Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary Landscape Theory [Paperback]

James Corner (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1568981791 | ISBN-13: 978-1568981796 | Publication Date: August 1, 1999 | Edition: 1st

The past decade has been witness to a remarkable resurgence of interest in landscape. While this recovery invokes a return of past traditions and ideas, it also implies renewal, invention, and transformation. Recovering Landscape collects a number of essays that discuss why landscape is gaining increased attention today, and what new possibilities might emerge from this situation. Themes such as reclamation, urbanism, infrastructure, geometry, representation, and temporality are explored in discussions drawn from recent developments not only in the United States but also in the Netherlands, France, India, and Southeast Asia. The contributors to this collection, all leading figures in the field of landscape architecture, include Alan Balfour, Denis Cosgrove, Georges Descombes, Christophe Girot, Steen Hoyer, David Leatherbarrow, Bart Lootsma, Sebastien Marot, Anuradha Mathur, Marc Treib, and Alex Wall.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This highly theoretical collection of essays is based partly on a symposium held at the Architectural Association in London in 1994. In his introduction, Corner (landscape architecture, Univ. of Pennsylvania) nicely frames the book with discussions of the semantics of the word landscape and its further cultural connotations while also describing how it is regarded by preservationists and represented in advertising. The volume is divided into three parts: reclaiming place and time, constructing and representing landscape, and urbanizing landscape. The breadth of approaches is impressive, and the contributors ably describe the idea of landscape from a virtually infinite set of perspectives, from the sense of tactility to the distinctive site characteristics of airports. Nevertheless, this is recommended only for graduate-level collections in cultural and architectural theory.APaul Glassman, New York Sch. of Interior Design Lib.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

A valuable collection of essays. -- The Architects' Journal

"RECOVERING LANDSCAPE is one of the most important books of critical essays to be published in the field of landscape architecture in over a decade." --Garden History

"An invigorating tale of the time in Cuba when architecture and politics conspired to reinvent society." -- Globe and Mail

". . . coming across a book like this is a welcome oasis. . . . a thought provoking volume for any landscape architect who wants to practice significantly in the modern world." -- Land Forum Magazine

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press; 1st edition (August 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568981791
• ISBN-13: 978-1568981796
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #81,836 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not just for Landscape Architects, June 3, 2000

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"dam26heb" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary Landscape Theory (Paperback)

Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary Landscape Architecture, proposes that when landscape is considered solely as a noun, its active role in the everyday lived experiences of humankind is lost. In this light, the volume seeks to recover landscape as not only a verb, "as process or activity," but also to recover the role of idea and the imaginary in landscape. To this end, Recovering Landscape is primarily directed toward the practicing landscape architect and how he/she can invoke this concept into his/her training, design and activities. Scholars of applied landscape who are concerned with turning idea into artifact will undoubtedly find this volume informative in guiding their practice. At the same time, theoretical landscape scholars who are interested in understanding and interpreting landscape as both cultural artifact and cultural process will also find much of interest in this volume.

The volume itself is divided into three sections: "reclaiming place and time" which explores the temporal, habitual, physical and cultural influences on the context of landscape; "constructing and representing landscape" which explores several different methods for representing landscape and how these methods can be used to approach and design landscape as a process or verb; and "urbanizing landscape" which presents what can be considered as, more or less, case studies invoking the above ideas, drawing them out in specific contexts.

The concept of understanding landscape as a process, or an activity, rather than as an object offers an unique perspective to landscape scholarship, similar to the ideas introduced by W.J.T. Mitchell in Landscape and Power (1994). This perspective brings more fully to the forefront the temporal, habitual and cultural processes that not only effect, but are integrally a part of landscape. Too often landscape is seen not only as an object, but as objective, something which exists apart from the individual and something which is larger than the individual. This notion is reversed in Recovering Landscape. The essays demonstrate that the role of an individual (as well as society) has the ability to significantly affect landscape, whether it be the landscape architect who actively designs landscape, the individual who habituates and experiences landscape, or the scholar who contributes representations of landscape. All of these are important considerations for the field of landscape study and, as such, Corner's volume articulates the various ways by which the above aspects can influence the understanding and interpretation of landscape.