Urban riverbanks are attractive locations and highly prized recreational environments. However, they must meet the requirements of flood control, open space design and ecology at the same time, often a challenging task for the designer. This book is the product of extensive research that identified some 60 best-practice examples and subjected them to a comparative analysis. The result is a systematic catalog of effective strategies and innovative design tools that provides readers with an inspiring overview of the broad spectrum of design possibilities for river spaces. Each project is illustrated with photographs taken especially for the book and each design strategy and tool is explained by diagrams. This revised edition introduces ten new case studies chiefly from North America.

Urban riverbanks are attractive locations and highly prized recreational environments. The designs of urban river landscapes must fulfill a broad range of requirements: flood control, open space design, and ecology are as a rule the three dominant themes, and they must often be reconciled within a very restricted space. The river must be understood as a process: governed by changing water levels, shifting seasons, erosion, and sedimentation, the river environment is not a static entity but constantly changing—the design must be flexible and take this into account. This book is the product of a multi-year study that subjected more than fifty Western European projects to a comparative analysis. The result is a systematic catalog of effective strategies and innovative design elements. First, designers and planners are given an overview of the broad and varied spectrum of design possibilities. The book’s process-oriented approach is especially helpful where the focus is on long-term, sustainable measures. The publication consists of two linked volumes that enable the reader to consult the systematic catalog and the case study section side by side. The easy-to-navigate structure and an extensive glossary provide further guidance, while the work’s highly distinctive design makes it visually appealing as well and invites the reader to leaf through and explore it.

Kongjian Yu and his office Turenscape are beyond doubt the foremost landscape architecture practice in China today. The vast scale of China and her apparently boundless growth have enabled Yu to test many ideas that are still largely theories in the Western world. His work – increasingly valued and appreciated in Europe and North America - has attained an extremely high and elegant level in both conception and execution. Kongjian Yu is known for his ecological stance, often against the resistance of local authorities. His guiding design principles are the appreciation of the ordinary and a deep embracing of nature, even in its potentially destructive aspects, such as floods. Among his most acclaimed projects are Houtan Park for Shanghai Expo, the Red Ribbon Park in Qinhuangdao, and Shipyard Park in Zhongshan. This book explores Yu’s work in 11 essays by noted authors and documents 22 major projects extensively.

This illustrated notebook highlights the need for a change of paradigm in current flood management practices, one that acknowledges the wide-ranging and interdisciplinary benefits brought by public space design. Reassessing and improving established flood management methods, public spaces are faced with a new and enhanced role as mediators of flood adaptation able to integrate infrastructure and communities together in the management of flood water as an ultimate resource for urban resilience. The book specifically introduces a path towards a new perspective on flood adaptation through public space design, stressing the importance of local, bottom up, approaches. Deriving from a solution-directed investigation, which is particularly attentive to design, the book offers a wide range of systematized conceptual solutions of flood adaptation measures applicable in the design of public spaces. Through a commonly used vocabulary and simple technical notions, the book facilitates and accelerates the initial brainstorm phases of a public space project with flood adaptation capacities, enabling a direct application in contemporary practice. Furthermore, it offers a significant sample of real-case examples that may further assist the decision-making throughout design processes. Overall, the book envisions to challenge established professionals, such as engineers, architects or urban planners, to work and design with uncertainty in an era of an unprecedented climate.

Combining written and visual essays, Water vs. Urban Scape discusses making room for water in the urban landscape. The volume looks at examples in a variety of cities including Antwerp, Shanghai, Istanbul, Oslo, Kigali, Perth and Brussels.

River. Space. Design is a systematically organised reference book for the design and planning of river spaces. Urban river landscapes need to unite a broad range of requirements - most notably flood control, ecological considerations and open space design - often within tight space constraints. Taking a processoriented approach, this book offers concrete guidelines for sustainable longterm interventions. Arranged in two volumes, this book contains a comparative analysis of more than 50 successful projects alongside rivers and streams in Europe, and dissects them into their individual design elements. The result is a catalogue of effective design strategies and tools that provides readers with an attractive and inspiring overview of the broad and varied spectrum of design possibilities for river spaces. Each project is illustrated with photographe taken especially for the book and each principle is illustrated with explanatory diagrams. The book's interdisciplinary structure is of interest to landscape architects, architects, engineers, urban planners and hydrologists alike.