Landscapes of Change: Innovative Designs and Reinvented Sites

In a time of global urbanization, ecological degradation, and human disconnect from natural systems, this encouraging book examines how cutting-edge 21st-century landscape designers are drawing on disciplines of art, science, and city planning to create useful, livable landscape designs that delightfully enhance urban life. Thoren profiles 25 sites from 12 countries, organized by theme—infrastructure, postindustrial landscapes, vegetated architecture, edible landscapes, and urbanism. She notes in the introduction that the sites are so skillfully designed that they exploit multiple tactics: the incorporation of already existing trees, permeable pavers, and a portable plant nursery into the Marco Polo Airport Car Park in Mestre, Italy, creates a human-friendly parking infrastructure while maintaining ecological functions. The Haute Deûle River Banks in Lille, France, on the site of former canals and a cotton factory, repurposes the factory into mixed residential and commercial use and transforms canals into water gardens that revive the function and beauty of the original marshlands. Landscape architects and urban dwellers alike will find pleasure and hope in these imaginative integrations of nature and city. (Dec.)