Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary Landscape Architecture

From Library Journal
This highly theoretical collection of essays is based partly on a symposium held at the Architectural Association in London in 1994. In his introduction, Corner (landscape architecture, Univ. of Pennsylvania) nicely frames the book with discussions of the semantics of the word landscape and its further cultural connotations while also describing how it is regarded by preservationists and represented in advertising. The volume is divided into three parts: reclaiming place and time, constructing and representing landscape, and urbanizing landscape. The breadth of approaches is impressive, and the contributors ably describe the idea of landscape from a virtually infinite set of perspectives, from the sense of tactility to the distinctive site characteristics of airports. Nevertheless, this is recommended only for graduate-level collections in cultural and architectural theory.APaul Glassman, New York Sch. of Interior Design Lib. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The Architects' Journal
A valuable collection of essays.


Book Description
The past decade has been witness to a remarkable resurgence of interest in landscape. While this recovery invokes a return of past traditions and ideas, it also implies renewal, invention, and transformation. Recovering Landscape collects a number of essays that discuss why landscape is gaining increased attention today, and what new possibilities might emerge from this situation. Themes such as reclamation, urbanism, infrastructure, geometry, representation, and temporality are explored in discussions drawn from recent developments not only in the United States but also in the Netherlands, France, India, and Southeast Asia. The contributors to this collection, all leading figures in the field of landscape architecture, include Alan Balfour, Denis Cosgrove, Georges Descombes, Christophe Girot, Steen Hoyer, David Leatherbarrow, Bart Lootsma, Sebastien Marot, Anuradha Mathur, Marc Treib, and Alex Wall.


About the Author
James Corner is an associate professor of architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. He is co-author of the award-winning title Taking Measures Across the American Landscape.


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This highly theoretical collection of essays is based partly on a symposium held at the Architectural Association in London in 1994. In his introduction, Corner (landscape architecture, Univ. of Pennsylvania) nicely frames the book with discussions of the semantics of the word landscape and its further cultural connotations while also describing how it is regarded by preservationists and represented in advertising. The volume is divided into three parts: reclaiming place and time, constructing and representing landscape, and urbanizing landscape. The breadth of approaches is impressive, and the contributors ably describe the idea of landscape from a virtually infinite set of perspectives, from the sense of tactility to the distinctive site characteristics of airports. Nevertheless, this is recommended only for graduate-level collections in cultural and architectural theory.--Paul Glassman, New York Sch. of Interior Design Lib. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.


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