For almost thirty years Claude Cormier et Associés has designed landscapes daring in scope while earnest in execution, courting controversy while inviting public accord. Produced under the leadership of Claude Cormier, the range of these projects has spanned the creation of parks and squares, the renovation of historical landscapes, and the conversion of industrial sites. While always serious in the address of function, their designs often display a touch of humor in both method and form--in all, these are works marked by "serious fun." It is a practice unique in Canada, arguably in the world. That people use, and may even love, these urban landscapes testifies to the pleasure afforded by their designs and the humanistic dimensions of the practice. This, the first book exclusively dedicated to the landscapes of Claude Cormier and his team, provides a broad overview of their ideas and methods with insightful discussions of selected projects and the thinking behind them.
These collected works represent twenty-five years of study of the designed landscape which the author here takes to include gardens, cemeteries, plazas and other shared spaces. Asking essential questions about the nature of order and its perception, this book includes in its impressive scope analyses of both historic and modern works with a geographical distribution that extends across Europe, Asia and North America. With unique depth in many areas of study, Treib brings his expertise to bear on a range of inter-related and mutually influential issues within the subject, taking in an assessment of the lives and contributions of a number of leading figures in the field, the contents of a landscape and the meanings ascribed to it, and a theoretical formulation of the ideas from which or by which landscape architecture is produced.
Until now, writings about the architect/landscape architect Georges Descombes have been relatively limited, appearing primarily in publications in Switzerland and abroad as conversations, interviews, and conference proceedings; most of them have appeared only in French. However, during his forty years of practice, Descombes has developed and applied a method unique to landscape architecture, one in which an extremely broad vision, both scientifically and culturally, shapes his thinking and projects. Descombes enters each project by attempting to understand the existing conditions on site and how, using minimal means and interventions, those conditions can be modified to meet the requirements of the program and those appropriate to the natural or urban environment. To some critics it would appear that Descombes has always done too little on and to the site, and in some instances have condemned him for "doing almost nothing." Although simplicity usually demands greater concentration and study, it often yields greater rewards that result from just that restraint. Perhaps how we approach the world is more important that how we shape the world. Descombes's landscapes are instructive in this regard. In our current era, the concern for the planet as a whole, its dwindling resources, the despoiling of its air, water, and land, and an exploding population have skewed the profession's focus toward sustainability, ecology, resilience, and other related concerns. In the process, the social role played by landscape architecture has been lessened, if not forgotten, and the role of form, space, composition, and materials--that is to say the aesthetic dimension of landscape design--has become a distant concern. Descombes's practice strikes that vital balance between effective environmental performance and the ethical creation of beauty. Instead of favoring one pursuit over the other, or relying on a delimiting specialization, he works in a way that may be justifiably regarded as both/and rather than either/or - a comprehensive vision that weds nature and culture, landscape and architecture, people and milieu.
The complex story of modern landscape architecture remains to be written, as does its precise definition. Thinking a Modern Landscape Architecture, West and East, written by one of the field's most prolific and insightful authors, provides a rare cross-cultural study that examines the written and design contributions made by two of the movement's most influential early protagonists: Christopher Tunnard (1910-1979) in England--and later the United States, and Sutemi Horiguchi (1896-1984) in Japan. Tunnard's pioneering manifesto, Gardens in the Modern Landscape, first published in 1938, laid out the thinking and provided the direction for a landscape architecture engaged more strongly with contemporary life, adopting ideas from modern art as well as the historical gardens of Japan. Rather than a book, it was the architect Horiguchi's 1934 essay "The Garden of Autumn Grasses" that initiated a new direction for garden making in Japan, with a considered and artful use of seasonal plants and a stronger connection to the modern architecture it accompanied. Unlike Tunnard, who sought inspiration and sources in contemporary art, Horiguchi looked to the eighteen-century Rimpa School of painting for insights into the composition of the new garden by carefully placing individual plants against a simple background. Although the two theorists-practitioners never met, Tunnard's interest in Japan, and use of Horiguchi's work as illustrations, links them in a shared quest for a landscape architecture appropriate to their times and respective countries. Lavishly illustrated with 150 historical and contemporary photos and drawings, Thinking a Modern Landscape Architecture, West and East: Christopher Tunnard and Sutemi Horiguchi offers the first compressive study into their thinking, landscape designs, and consequent influence on landscape architecture in the years that followed.
Joseph Esherick was arguably the foremost San Francisco architect from the 1960s until his death in the late 1990s, following in the wake of William Wurster. Esherick established his own practice in the late 1940s and the firm produced a continuous stream of laudable buildings, among them houses appropriate to their site and times. Affected less by national and international fashion than by the exigencies of local climate, social demands, and suitable technology, Esherick produced a large number of truly classic residences.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1993. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived
This guidebook to the mecca of Japanese gardens provides all the detailednformation necessary to fully understand and appreciate the gardens of Kyoto,nd Japanese gardens in general.;The study begins with two chapters whichrovide the necessary background - "The Japanese Garden and Its Culturalontext" and "Making the Landscape of Kyoto". The main body of the bookescribes 56 of the most important Kyoto gardens, arranged in groups byocation. Each group is preceded by a map, or maps, showing the location ofhe gardens in that section of the city. The description of individualardens is preceded by basic facts, such as the name of the temple in whichhe garden is located, when the garden was created, and visiting information.escriptive texts examine the idiosyncrasies of each unique environment fromiverse perspectives, including design and content, spatial context andhilosophical and historical underpinning.
Born in Florence in 1910, Pietro Porcinai grew up on the classic grounds of the Villa Gamberaia in Settignano where his father served as head gardener. Although he studied agriculture in college, Porcinai’s true interest lay in the landscape architecture practice he founded in 1938. Early projects centered in the area of Arezzo, whose style reflected modernized traditional models. In the postwar era the office flourished, producing modern gardens of remarkable design and use of plants. In these works, Porcinai convincingly demonstrated the affinity between historical architecture and landscapes uncompromisingly modern. During his long and productive career he also consulted on autostrada planning, and designed public parks, memorials, and even a Pinocchio theme park-at times collaborating with noted architects such as Renzo Piano, Carlo Scarpa and Oscar Niemeyer. This book, the first English-language study on Pietro Porcinai provides a comprehensive and richly illustrated overview of his life and remarkable achievements.
The pavilion designed by Le Corbusier for the Philips Company at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair showcased a spectacle that remains a landmark in multimedia production. The pavilion's nearly two million visitors encountered no typical display of consumer products; instead they witnessed a dazzling demonstration of cutting-edge technology in the service of the arts. This totally automated bombardment of color, voice, sound, and images was broadcast within a space of warped concrete shells, orchestrated by Le Corbusier and his colleagues into a cohesive 480-second program. The talents and efforts that went into this project, and the interaction of the personalities behind it, make for a fascinating tale that bridges architecture, music, and marketing--one that has never been told, perhaps because the building was dismantled after the fair. In this book, Marc Treib looks at both this remarkable collaboration and the significance of the Philips project, which can be viewed as a pioneering quest into the production of postmodern art or even as a prototype of virtual reality. Achieving for the first time his goal to use electronic media for a synthesis of the arts, Le Corbusier collaborated with the composer/architect Iannis Xenakis, the filmmaker Philippe Agostini, the graphic designer and editor Jean Petit, and the composer Edgard Varese, whose distinguished piece "Poeme electronique" was composed for this project. Treib explains in vivid detail the idea and development of the building design--based on the geometry of the hyperbolic paraboloid--and how this ambitious vision materialized through an innovative system of precast concrete panels, engineered by H. C. Duyster. Treib also describes the working methods of the collaborators, depicting, for example, Xenakis's frustration with designing under Le Corbusier's shadow and the tensions suffered by the Philips artistic director coordinating his company's business interests with Le Corbusier's and Varese's artistic aspirations. This wide-ranging investigation into the Philips project also examines the role of rhythm, cinematic montage, spatialized sound, and the composition of Varese's music. The result is an engaging exploration of artistic collaboration in the 1950s, set against the political and cultural context of a world exposition, and of the realization of ambitious architectural ideas.
This book is about Pietro Porcinai, a landscape architect, active from the 1930s until his death in 1986. His apprenticeships in Belgium and Germany exposed him to recent developments in landscape architecture and architecture as well as helping develop a network of design professionals and technical support throughout Europe. As Italy's principal practitioner and sole landscape architect working in the modern idiom, in 1948 Porcinai was a founding member of the International Federation of Landscape Architects. While he never taught on a regular basis he was instrumental in establishing several landscape programs and his office was an important training ground for young landscape architects.
These collected works represent twenty-five years of study of the designed landscape which the author here takes to include gardens, cemeteries, plazas and other shared spaces. Asking essential questions about the nature of order and its perception, this book includes in its impressive scope analyses of both historic and modern works with a geographical distribution that extends across Europe, Asia and North America. With unique depth in many areas of study, Treib brings his expertise to bear on a range of inter-related and mutually influential issues within the subject, taking in an assessment of the lives and contributions of a number of leading figures in the field, the contents of a landscape and the meanings ascribed to it, and a theoretical formulation of the ideas from which or by which landscape architecture is produced.
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