Futurescapes: Designers for Tomorrow's Outdoor Spaces by Tim Richards (Thames & Hudson, 2011) showcases some of the most current and exciting landscape designs from designers around the world. The designs were chosen for being significant, distinctive, and innovative, and the landscape design companies range from large, established firms, to small or single-designer shops.
Futurescapes includes three essays that discuss "landscape urbanism" (already rebranded as "ecological urbanism"), and two forums where multiple garden designers weigh in with their ideas (including one of our favorites, Penelope Hobhouse). The goal of ecological urbanism is to provide a holistic approach to the design and management of cities that is more than buildings and transportation systems. (Although, so far, I haven't found a definitive description of what this means)! Still the book is filled with wonderful descriptions and beautiful photographs of landscapes, so I can envision it means that people and sustainability are part of the equation.
My favorite entries include the vertical gardens and living walls of botanist Patrick Blanc (Pershing Hall Hotel in Paris); the naturalistic plantings of Piet Oudolf, a pioneer of the New Perennials school of naturalistic planting (High Line aerial railway line in New York repurposed as a park); and the 2.5 acre green roof of the California Academy of Science by Sasaki Walker and Associates, which is integrated with the surroundings and is environmentally sustainable. Many of these designs require a multidisciplinary team of architects, engineers, architects, and planners working together, and look to meet human needs as well as functional needs, as cities and towns become denser and more complex.
Futurescapes includes three essays that discuss "landscape urbanism" (already rebranded as "ecological urbanism"), and two forums where multiple garden designers weigh in with their ideas (including one of our favorites, Penelope Hobhouse). The goal of ecological urbanism is to provide a holistic approach to the design and management of cities that is more than buildings and transportation systems. (Although, so far, I haven't found a definitive description of what this means)! Still the book is filled with wonderful descriptions and beautiful photographs of landscapes, so I can envision it means that people and sustainability are part of the equation.
My favorite entries include the vertical gardens and living walls of botanist Patrick Blanc (Pershing Hall Hotel in Paris); the naturalistic plantings of Piet Oudolf, a pioneer of the New Perennials school of naturalistic planting (High Line aerial railway line in New York repurposed as a park); and the 2.5 acre green roof of the California Academy of Science by Sasaki Walker and Associates, which is integrated with the surroundings and is environmentally sustainable. Many of these designs require a multidisciplinary team of architects, engineers, architects, and planners working together, and look to meet human needs as well as functional needs, as cities and towns become denser and more complex.
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