Search results for ""author marc treib""

The complex story of modern landscape architecture remains to be written, as does its precise definition. Thinking a Modern Landscape Architecture, West & East, written by one of the field's most prolific and insightful authors, provides a rare cross-cultural study that examines the written and design contributions made by two of the movement's most influential early protagonists: Christopher Tunnard (1910-1979) in England - and later the United States, and Sutemi Horiguchi (1896-1984) in Japan. Tunnard's pioneering manifesto, Gardens in the Modern Landscape, first published in 1938, laid out the thinking and provided the direction for a landscape architecture engaged more strongly with contemporary life, adopting ideas from modern art as well as the historical gardens of Japan. Rather than a book, it was the architect Horiguchi's 1934 essay The Garden of Autumn Grasses that initiated a new direction for garden making in Japan, with a considered and artful use of seasonal plants and a stronger connection to the modern architecture it accompanied. Unlike Tunnard, who sought inspiration and sources in contemporary art, Horiguchi looked to the eighteen-century Rimpa School of painting for insights into the composition of the new garden by carefully placing individual plants against a simple background. Although the two theorists-practitioners never met, Tunnard's interest in Japan, and use of Horiguchi's work as illustrations, links them in a shared quest for a landscape architecture appropriate to their times and respective countries.

Read more less

The Shape of the Land: Topography & Landscape Architecture — the first book to centre on this subject — presents the contributions of 13 well-known practitioners and academics who discuss the forms and ramifications of reconfiguring terrain. The essays range in content from pre-industrial precedents in the work of Humphry Repton to new digital topographic modelling systems without the use of contour lines, the treatment of waste products to the land art of the American Southwest. Practicing landscape architects focusing on the modelling of topography in the works considering both utility and aesthetics. In all, the book reviews the history, reasons, and results of at least three centuries of topographic interventions, while suggesting pathways into the future — as new technology and new necessities increase the functional demands placed upon landscape architects, while at the same time potentially offering new forms of artistic expression.

Read more less

While sculpture remained central to his artistic practice, Isamu Noguchi's (19041988) interests and production spanned an exceptionally broad terrain that included furniture and lamps, stage sets for dance, plazas, courtyards and gardens. Noguchi made no distinction between design, craft, and the so-called fine arts: in his view all of these could all be considered art should their aesthetic qualities sufficiently transcend those generated by the simple address of need.Although his gardens include several of the twentieth century's most iconic landscape designs and have received almost universal praise, Noguchi nonetheless occupies a place removed from the normal practice of landscape architecture. As an artist he relied more on intuition - bolstered by focused study where required - than on objective analysis, and he shaped his landscapes as sculpture, with space as their primary vehicle. To Noguchi landscape design was a spatial and formal art, and from his earliest enviro

Read more less

Austere Gardens suggests that being open to other ways of observing and sensing can yield new insights and rewards, and that interest is found in places unassuming and overlooked as well as those complex and assertive. Perceiving is only one half of the story, however. Realising places using simple acts and reduced means is the other half. The history of garden-making reveals continued attempts to create an Eden, to surpass our given environment in abundance and delight, and by selected instruments transcend the constraints of site, topography, and climate. The alternative to this garden of inclusion lies in the landscapes of reduction and compression, for example the dry gardens of Japan. These might be termed austere gardens. The word austere, as used in this essay, does not imply asceticism, but merely modesty and restraint. Austere landscapes may first appear devoid of interest if noticed at all. To those who do not look beyond their surfaces, these sites, and the world outside them, usually appear plain and uninteresting, or even lacking of the very properties by which we define a garden. But there are sensual, aesthetic, and even philosophical, pleasures to be gained from these seemingly dull fields should we attempt to appreciate them. These qualities, normally associated with abundance and complexity, may be found in a different way, and at a different level, in austere terrain. Although the subject of the small book is gardens, or more broadly taken, landscapes that may be read as gardens, many of the examples are nonetheless drawn from art and architecture, from history as well as contemporary times. The images that accompany the text tell their own stories, illustrating what can be accomplished using frugal means or through basic acts like digging, piling, planting, cutting, and clearing. In an era where resources appear to be dwindling and populations growing, attitudes that value simplicity and reduction also gain a moral dimension.

Read more less

Poodling is a vernacular approach to pruning shrubbery: a negotiation between gardener and shrub that pits human aesthetic intention against the genetic forces that guide the plant''s natural development. Topiary shears shrubs into a singular form geometric or figure; poodling, in contrast, treats each branch individually and shapes its leaves or needles into the forms that remain at their ends.In this informed, if light-hearted, telling of the story, noted landscape historian Marc Treib traces the evolution and characteristics of topiary, espalier, and other forms of plant guidance such as poodling, proposing that what began as functional horticultural practices was transformed into a vehicle for artistic expression. Poodling catalogues the forms of pruning we encounter today and their probable origin in Japan during the 18th century. Noting the parallels, he compares the forms of poodling (vegetal) with those of the canine species poodle (animal), and

Read more less

Planting design is, rather obviously, a complex topic, spanning as it does art, science, social need, and morality - especially during these days of increasing planetary environmental threat. Although certainly not denying the importance of scientifically appropriate practices, the symposium “The Aesthetics of [Contemporary] Planting Design” addressed planting design today, proposing a renewed concern for the cultural and aesthetic aspects of the landscapes that result. This book, which has been developed from the original presentations at the symposium, presents the thoughts of a select international group of landscape architects and historians who discuss the subject of planting design through the lens of their own work as well as the work of others, both contemporary and historical. They suggest that, as in real estate, the most important factor in selecting plants is “location, location, location.” Certainly the Californian situation is far more forgiving than the aridity and other restrictive environmental conditions endemic to the Sonoran desert, or the frost and short growing seasons of Nordic lands that direct Scandinavian landscape architects to rely on native birches, pines, rowan, and moss. Most of us would agree that there are plants sensible for each climatic zone. Addressing environmental conditions is but the first step in the equation, however. There are also the issues of combination and composition.

Read more less

Designed for the layman as well as the professional, this concise yet comprehensive guide provides both practical information and theoretical insights into the design of the Japanese garden. Kyoto, the capital of Japan for over one thousand years, possesses a richness of garden art without equal as a living chronicle of Japanese cultural history and environmental design. Following the introductory essays are individual entries for more than 50 temple and palace gardens. The text is augmented by an excellent selection of photographs, historical prints, maps, and colour plates.

Read more less

Born in Florence in 1910, Pietro Porcinai grew up on the classic grounds of the Villa Gamberaia in Settignano where his father served as head gardener. Although he studied agriculture in college, Porcinai’s true interest lay in the landscape architecture practice he founded in 1938. Early projects centered in the area of Arezzo, whose style reflected modern ­ized traditional models. In the postwar era the office flourished, producing modern gardens of remarkable design and use of plants. In these works, Porcinai convincingly demonstrated the affinity between historical architecture and landscapes un ­compromisingly modern. During his long and productive career he also consulted on autostrada planning, and designed public parks, memorials, and even a Pinocchio theme park-at times collaborating with noted architects such as Renzo Piano, Carlo Scarpa and Oscar Niemeyer. This book, the first English-language study on Pietro Porcinai provides a comprehensive and richly illustrated overview of his life and remarkable achievements.

Read more less

Situated at the intersection of public realm, urban design and site specific art, Martha Schwartz Partners has over 35 years of experience designing and implementing installations, gardens, civic plazas, parks, institutional landscapes, corporate headquarters, master plans, and urban regeneration projects. MSP works with city leaders, planners and builders at a strategic level so as to advocate for the inclusion of the public landscape as a means to achieve environmental, economic and social sustainability. With offices in London, New York and Shanghai, the practice is engaged in projects and consultation around the globe and has to date worked on projects in over 20 countries and five continents. This monograph is the first publication to document 55 built projects and a selection of master plans by this internationally acclaimed practice.

Read more less

Richard Haag is best known for his rehabilitation of Gas Works Park in Seattle and for a series of remarkable gardens at the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island. He reshaped the field of landscape architecture as a designer, teacher, and activist. In 1964, Haag founded the landscape architecture department at the University of Washington, and his innovative work contributed to the increasingly significant design approach known as urban ecological design, which encourages thinking beyond the boundaries of gardens and parks to consider the broader roles that landscapes play within urban ecosystems, such as storm water drainage and wildlife habitat. Gas Works Park is studied in every survey of twentieth-century landscape architecture as a modern work that challenged the tenets of modernism by engaging a toxic site and celebrating an industrial past. Haag’s work with ecologists and soil scientists in his landscape remediation and reclamation projects opened new areas of inquiry into the adaptive reuse of post-industrial sites. Thaïsa Way places Haag’s work within the context of changes in the practice of landscape architecture over the past five decades in the Pacific Northwest and nationally. The book should be of interest to specialists as well as to readers who are interested in the changes in urban landscapes inspired by Haag’s work. Watch the book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUBeOCA8-kQ

Read more less

Richard Haag is best known for his rehabilitation of Gas Works Park in Seattle and for a series of remarkable gardens at the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island. He reshaped the field of landscape architecture as a designer, teacher, and activist. In 1964, Haag founded the landscape architecture department at the University of Washington, and his innovative work contributed to the increasingly significant design approach known as urban ecological design, which encourages thinking beyond the boundaries of gardens and parks to consider the broader roles that landscapes play within urban ecosystems, such as storm water drainage and wildlife habitat. Gas Works Park is studied in every survey of twentieth-century landscape architecture as a modern work that challenged the tenets of modernism by engaging a toxic site and celebrating an industrial past. Haag’s work with ecologists and soil scientists in his landscape remediation and reclamation projects opened new areas of inquiry into the adaptive reuse of post-industrial sites. Thaïsa Way places Haag’s work within the context of changes in the practice of landscape architecture over the past five decades in the Pacific Northwest and nationally. The book should be of interest to specialists as well as to readers who are interested in the changes in urban landscapes inspired by Haag’s work. Watch the book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUBeOCA8-kQ

Read more less

Spanning four continents and six countries, this book introduces "new art landscapes" that fuse architecture, the reuse of found structures, environmentalism, and artistic experimentation. Through words and pictures, readers explore six institutions - Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, USA; Raketenstation Hombroich, near Neuss, Germany; Benesse Art Site in Naoshima, Japan; Inhotim, near Belo Horizonte, Brazil; Jardin Botanico, Culiacan, Mexico; and Grand Traiano Art Complex, Grottaferrata, Italy - dedicated to the experience of culture and nature. Integrating vegetation and non-linear sequences of spaces, the sites offer multiple experiences enticing the visitor to circulate between and within buildings. Iwan Baan, one of today's most influential architectural photographers, thoughtfully documents each project. In addition to his stunning images, the sites are depicted with architects' plans and sketches, historical photographs, and maquettes and sketches by key installation artists. Raymund Ryan's insightful essay discusses important historical precedents and considers the defining characteristics of "new art landscapes" through descriptions of each of the projects. Brian O'Doherty offers an artist's critical perspective, while Marc Treib situates the projects in the history of landscape design Architects under consideration include such established masters as Tadao Ando and Alvaro Siza Vieira as well as emerging practices such as Tatiana Bilbao and Johnston Marklee.

Read more less

This is a book about contemporary Swedish landscape architecture, reflected through the work of the country's leading landscape designer Thorbjorn Andersson. Three essays by international writers open the book, elaborating on the concepts of Nature, Site, and Restraint. The essays are followed by the project section, including photographs, drawings, and descriptions. The projects are in the public realm; mainly squares and parks in Sweden. Swedish landscape architecture stands firm in the world, directed towards social use and careful design. Sweden has developed a tradition built on human values, selective design, and an urge to work in a resourceful way. The book covers a selection of recent projects by Thorbjoern Andersson, who is one main interpreter of contemporary Swedish landscape design. Essays are by Annemarie Lund of Denmark, critic, editor and author, Marc Treib, professor emeritus of UC Berkeley and prolific author, and Udo Weilacher, chair of Landscape department at TU Munich and author.

Read more less