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Upheaval and chaos has been intensified this past week in Istanbul as devoted Turkish citizens protest against the demolition of Taksim Gezi Park, one of the few green spaces left in Istanbul’s city centre. The young and the old come together, occupying the park singing songs, dancing, reading and even planting new trees in an effort to stand against the inconsiderate decision made by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to turn the park into a profitable shopping mall. The Catalyst The police have been using tear gas and water cannons as the main weapons to break up the protesters as they gather in “Istanbul’s last public green space.”  Protesters, in an effort to stop trees being taken down, had camped out, only to find police burning down their tents in the early dawn on May 30th. As maj...Read More

In a hope to create greener communities, London’s Mayor Boris Johnson has come up with a plan to create “100 tennis court sized pocket parks” in the city. Like all urbanized cities, the need to make them more environmentally friendly has become so much of an issue that creating miniature pocket parks are a quick, easy and enticing option. Moreover, in a trend that is gaining momentum throughout the country, a growing number of communities in the United States are establishing tiny parks in an effort to drive registered sex offenders out of town. Although more and more cities are becoming eager to create pocket parks, more thought needs to be put in on the purpose, use and character, not just for the ease of the size. You only have to look at the very successful and thriving Paley Park, a t...Read More

Modernism as a whole had a major impact on the twentieth century, especially in the arts and in design. Architecture, landscape architecture, film, movies, and art were all heavily influenced by the movement. While modernism’s impact may have been less significant in landscape architecture than in other disciplines – landscape materials, for example, didn’t change as radically in the twentieth century as did building materials in architecture – there were nonetheless many academics and practitioners who sought to move the profession forward as modernism came to prominence in the early- and mid-20th century.  Below are five modernist landscape architects whose work you should be familiar with:   1. Lawrence Halprin (1916-2009)   If Lawrence Halprin had only built one...Read More

  South Central LA is home of the “drive-throughs & drive-bys”, says Ron Finley in his TED Talk about gardening.  He believes that with more people dying from from preventable diseases, rather than shootings, Ron used the long-strip boulevard by his home to create food gardens that the community can access and be part of developing.     Check out the video below, and discover how “Planting some S***”, turned a desert green. Learn more about Ron Finley’s movement at lagreengrounds.org   Love to hear what you think!  Leave your comments below…

The Excalibur, situated within the Bjoeks Climb Center among the flatlands of Groningen, The Netherlands, is the world’s tallest climbing wall.  Towering 121 feet above grade, it stands like a monument over the surrounding landscape.  If the sheer height were not enough, a sleek curve 36 feet from the base provides an artificial overhang for advanced climbers and creates a dramatic element to the skyline.   Want to give it a shot?  Your effort promises to pay off with a great view when you make it to the top, as well as some serious bragging rights. All the aerial photos above were taken using a kite!  Learn more about KAP in my last post, Kite Aerial Photography: Site Photos from a New Perspective [HT Inthralld. + DesignTaxi] Additional photo credit: izismile 

The show gardens at Chelsea have come under some criticism this year for lacking ‘pizazz’ or show-stopping drama. At LAN we don’t believe this is true. While it could be said that many of the gardens portray a subtly that belies their depth and meaning, this year’s show gardens all demonstrate an attention to detail that marks them out as being stunning in their own right. Here we delve a little deeper to bring you the best of the best from the world’s greatest flower show. 10. Tokonoma (An Alcove) Garden Designer: Kazuyuki Ishihara Construction: Ishihara Kazuyuki Design Laboratory Awards: Gold Medal, Best Artisan Garden This rendering of a traditional Japanese tatami room garden is a traditional aesthetic that is not easy to interpret from a western viewpoint...Read More

At RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2013, Chris Beardshaw is currently exhibiting the Arthritis Research UK Garden, the Gold Medal winning entry for the charity of the same name. The garden explores the journey of someone who has been diagnosed with arthritis, and is a triumph of conceptual garden design. I was hoping to interview Chris while at Chelsea on Press Day. As if by testament to his popularity he was fully booked for the whole day! Luckily I was given just a few minutes to talk with him at the end of the interviews. Both wearing dark blue jeans and matching blue pin striped blazers, I was at first concerned we would look comical together. If he noticed he was too polite to comment. He greeted me with a warm smile. As I thanked him for his time he reassured me that it was his pleasure. Chr...Read More

“We’re Over: Breaking Up the Long Distance Relationship with Your Food,” was the title of my undergraduate thesis. My thesis was about local food and designing Urban Agriculture (UA), so I came up with this concept of “Breaking Up” that everyone would be able to relate to and understand.  Most of us are currently in a long distance relationship with our food.  We wouldn’t want our partner taking advantage of us or making us more physically or emotionally unhealthy would we? It’s the same with our food.  The average piece of food travels 2000 km (1242.75 miles) from where it is grown to where it is consumed.  The long travel time not only affects the health of the food by diminishing the nutrients in fresh produce, but most produce is sprayed with a...Read More

When you are working on landscaping, you need to think of several complications that can make your entire layout lifeless. Only few definite things can last in the landscaping desert; you need to know what actually they are. Well, here are some tips to be considered while you try to select a good landscape company. In reality, you may find several surprising things. People may forget about themselves that they live in the desert when they plan to start landscaping. They think that enough water, confidence, and hard work will do the job for them, but in actual fact, that is not true. No matter how hard you work on your garden, it resembles a rain forest. 1. After you are comfortable enough to decide with the datum that you live in desert, prepare yourself for the next step. The basic part o...Read More

Sun Salutation and The Sea Organ-Designed by a Croatian Architect, Nikola Bašić. If you happen to be at Croatia’s Zadar waterfront on a beautiful spring or summer evening, you might notice groups of people gathering around circular lit-up areas on the ground. Some of the people might point and laugh; some might try to catch the moving points of light before they vanish. Others might just stand and stare. Despite the lateness of the hour, there are probably a lot of children around, riding their bikes and scooters or simply running, following the colors and the movement of the lights. You might even spot a couple standing at the edge of the pool of light, kissing and hugging passionately. All those people are surrounded by soft, soothing music. What is this strange spectacle that attracts s...Read More

Winner of the ASLA Award of Excellence for General Design in 2010, Turenscape’s Houtan Park (后滩公园) also ranked near the top for places I wanted to visit on my trip to Shanghai. Though I arrived in the dead of winter and was greeted by a rather dry and dull color palette, my visit to Houtan Park did not fail to impress. Site Rendering. Photo: Kongjian Yu. source: asla.org With the added tagline ‘Landscape as a Living System’, Houtan Park has been universally lauded for not only its design, but also for its natural water purification system, whereby “634,000 gallons of polluted water are cleaned daily, improving the water’s quality from Grade V (unsuitable for human contact) to Grade II (suitable for landscape irrigation) using only biological processes” (LAF) i...Read More