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One of the hardest things to do in landscape architecture is to explain what we do. What makes the book “The Fundamentals of Landscape Architecture” stand out as exceptional is that it is a clear and concise record of not only what landscape architecture is, but WHY it is so important. This book is obviously written by an educator — someone who not only intimately knows and understands landscape architecture, but who is also well versed in communicating to a diverse audience in plain English. What the book is about The sheer number and quality of inspirational images of landscape projects would be enough to classify this title as a “coffee table book”. On the other hand, the diagrams and level of information — such as the useful timeline at the beginning of the book — are...Read More

Want to get up to speed on the latest software technology?  Then, check out Black Spectacles, an awesome website for learning architecture and design software.  Whether you need to get ahead in school or a new job or simply just want to improve your skills, you can learn software on your own schedule, on any device, anywhere you can get an internet connection.  The courses are lead by architects and designers practicing at the best firms in the world on topics ranging from AutoCAD to InDesign.  Each course is structured into short, concise clips which makes it easy to follow along.  There are plenty of free segments that anyone can access like this Introduction to 3DS MAX.   Members get full, unlimited access to all of their courses, free office hours with their authors & discounts on ...Read More

This Top Ten showcases the most beautiful, intriguing, and inventive sketches by some of our talented Landscape Architects Network readers. So we return with another batch of creative and beautiful works by our beloved and devoted readers. Sketches are getting better and better, and selecting the top ten is becoming a heavy task. We still base our criteria on beauty, technique, imagination, and well executed drawings. So without further a due, here’s the Top Ten! 10. by Andrej Žinić “This is a narrow and small street in an old part of Zagreb. One of many sketches made for a 1st year sketchbook capturing details of architecture and landscapes surrounding us, mainly using slightly softer pencils.” 9. by Marcus Stevenson “I imagined solitude, peace, simplicity, serenity in t...Read More

After years of congressional bickering and Eisenhower family protests, the latest revision of the hotly debated Eisenhower Memorial in Washington D.C. has been approved by the commission set up to manage it. The new design was unveiled Tuesday in order to help quell months of of criticism regarding architect, Frank Gehry’s original design.    The metal tapestries that surround the urban park areas are to remain to the dismay of many. However, the new design gives more prominence to the Eisenhower statue as a centerpiece. Gehry submitted a statement that endorsed the amount of negative feedback he was receiving – dubbing it “collaboration.” According to the architect, “It is a process that I think is vital to the success of any endeavor and one that was necessa...Read More

  Madison Square Park is known as “the museum without walls,” and rightfully so as the name is a product of the Madison Square Park Conservancy’s stellar contemporary art program, MAD. SQ. ART.  The Conservancy is a private/public/ non-profit organization that partners with the NYC parks department to raise capital for park maintenance.  The extensive contemporary art program fills the park with regular outdoor exhibits extending an ephemeral quality to the public space, enticing visitors  – local and afar – to return regularly for art in the park.     On May 1, 2013, Madison Square Park debuted its inaugural, traveling exhibition, Red, Yellow, and Blue by Brooklyn artist, Orly Genger.  Genger’s crew of assistants knitted, knotted, and painted in primary hues over one million feet of...Read More

When is a playground not just a playground?  When it can hold up to 23,000 cubic meters of rainwater! Designed by Danish landscape architects Nordarch, Rabalder Park fulfills a dual purpose as both a playground and a rainwater harvesting system.  More after the jump. The park is located on the site of a former concrete factory in the Musicon area of Roskilde in Denmark. It combines all the usual amenities of a park – fitness equipment, bike and jogging paths, parkour equipment, trampolines, a performance stage, areas for hanging out and barbecuing – with a water canal and a huge concrete skate bowl that doubles as a floodwater retention pool.  The entire development is fully integrated into the surrounding natural water system, allowing the park to alleviate flooding of nearby ...Read More

“Inventing” groundbreaking concepts in a domain as technical and complex as landscape architecture is a very hard task. Try to imagine creating a workshop where people from various artistic domains could engage in brainstorming on proposed technical concepts in landscape sketches! Who exactly has managed to come up with this new idea worth your attention? Noël van Dooren, landscape architect from the Netherlands, in a design experiment that was part of his Ph.D. research, called “Drawing Time”. Background What exactly does “Drawing Time” mean? Time in landscape is not often shown in drawings, although a lot of landscapes grow and change from the stage in which they are designed. Van Dooren organized the design experiment “Drawing Time Now!” at the Academy of Architecture Amsterdam. The int...Read More

Walking amid the skyscrapers and crowded sidewalks it is easy to forget that New York City is an aggregation of islands and peninsulas.  But a free ferry ride to Governors Island can be a pleasant reminder of the joys to be found in the harbor of this great city.  (Above: The view towards New Jersey from Governors Island) On June 11, I participated in a members-only hard hat tour of the construction that is currently underway on Governors Island.  The Van Alen Institute, “an independent nonprofit architectural organization that promotes inquiry into the processes that shape the design of the public realm”, organized the tour in partnership with the Trust for Governors Island.  Coincidentally, the tour happened on the same day that Mayor Michael Bloomberg released his new plan to protect Ne...Read More

Every day for the last six months I’ve hurried past a tall facade of blackened-timber on my way to work. I’d noticed a small, brightly coloured opening in the black hoarding, partially hidden by clambering plants but until last week I’d never ventured through it. What awaited me on the other side was an unexpected pocket of tranquility.     Located in the London borough of Hackney, adjacent to one of the busiest transport hubs in east London, the Eastern Curve Garden sits on the bend of of an old railway line, which once linked Dalston Junction to the North London Line. The railway line closed in 1944 and the tracks were removed in 1965 leaving a sliver of derelict land. The space was boarded up, abandoned and left to become an overgrown urban junkspace.   Above image: Th...Read More

There are few landscape architecture firms today that can say Urban Agriculture Design is on their shortlist of services offered.  Most firms are capable of designing a productive space, of course, whether or not they can say they specialize in this area of design is another matter. Below are eight North American Landscape Architecture firms that are leading the way through their own advocacy and stellar Urban Agriculture projects.  1. HB Lanarc – Vancouver & Nanimo, BC Located on Canada’s west coast, this landscape architecture firm concentrates on sustainability, focusing on ways to design the “ecologically resilient, and prosperous communities” of tomorrow. HB Lanarc also has several specialties,  one of course including urban agriculture. Their focus is a li...Read More

With a vision of a world enhanced by easier gardening, healthier produce, and food security for all, the Garden Tower Project is on a mission to “allow individuals and communities to easily become more self-sufficient, sustainable and ultimately create a more resilient local economy.”  The Garden Tower unit has over 45 plant openings and yields hundreds of veggies in just 4 square feet. Using a special recycled composting method, the veggies that grow in the Garden Tower use considerably less water then conventional growing methods. The middle part of this preassembled structure creates its own ‘worm-activated’ compost simply by adding your own kitchen scraps and worms. The added benefits of the worms – a perfectly aired soil, and the creation of vermicompost ...Read More

Need a good read this week?  Here is an in-depth study for you!  Our friends over at Landscape Urbanism recently launched the latest issue of the newly-named Scenario Journal – Scenario 4: Rethinking Infrastructure. This issue responds to the emergence of infrastructure as a central concept within the larger conversation about urbanism and a key force driving the transformation of urban landscapes, exploring the pressing question of how the infrastructure of the next century will be imagined and built. “Scenario brings together work from practitioners, academics and students of landscape, planning, architecture, art, engineering, and environmental science,” which gives each issue a unique and fresh perspective.  Crafted by Editors-in-Chief Stephanie Carlisle and Nicholas ...Read More