[Steven Velegrinis]

 

Im an Australian Landscape Architect and Urban Planner and Ive worked in Southeast Asia, China and the Middle East for the past 12 years. 

 

It has been the most pivotal and positive things i ever did in my life and and I can strongly recommend it to you.

 

Be aware that working culture in China is fairly hardcore.  Very, very, very long hours and scales of projects that dont allow you to do the job you would like to do.  Some employers are a bit dodgy but get in touch with people who have worked there through Land8 or Linked In and get the skinny from them.

 

Other than that expect a whirlwind journey and enjoy the ride…..

 

 

[Steven Velegrinis]

Green Infrastructure seems to be the global buzz-word at the moment. Its not directly related to your question but the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects and the Landscape Institute in the UK have released guidelines on Green Infrastructure – see http://www.aila.org.au/greeninfrastructure/ and http://www.landscapeinstitute.org/PDF/Contribute/GreenInfrastructurepositionstatement13May09.pdf

Speaking from the perspective of someone practising in the Middle East and Asia emprical data (or more importantly realised projects demonstrating practicality) are essential.

To see an example of a Green Infrastructure approach check out the ABC Waterways project in Singapore. I worked on this project a few years ago and it has been quite a sucess. See http://www.pub.gov.sg/abcwaters/Pages/default.aspx

[Steven Velegrinis]

Vanessa,

There is an excellent albeit academic review of all of these terminologies – Landscape Urbanism, Green Urbanism, New Urbanism, TOD etc etc – in a paper in Landscape Journal written by Richard Weller in 2008. It is called “Landscape (sub)urbanism in Theory: Towards a theory and practice of landscape architecture in regard to the contemporary suburban condition” .

Other references for Landscape Urbanism include the AA Landscape Urbanism book (now fairly old and rather forgettable), Center: On Landscape Urbanism by University of Texas at Austin and Kerb 15: Landscape Urbanism.

Other good references are detailed in Richard Wellers paper which is as exhaustive of a review / summary as ive seen.

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