Through the union of landscape architecture and environmental installation comes four projects commissioned by the architecture department at the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco. The only curatorial guideline given to each architect was to explore the edges of the urban landscape through designated site-specific projects. From this unique challenge comes the documentation of these innovative public projects. Featured landscape architects include Kathryn Gustafson, Margraves Associates, Hood Design and Tom Leader Studio.

This book offers the professional a rich source of ideas about the designed landscape, what these mean to us and how they acquired that significance. Key essays from landscape architects are presented with the authors’ current reflections.

Phenomenology, Materiality, Cybernetics, Palimpsest, Cyborgs, Landscape Urbanism, Typology, Semiotics, Deconstruction - the minefield of theoretical ideas that students must navigate today can be utterly confusing, and how do these theories translate to the design studio? Landscape Theory in Design introduces theoretical ideas to students without the use of jargon or an assumption of extensive knowledge in other fields, and in doing so, links these ideas to the processes of design. In five thematic chapters Susan Herrington explains: the theoretic groundings of the theory of philosophy, why it matters to design, an example of the theory in a work of landscape architecture from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, debates surrounding the theory (particularly as they elaborate modern and postmodern thought) and primary readings that can be read as companions to her text. An extensive glossary of theoretical terms also adds a vital contribution to students’ comprehension of theories relevant to the design of landscapes and gardens. Covering the design of over 40 landscape architects, architects, and designers in 111 distinct projects from 20 different countries, Landscape Theory in Design is essential reading for any student of the landscape.

Basic principles : "Sustainability" in context -- Principle 1 : Keep healthy sites healthy -- Principle 2 : Heal injured soils and sites -- Principle 3 : Favor living, flexible materials -- Principle 4 : Respect the waters of life -- Principle 5 : Pave less -- Principle 6 : Consider origin and fate of materials -- Principle 7 : Know the costs of energy over time -- Principle 8 : Celebrate light, respect darkness -- Principle 9 : Quietly defend silence -- Principle 10 : Maintain to sustain -- Principle 11 : Demonstrate performance, learn from failure -- Sustaining principles, evolving efforts.

The papers presented in this volume range from proposals for new design approaches, historical analysis of the relationship between the practice of landscape architecture and environmentalism, to the theories of early practitioners of landscape architecture imbued by an environmentalist outlook. The issues above are addressed through topics as eclectic as the design of American zoos, the establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority, road design and maintenance in Texas, and criticism of relationships between the words and works of select landscape architects. This volume provides a fresh approach to encounters between environmentalism and landscape architecture by reframing the issues through self-reflection instead of strategic debate.

The Earth is poised to make a great disclosure. Its a hierophant. But whats a hierophant? A person who reveals the holy light. But it can also be a landscape or a planet. And whats the holy light? It is the structure of reality and consciousness, a map of the heavenly realms, the engineering blueprint of Creation. Some people call this imminent disclosure the Apocalypse and run for cover. But that is mistaken. Apocalypse means the revelation of the divine revelation. It means the end of our picture of the world as we know it. The world itself will be fine, even better than fine. Splendid. Illumined. The Architect of reality lays down His cards, face up, and you see the whole deck. Here is the truth of yourself and the Earth. How will this disclosure work? What we call sacred sites and holy landscapes will start revealing themselves in full to us in all their geomantic and visionary richness. Thats the inner patterning of their design, their arrays of Light temples and subtle palaces primed for our visionary adventures and edification. The Earth needs us to have these adventures and visions because thats how we keep the planet healthy. Hierophantic Landscapes visits five landscapes from Norway and England to California and Mexico, providing firsthand reports on the visions and adventures of a small band of geomancers as they seek to unravel the mysteries of the Earth. Maybe not such a small band, because along the way we encounter angels, landscape devas, Nature Spirits, and otherworldly mentors, and revel in vistas of the ancient past of the Earth when that revelation was as fresh as a sunrise, as it will soon be again.