Landscape as Urbanism

Charles Waldheim is the John E. Irving Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. He is the author of Constructed Ground, the editor of The Landscape Urbanism Reader and Case: Lafayette Park Detroit, and the coeditor of Stalking Detroit and Composite Landscapes, among other books.

• Preface vii Acknowledgments viii Introduction: From Figure to Field 2 One: Claiming Landscape as Urbanism 13 Two: Autonomy, Indeterminacy, Self-Organization 32 Three: Planning, Ecology, and the Emergence of Landscape 50 Four: Post-Fordist Economies and Logistics Landscape 69 Five: Urban Crisis and the Origins of Landscape 88 Six: Urban Order and Structural Change 107 Seven: Agrarian Urbanism and the Aerial Subject 124 Eight: Aerial Representation and Airport Landscape 140 Nine: Claiming Landscape as Architecture 160 Conclusion: From Landscape to Ecology 177 Notes 185 Index 197 Credits 204

Shortlisted for the 2017 Urban Design Book Award, Urban Design Group "Before our cities were grids of asphalt, brick, and steel, they were islands, wetlands, and deserts. For centuries, urbanism relied on the engineer to reconstruct the natural environment around the built environment. But in our era of populist environmentalism, urbanism looks more than ever to the landscape architect. This book reflects on the transformation in which the landscape architect, by adapting human infrastructure to nature, is really the ultimate urbanist."--Metropolis "In Landscape as Urbanism, one of the field's pioneers presents a powerful case for rethinking the city through landscape. Generously illustrated, [the book] examines works from around the world by designers ranging from Ludwig Hilberseimer, Andrea Branzi, and Frank Lloyd Wright to James Corner, Adriaan Geuze, and Michael Van Valkenburgh."--ArcSpace "Rich in bold ideas."--Jared Green, The Dirt blog "For decades, New Urbanism was the only acceptable form of urban planning in the United States. In the past 15 years, however, several challengers have appeared on the scene, none bolder than the landscape urbanism movement. Spearheaded by Charles Waldheim, who chaired the Department of Landscape Architecture at Harvard's Graduate School of Design (GSD) from 2009 to 2015, the movement and its protagonists argue that landscape, more than buildings, has fundamentally changed the way cities urbanize in the 21st century. Waldheim's new book, Landscape as Urbanism ... reflects on the origins of landscape urbanism and theorizes about its continued cultural relevance."--Samuel Medina, Metropolis "Talking about landscape urbanism is more like telling a story than theorizing a practice, and Waldheim tells this story well, with an authority arising from his key role in developing landscape urbanism... As a history teacher faced with endless questions from students who love the idea of it but can't really work out what it is, I am grateful to Waldheim for his new book: Now I can give some readings that have some clarity, accompanied by great writing."--Julian Roxworthy, Landscape Architecture Magazine "Charles Waldheim, Irving professor of landscape architecture, advances a theoretical underpinning for breaching the barriers that have separated urbanism and landscape; the aim is a more coherent view of what cities can be."--Harvard Magazine "[A] thorough and highly researched book."--David Sisam, Canadian Architect "A timely and fascinating book."--National Urban Design Awards 2017 "Suffice to say, as one of the leading voices and purveyors of landscape urbanism, their is no better guide to the subject than Charles Waldheim. As such, Landscape as Urbanism: A General Theory stands in a league of its own, not only as a summary of Waldheim's work on the subject to-date, but also as a convincing and powerful argument for the relevance of landscape as a lens through which the contemporary city must be engaged."--Erick Villagomez, Spacing