Essential Reads

[Steven Chavez]

America By Design (Videos) by Spiro Kostof

[Peter M. Boyle]

-Ecological Design by Sim Van der Ryn and Stuart Cowen

-Time-Saver Standards for Landscape Architecture by Charles Harris and Nicholas Dines

-A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold

-The Next American Metropolis by Peter Calthorpe

-Gardens are for People by Thomas D. Church

[Deborah Christman]

This was great book! I loved the layered diagrams. Helped me recall info from my history of L.A. classes.

[Brent Wall]

Large Parks edited by George Hargreaves and Julia Czerniak
Landscape for Livingby Garrett Eckbo
The Garden Makers by George Plumptre
Moving Horizons: The Landscape Architecture of Kathryn Gustafson and Partners by Jane Amidon
Radical Landscapes: Reinventing Outdoor Space by Jane Amidon and Kathryn Gustafson
The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects by Lewis Mumford
Outdoors: The Garden Design Book for the Twenty-First Century by Terence Conran and Diarmuid Gavin

[Les Ballard]

This series of tapestries may refer to 5 super senses rather than just our 5 senses. The background is full of flowers and animals all with a meaning. See The Oak King and The Holly King: Myths and Legends of the Unicorn Tapestries, Henry Williamson, available via Samuel Weiser, New York. (E.& O.E.)

am an Englishman of a certain age and grew up in the Peterborough fens and Essex woods and seaside. In the fens, of course, it is bleak at times but then you find whole microenvironments in the banks of the dykes, just like the grykes in limestone pavements. What shapes us is our individual environments, parents and – I think – the childrens’ books we read. Apart from the coffee table tomes, therefore, I think we all have to find our own versions, for our time, of Wind in the Willows, Swallows and Amazons, The Secret Garden, The Black Arrow and Biggles (honest, read the landscape descriptions). A young man of my acquaintance is entirely rapped with Bladerunner and The World of Warcraft. While I like Lord of the Rings, I would not design a landscape that looks like a post carnage Mordor battlefield. Let us hope that the young man does not become an LA, or has other influences!

I am still reading and learning of course – we always do (or should) – and I find inspiration in the art books that the library acquires, the window boxes the pensioners make at the apartment block near me and, indeed, for preference, everywhere I go. My new year’s resolution this eve is to see a higher percentage of what I look at and to look at more of what is good. May we all do likewise.

Luv n Lite,
Les Ballard

[Anonymous]

A. Land Mosaics by Richard Forman (a classic!)

B. The Granite Garden by Anne Whiston Spirn (still a classic!!)

C. Modern Gardens and the Landscape by Elizabeth Kassler (Where did landscape urbanism come from? Check this book out to find out. It is the catalogue for one of the first exhibitions about modern gardens in the US. It was held at the Modern Museum of Art in the early 1960s. It may be out of print, but if you can, scour your local used book stores for this tiny retro GEM about mid-century modernism! It is worth the search!)

D. Many others…too many to name!

[Ryland Fox]

Kostas Terzidis –

Expressive Form – A Conceptual Approach to Computational Design
Algorithmic Architecture

[Barbara Peterson]

Depends on what you are interested in but I like:
– Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder – Richard Louv
– Up by Roots: Healthy Soils and Trees in the Built Environment – James Urban (skimmed it and it looks very interesting – will be reading it when I finish my last book0

[Andrew Kanzler]

I concur with all things John T Lyle and all things Landscape Urbanism.

[Syaryzad]

Wow…

This really is a good topic with lots of recommendation for books to read!
I really need to stock up my book collections now.~

Saying that, it could get really hard to find good landscape books in Dubai.
Managed to grab some at Kinokuniya Dubai Mall, though, last week.
Will definately ty to look up on some of the featured titles here.

Thanks and Cheers~

[Rico Flor]

Keep scouting Jashanmal and Magrudy’s, Architecture, Gardening and Home Ideas section. Recently, I scored a good book on Al Fresco set-ups…”Outdoor Spaces” by Ana Cañizares… at Borders for just 60AED…a steal because of the sale season!!! Expect a price tag ranging from 150 to 300 AED.

BTW, there’s still a Mike Lin book at Magrudy’s DFC…

[ellena]

I cherish so many of the books that have been listed so far. There is another gem that Californians in particular will enjoy – Gardening with a Wild Heart by Judith Larner Lowry. Larner writes with passion about the landscape of the Northern California coast around Bolinas and describes her seed collecting projects there. She infuses her story with knowledge of the ecology, Native American history, and poetry of the place.

[Syaryzad]

Thanks for the tips, Rico!
Will definately check it out~~

Cheers!

[Claudia Chalfa]

and for the “big idea” : “Ishmael” by Daniel Quinn.

[Claudia Chalfa]

also “a place of my own” by Michael Pollan

[Author]

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