Thriving in the work of landscape architecture requires maintaining inspiration, often as much as growing your knowledge and experience. To stay fresh, the right book can be your greatest ally.
In 2013, Land8 created a list of the “Top 10 Books for Landscape Architects”. We still value these texts (and may even have selected a few for re-inclusion on this list), but today our profession has grown increasingly dynamic, interdisciplinary, and deeply tied to the urgent needs of our planet. We need new guides to this expanded field.
Everyone loves their favorite landscape architect’s latest studio monograph, but we’re not playing favorites. You know if your fav studio has a new book out. Instead, we’ve chosen a spread of works in different topics within the profession to feed your practice and stoke your inner fire. Each book offers something singular: a narrative, a challenge, or a set of tools to enrich your work and expand your vision. Whether you spend your days drafting pocket parks, conducting field work, or scheming up whole new worlds, pick up a few of these books – they might just be the provocations you didn’t know you craved.
The Sustainable Urban Design Handbook
By Kaarin Knudson & Nico Larco, 2024
For the urban designer – or urban design wannabe:
The Sustainable Urban Design Handbook By Kaarin Knudson & Nico Larco, 2024, Routledge
You’re accustomed to the topics – Energy Use (transportation based), Ecology + Habitat, Energy Use (+ production), Equity + Health. You’re used to thinking at different scales – Regional, Neighborhood/District, Street/Block, and Project/Parcel. But have you been able to find a condensed overview of these concerns across scales all in one place? This recently published handbook provides designers with a framework for multiscalar thinking across different issues in urban design. It’s also a great tool for you to use in educating your community and decision-makers towards more sustainable futures.
Landscape Architectural Graphic Standards
By Leonard J. Hopper (Editor), 2006
For LARE candidates:
Landscape Architectural Graphic Standards By Leonard J. Hopper (Editor), 2006, Wiley
This hefty tome is the foundation of your mentors’ bookshelves. Time to step up and get your own copy. This reference is like having a team of highly-experienced construction experts at your fingertips. Don’t just reproduce what you see here: study to understand the components of each detail and how they work together. If the full version is beyond your needs as a soon-to-be-landscape architect, consider the Landscape Architectural Graphic Standards, Student Edition.
Drawing for Landscape Architecture: Sketch to Screen to Site, by Edward Hutchinson, 2019
For the maven of the sketch walk:
Drawing for Landscape Architecture: Sketch to Screen to Site By Edward Hutchinson, 2019, Thames & Hudson
Drawing – whether digital, analogue, or somewhere in between – is one of the key skills of landscape architecture practice. Hutchinson’s guide offers a spread of useful techniques with examples applicable to each stage of design thinking and production. We appreciate the clear detailing of drawing materials used and production time required to create each drawing.
Fieldwork in Landscape Architecture, By Thomas Oles & Paula Horrigan, 2024
For the person who sleeps in their safety vest, hard hat, tape measure, and site photos:
Fieldwork in Landscape Architecture By Thomas Oles & Paula Horrigan, 2024, Routledge
Landscape architects have long had a troubled relationship with fieldwork. This valuable new handbook introduces students and early career professionals to the complexities of design as it meets the realities of land and construction. With its thoughtful categorization of “what you seek”, “what you carry”, “how you act”, and “what you leave behind”, this book will stimulate even highly experienced professionals to see aspects of site they may have ignored.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities: 50th Anniversary Edition, By Jane Jacobs, 2011
For the porch-sitting, coffee-drinking, social theorist:
The Death and Life of Great American Cities: 50th Anniversary Edition By Jane Jacobs, 2011, Penguin Random House
Hermit, dweller of the urban core, or something in between, you can learn something valuable from Jane Jacobs. She drew attention to processes as a component of city planning – as well as the compounding effects of seemingly small variables in a city’s function. Read Jane Jacobs and you’ll never see your sidewalk, street, park, or neighborhood in quite the same way again.
Lost in the Transit Desert, By Diane Jones Allen, 2018
For transit-oriented teens (and adults, sure, as well):
Lost in the Transit Desert By Diane Jones Allen, 2018, Routledge
You’ve heard of food deserts – but are you ready to take on the transit deserts? Dr. Jones Allen traces the origins and causes of transit deserts, examines specific case studies, and lays out a range of potential future approaches to this vital issue. This book will provoke you to think about how underserved communities creatively navigate vehicle-focused development for daily survival – and challenge you to action towards a more navigable world for all.
The Mushroom at the End of the World, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, 2021
For fans of Dr Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “Braiding Sweetgrass”:
The Mushroom at the End of the World By Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, 2021, Princeton University Press
Are you craving thoughtful exploration of the relationships between humans and other beings? Tsing untangles human-landscape interdependence through stories of matsutake, the fruiting body of a fungus revered in Japanese tradition which grows in highly disturbed landscapes. Tsing traces the human networks around matsutake as a guide to gesturing toward a future of survival through collaboration and care.
AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future, by Kai-Fu Lee & Chen Quifan, 2021
For the guy who won’t stop talking about AI (and the confused principal having a bespoke model developed using in-house data):
AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future By Kai-Fu Lee & Chen Quifan, 2021, Crown Currency
Midjourney, ChatGPT, and every software now featuring “new AI functionality” has become daily reality. Where might these new technologies be taking us? Lee & Chen picture 10 scenarios for the year 2041. Their engaging stories lay out a wide potential range of AI impacts on different areas of life in various global cities. Whether each scenario excites or worries you, you’ll be thinking about aspects of these stories long after you finish the book.
The Terraformers , By Annalee Newitz, 2023
For the far futurists among us:
The Terraformers By Annalee Newitz, 2023, Macmillan
Crack open this climate fiction adventure and step into a universe shaped by artificial intelligence, biological consciousness, and large-scale climate modification. The issues landscape architects tangle through today have grown, in this universe, to shape the lives of every being. Newitz has written a story to think-with that’s also a breeze to read and enjoy.
Grow: A Family Guide to Plants and How to Grow Them, By Riz Reyes, illustrations by Sara Boccaccini Meadows, 2022
For budding landscape architects:
Grow: A Family Guide to Plants and How to Grow Them By Riz Reyes, illustrations by Sara Boccaccini Meadows, 2022, Abrams
Want the best start for your future landscape architects? Introduce them to the joyous interactions between plants and humans with this thoughtful botanical guide. Global examples of plant culture demonstrate how each of the included hero plants enrich the lives of humans and other beings. Beautiful illustrations and thoughtful text just might sow a future appreciation of plants in the hearts of young readers.
Published in Blog, Cover Story
