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STPMJ Create World’s First Invisible Barn! Do you remember Parc de la Villette in Paris? The park was designed by the French architect Bernard Tschumi, who built it from 1984 to 1987. It hosts museums, concert halls, live performance stages, theaters, and children playgrounds. It’s one of the largest concentrations of cultural venues in Paris, including Europe’s largest science museum. But it is most famous for its 35 architectural follies. They are placed on a grid, forming a distinct organization within the park and acting as points of reference that help visitors navigate. What is a folly? In architecture, a folly is a building constructed mainly for decoration, but suggesting another purpose, or a structure so extravagant that it goes beyond the normal range of garden ornament. F...Read More

Capitalizing on Underutilized Roof Space: An Interview with Chicago Roof Deck & Garden. As we inch closer to summer, we naturally plan additional activities outdoors. Whether it’s entertaining family or friends, relaxing with a great book, or simply soaking up some rays, roof decks and gardens offer vast opportunities to improve your quality of life. Based on a study released in February 2014 by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), landscape architects in the residential sector rated the expected popularity of outdoor living spaces — defined as kitchens and entertainment spaces — a close second to gardens and landscaped spaces. Subsequently, it’s no surprise that the “leisure lifestyle” is now a $6.2 billion industry and growing (Fordyce 2013). Gone are the ...Read More

Modern landscapes are a dime a dozen these days, but have you ever wondered how they got started? “Private Landscapes” by Pamela Burton and Marie Botnick explores the development of modernist gardens in this updated paperback reprint of the 2003 original. The book profiles twenty significant homes and landscape gardens created by celebrated architects such as Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler, Gregory Ain, Raphael Soriano, Harwell Hamilton Harris, A. Quincy Jones, and John Lautner. Although the Southern California modernist style has been abundantly covered by architectural books over the years, “Private Landscapes” shines the spotlight on the landscapes that helped create a harmonious relations with the home design.  The modernism movement is generally regarded as ...Read More

Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture recently won the 2014 National Design Landscape Architecture Award from the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Conceived by the museum to “honor lasting achievement in American Design,” the National Design Awards draw attention to 10 jury-selected award categories, one of which is landscape architecture. The San Francisco-based firm, which was recognized as a Finalist for the National Design Awards three times prior, joins an acclaimed list of landscape architecture award recipients that include Margie Ruddick (2013), Stoss Landscape Architecture (2012), and Lawrence Halprin (2000). Alder Lane Farm Children’s Garden Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture is famous for their seamless integration of landscape and archit...Read More

Al Fayah Park turns heads as Heatherwick Studios plan to create a state of the art lush park in the desert! Landscape design is getting stronger as the days are passing by. Each architect and urban planner is now aware that there is a need for landscape design when we are talking about any land use and the improvement of the city. But, what is stronger is the misconception of sustainability and landscape design. If we analyze the actual status of our cities and the green areas that are within them, we will discover that the reason why landscape design, architecture and urbanism are falling in their purpose is because they follow “old models” of design. In most of the cases, the parks are designed with a goal of creating an English garden. In other situations, client, gardener and architect...Read More

Week in week out we bring you 10 incredible displays of sketchy talents, showing you that this ancient skill is alive and thriving in a digital age of computers and fancy software packages. The sketches this week are raw and electric with some terrific use of colors and techniques, each one with it’s own unique character, acting as a visual extension of the artists signature. Thank you for making Sketchy Saturday what it is! Here are this week’s Top 10: 10. Sketch by Andrey Chernykh landscape designer from Toronto “The sketch was done as part of my documentation of my journey to Almaty, Kazakhstan in summer 2013. I was hiking through the mountains and while approaching a turn in the road I witnessed that incredible view, and sketched it in pencil on the spot, then coloure...Read More

The recent protests in Taksim Square, Istanbul, and those in Tahrir Square, Cairo, have once again highlighted the power of public space as a tool of protest. The use of public space has always been employed as a way to reflect the economic and socio-political mood. Yet, public space is a fragile thing. The London Occupy Movement highlighted that our public space may not be as public as we think, when protesters were prevented from entering Paternoster Square by a high court injunction taken out by the owners. Public space is important because it is supposed to be just that. Public. For you and me, and the person sitting next to you. It represents our rights, and in all the above cases the right to political protest. The architectural emblem of a society in all its guises — economics...Read More

Designer Amir Schlezinger creates a luxurious floating roof garden. This 2500-square-foot northwest facing private roof terrace is situated on the 7th floor of Bridge House – the first of 5 towers at St George Wharf – the flagship development of St George PLC. The client, a recruitment consultant, asked me to rework what was a barren landscape of concrete slabs and withered plants to create a low maintenance Mediterranean entertainment space – the highlight of what is otherwise a rather small apartment. This was to be arguably the largest landscaped terrace on the Thames. The Site  The client had acquired the apartment off-plan having had a great eye for its potential. Yet the task at hand was a daunting one: the exposure to vicious winds from the west, the baking heat and ferocious pollut...Read More

Australian Garden at The Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne, by TCL Landscape Architecture Urban Design. The Australian Garden at The Royal Botanic Gardens at Cranbourne has been awarded the prestigious title of World Architecture Festival Best Landscape Project 2013. It also features as No. 2 in Landscape Architects Network’s Top 10 World Class Landscape Architecture Projects of 2013, by Paul McAtomney. In this review, we take a closer look at one of Australia’s most remarkable landscape architecture projects in recent history. Royal Botanic Gardens The Royal Botanic Gardens at Cranbourne are a division of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne. The Cranbourne gardens are situated approximately 45 kilometers from the center of Melbourne and are dedicated to showcasing the astounding di...Read More

Southern Louisiana’s Lower Mississippi River Delta is one of the most biologically and commercially significant regions of the United States–and it’s disappearing. Fast. How fast? According to Changing Course, a design competition that aims to reimagine a more sustainable future for the delta, Louisiana loses a football field-sized swath of land every hour, largely because of poor land planning and management. Determined to make a change, Changing Course brought together diverse teams of scientists, landscape architects, and experts to propose design solutions to one of the biggest (and overlooked) problems in the United States. “It’s never been done before,” writes Changing Course. “But we’re working to do it.”  From the description: &...Read More

Claudia Schwarzer from Bio Piscinas gives us a detailed account of her own experience of designing and creating natural swimming pools. In the 20 years I have worked as a landscape architect in Portugal, my firm has designed more than 170 swimming ponds, 40 for tourist use. So I know the challenges of placing water features into the Mediterranean landscape. For me and for our clients, it is important to design the swimming ponds to be as natural as possible, so that they look like they have always been there. I am used to working with living things, like gardens and parks. But for me, a swimming pond goes far beyond the sum of its parts. It is biologically alive, offering more than just a place to swim. Swimming in a pond allows us to get close to nature in an extraordinary way — div...Read More

Habima Square: Tel Aviv’s Cultural Plaza as a Work of Art Tel Aviv’s Habima Square, which connects Chen and Rothschild boulevards, hosts a number of cultural venues, including Habima Theatre, Mann Auditorium, and Helena Rubinstein Pavillion for Contemporary Art. Also known as Orchestra Plaza, the square’s importance to the city is undeniable. However, its design generated a few controversies when a sculptor, rather than a landscape architect, was put in charge of the project. The situation raises questions such as: Should the space be considered a work of art rather than a public space? Will it function as such? Are landscape architects the only professionals capable of designing outdoor spaces? These are not easy questions to answer. The Plaza In the late 1920s, while designing Tel ...Read More