Andrea Cochran Interview

I do have a certain unreserved fondness for the designs of Andrea Cochran, and was excited to see this Dwell Design Leaders video, via Andrew Spiering from the steadily growing and informative Land8Lounge... check out the video, as well as the lounge... you won't be sorry with either.

Ten Books on Veg.itecture

A recent office desk move (and slogging multiple boxes of books in my personal library) made me think, that although I do an occasional review of books periodically - it would behoove me to summarize some of the classic tomes that define some of the key themes on the blog. While I intend to continue and expand these lists to other areas (planning, landscape urbanism, landscape architecture, etc.) I thought it appropriate to start with my favorite (and one with a somewhat limited reading list) - Vegetated Architecture.

These don't come with a lot of commentary - but will of course, trickle down through time... links via Powells and photos via Amazon - if you can buy them from my local Powells - you'll feel better (and I'd feel better if Powells had better cover photos... and Amazon got rid of the stupid 'Search Inside' plastered on the cover - either way, I'm spending more money and making none from both (read: until my book deal - I just love books :)

1. Ecodesign: A Manual for Ecological Design - by Ken Yeang


:: image via Amazon

2. Architecture: Nature - by Philip Jodidio


:: image via Amazon

3. Landscrapers: Building with the Land - by Aaron Betsky


:: image via Amazon

4. Vertical Gardens - by Anna Lambertini


:: image via libreria universita

5. Green Roof Plants: A Resource and Planting Guide - by Ed & Lucy Snodgrass


:: image via Seedhead

6. Green Roofs: Ecological Design and Construction - EarthPledge


:: image via Amazon

7. Green Roof: A Case Study: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates' Design for the Headquarters of the American Society of Landscape Architects - by Christian Werthmann


:: image via Architecture.MNP

8. Living Systems: Innovative Materials and Technologies for Landscape Architecture - by Liat Margolis


: image via Best Web Buys

9. Planting Green Roofs and Living Walls - by Nigel Dunnett and Noel Kingsbury


:: image via BookCourt

10. Eco Skyscrapers - by Ken Yeang


:: image via Amazon

While not all inclusive, you will notice there is an absence of some of the Green Roof staples, (such as Osmundson's great 'Roof Gardens' or anything by Malcolm Wells), which is purposeful, and actually quite exciting. There was a time when there were less than 3 books on the subject - modern or historical. Ok, that's an overstatement, but really, practically, there are still only maybe a dozen books on green roofs of any sort... although still applicable, not as all-encompassing for Veg.itecture.

There are a bunch of gardening related books on 'rooftops' which are formulaic adaptations of the gardening books - with a bit of variation for roofs. There are also multiple books on climbing plants and trellises, which are valuable resources, but not specifically related. Green Roof books are coming out left and right - some good, some crap. And there are still very few books on vertical greening - but expect a bunch soon...

Any comments on other books in people's libraries that people know of (that are actually out on the market, not say Patrick Blanc's new one) - I am all ears!

Curvy Playscapes

As I dug through some posts that I had saved for future uses from the great blog Playscapes, I was struck as well with the study from Treehugger, discussing the fact that near-sightedness (myopia) is a new side-effect of children not playing outside... From the article reference in The Hindustan Times: "...while playing outdoors seems to have a very real connection with a decrease in probabilities, time spent playing sports indoors did not help the situation. According to researcher Kathryn Rose, "The crucial factor was being outdoors. Time spent outdoors, as a protective factor, now appears to be the strongest environmental factor that has yet been documented.”

With that in mind, a few posts to offer some of the less-structured playscapes... starting with noted firm Stoss Landscape Urbanism - The Safezone Playground. Some commentary from Arcady at Playscapes: "Stoss refers to it as a reformulation of the pleasure ground; I find it a creation of the 'third nature', a concatenation of the man-made and the natural, in the best tradition of the Renaissance."








:: images via Playscapes

A very cool analogous project from Japan - again via Playscapes: "A brief but interesting slide show at the New York Times entitled 'Beyond the Swing Set' features the 'fog forest' of Tokyo's Showa Kinen park "which combines truncated pyramids with a 32-foot steel tube that emits artificial fog every 15 minutes. Atsushi Kitagawara Architects collaborated with the artist Fujiko Nakaya to create this mist-shrouded world, where the fog shifts and clears just as it does in real life."


:: image via Playscapes

Finally, Arcady posits the question of interactive art - asking "Anyone else want to see Maya Lin's Wavefield as a playground?" To which I respond, hell yeah!




:: images via Playscapes

Beyond the swing-set is a great concept... although we want the safety and structured liability of play structures - do they offer the same experiences that allow children to develop motor skills and imagination...? I know that society has changed to the degree where the level of monitoring my parents did (in the 1970s) would be impossible today - but is there a middle ground - removing sterility and providing for adventure - while ensuring the safety of kids? I think it's a not a question of whether - but how, we do this.

Instead of NOT designing playgrounds anymore, for whatever reason, perhaps we should get out of our own myopic view - and think about the quality of environments - and what they can lead to - for the children. Now that is far-sighted, in my opinion.