Ecology, Community and Delight: An Inquiry Into Values in Landscape Architecture

ISBN-13: 9780419251507 / Angielski / Twarda / 1999 / 212 str.

Ian H. Thompson

Opis

Landscape architecture is a profession with a chronic identity crisis. Is it primarily concerned with making beautiful places, helping people, or saving the planet from ecological catastrophe? This book examines the three principal value systems which influence landscape architectural practice - the aesthetic, the social and the environmental - and seeks to discover the role that the profession should be playing now and for the future. The book integrates an investigation of historical sources with contemporary research into the beliefs and values of practitioners. It is structured in three main sections, dealing respectively with aesthetics (delight), ecology and sustainability, and social values. The aesthetics section is sub-divided into chapters examining natural aesthetics and chapters which look at the values implicit in designed landscapes. Each chapter which traces the development of a theme is followed by a corresponding chapter based upon interviews which demonstrates the ways such ideas are reflected in practice.

Recenzje

'His well-referenced book is likely to be a useful text for students, and ought to be a prompt for office coffee-talk.' - Landscape Design

'This is a book which strives for clarity of thought and clarity of design and succeeds in both...will probably become a standard textbook for those seeking to work as landscape architects or to understand the discipline.' - Landscape and Art

Spis treści

Introduction. Natural Aesthetics. In Practice: Improving the View? Landscape Architecture as an Artform. In Practice but is it Art? The Social Value of Landscape Architecture. In Practice: Social Workers in Green Wellies? Environmental Ethics. In Practice: Saving the Planet? Tri-valent Design. Appendix: Practitioner Profiles.

O autorze

Ian Thompson