Essential Reads

[Tandin Wangmo]

Hi all, I would very much appreciate your recommendations on books that are important and supplementary for the study of landscape architecture. Thank you.

[Deborah Christman]

These are a good foundation:

Death and Life…by Jacobs
Kevin Lynch
Ian McHarg
The Art of Landscaping Detail by Kirkwood
Great Streets

Of course all the picture books of ideas help the creative juices. Can never seem to get enough of those.

[Tandin Wangmo]

Thanks Deborah! 🙂

[Jay Everett]

Great topic Tandin,
Here’s some supplements that I have enjoyed reading so far:

Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape
(James Howard Kunstler)
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
(McDonough and Braungart)
Samuel Mockbee and the Rural Studio: Community Architecture
Rural Studio: Samuel Mockbee and an Architecture of Decency
(Mockbee / Moos / Trechsel, Andrea O. Dean )
A Sand County Almanac
(Aldo Leopold)
A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Century
(Witold Rybczynski)
Playing God in Yellowstone: The Destruction of America’s First National Park
(Alston Chase)

(Ha, it appears I really like reading books that have two titles, didn’t realize that until just now)

Magazines I like to read that often have articles related to LA and Planning:
Metropolis
Dwell
Popular Science

[Andrew Spiering]

Wow. There are some great recommendations here… It looks like I have some books to add to the Bookstore!

[Tandin Wangmo]

Thank you all so very much! I love Land8Lounge!!!

[Richard M Sweeney]

When your getting ready for proffesional practice (ready set practice by Bruce Sharky) is wonderfully informative book. It also works great when studying for section A of the LARE

[bak]

The Language of Landscape by Anne Whiston Spirn is a great book worth looking into as well.

[Nick Phillips]

i second the Jellicoe book, great illustrations and simple to read.
S. Kostof for Architecture history from the dawn of time to now.
many others I can’t recall i like pictures more these days.

[Pok Kobkongsanti]

I do like Pete Walker’s Invisible Garden.
A bit of history though…..

[Tandin Wangmo]

this is a great list! thanks everyone!

[Ryland Fox]

Anything by:
Bill Hillier
or
Nikos Salingaros

[Brandon Reed, CVO, ASLA / Rooftop and Urban Designer / Landscape Architect]

“The Timeless Way of Building” by Christopher Alexander

Can you be more specific as to what part of Landscape Architecture you are focusing on?

[Rico Flor]

Add to your readings articles by John Brinkerhoff Jackson…great commentary on Social Geography (as a layer in the landscape)…
Topophilia by Yi Fu Tuan.…
One of my favorites, Ecological Landscape Planning and Design: The Mediterannean Context by Jala Makhzoumi and Gloria Pungetti…
Any article by Jan Gehl, the Kaplans (for environmental psychology/man-environment studies)…
Also an old architecture favorite that is actually useful in any discipline: Hidden Dimensions by Edward T. Hall…
For the sheer pleasure of it, try Site Perspectives by L. Azeo Torre…

My personal wish list to read…Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander…books by Clare Cooper Marcus…yes, the Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold has been recommended, nice to have that in my pile…and Walden Pond by Thoreau for that matter…

Life’s just too short….

[Geoffrey Katz]

Poetics of Gardens. Moore, Mitchell, and Turnbull. MIT Press 1988

[Author]

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