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Living
Systems: Innovative Materials and Technologies for Landscape
Architecture, by Liat Margolis & Alexander
Robinson.
This well-illustrated volume collects
a number of recent lanscape-oriented projects and a selection
of innovative products and technologies, both sections addressing
the "widespread professional and academic recognition
that knowledge of material properties and processes is fundamental
to innovation in design applications, and [that] cross-fertilization
among professional fields...may broaden and advance the
scope of landscape architecture."
The first section of the book --
the projects -- is broken down into seven sections: Launch,
Stratify, Fluid, Grooming, Digestive, Translate, Volatile.
These somewhat enigmatic descriptors are meant to be a "starting
point for a new language of landscape definitions and terminology,"
stemming from human/animal cycles and focused on processes
rather than stasis. For example, Digestive approaches landscape
as a metabolic system, where processes like bioremediation
are featured in projects like the Sidwell
Friends Middle School. Each project is presented on
2-4 pages, with explanatory text accompanied by photographs,
drawings, and the occasional diagram. The text tends to
be directed towards landscape architects, civil engineers,
and others with knowledge of soils and plants, though the
authors thoughtfully highlight certain text in bold, uppercase
letters, so those without that knowledge (or much time to
spend reading about each project) can peruse them and still
glean what's important. The cross-fertilization among fields
the authors intended is apparent in their selection of projects,
and one of the book's strongest aspects, ranging from the
school mentioned above to the highly architectural and structural
MFO Park
in Zurich and the artistic Courtyard
in the Wind by Acconci Studio. Regional and other large-scale
projects are also included, though the book's second section
-- products and technologies -- naturally tends towards
the level of the detail.
Throughout the projects section,
where applicable, products from the back of the book are
mentioned in the text, be it when used in a specific project
or aligned with one of the seven processes, so the two sections
become linked rather than separate entities Further, each
product or technology is coded to one or more of the seven
processes of which it is relevant, making this section a
good reference to landscape designers looking to address
a particular consideration. The products feature the new
(vertical greenscapes), the familiar (erosion blankets),
and the odd (illuminating clay), with the range as wide
and refreshing as the projects.
If the book lives up to the authors'
high expectations and intentions remains to be seen, though
the emphasis on processes and innovative technologies is
certainly aligned with architectural considerations today
as well, sustainability and material innovation, respectively.
The presentation of projects and products here would make
a fitting companion to similar books geared to architects,
ones that may devote less space to considerations like natural
processes, which architects need not master but certainly
should be familiar with. The projects included here hold
great promise: that collaborative efforts are becoming more
and more the norm, and the product of such are designs that
bridge architecture and landscape towards the betterment
of both.
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