of shape but also of consistency in the landscape urbanism "movement." From the plethora of ideas one can extract three main currents of thought in the new discipline, all of which liberate themselves from the trap of urban form as defined by traditional urban designers. -- Harvard Design, Spring 2007

"a fine collection of contemporary thought on the subject" -- Journal of Architectural Education

"New Yorks High Line is hard to categorize - it will be a landscaped park but it is also a highly programmed architectural space, while its origins as infrastructure are still a huge part of its appeal. The emerging field of landscape urbanism is one way to define such a project and the growing numbers of likeminded proposals around the country." --The Architects Newspaper

"Required reading." --Architecture Magazine

Drawing the ground landscape urbanism today


The Netherlands has a long tradition of interaction between landscape, urban design and architecture. The urban planning office of Frits Palmbout is a follower of this legacy. The massive wave of urbanization in the world is concentrated in coastal areas and deltas. In the Netherlands, this development and relation between cities and landscapes affected the course during many centuries. Climate change and sea level rise puts it back on the agenda. The connection between urbanization and landscape is critical. New challenges in the practices of urban planning and landscape architecture increases the relevance of the Dutch experience. This publication focuses on drawing as a method and ground as the object of processing.

Architectura & Natura bookstore Amsterdam