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Landscape Infrastructure: Case Studies by SWA 1st ed. 2010 Edition

by Ying-Yu Hung (Author), Gerdo Aquino (Author), Charles Waldheim (Author),

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Infrastructure is a much discussed topic within the field of landscape architecture. It regards the entire urban and rural space as a network that calls for an integrated planning and urban design approach. Natural and man-made infrastructures are viewed as forming a single, overarching whole. The book examines this robust and ecologically sustainable approach with essays by well-known experts in the field. It also documents 14 international case studies by SWA landscape architects and urban designers, among them the technologically innovative roof domes for Renzo Piano’s California Academy of Science in San Francisco, the restoration of the Buffalo Bayou in Houston, and several master plans for ecological corridors in China and Korea. Other projects develop smart re-use concepts for railroad tracks that no longer serve their original purpose, such as Kyung-Chun railway in Seoul or Katy Trail in Dallas. All projects are described extensively with technical diagrams and plans. The publication offers ideas for reinventing, repurposing, and repositioning infrastructure as a viable medium for addressing issues of ecology, transit, urbanism, and habitat.

Editorial Reviews

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"...the breadth of information makes this a valuable addition to the library of those landscape and urbanists working in these arenas and interested in ways, as Waldheim mentions in wrapping up his essay, to identify 'the discourse around landscape urbanism generally, and infrastructure more specifically, as an entry point into contemporary readings of landscape as a cultural form.'" --Landscape + Urbanism

About the Author

Ying-Yu Hung is a principal of SWA Los Angeles, co-founder of Infrastructure Research Initiative, and a Studio Professor at the University of Southern California.

Gerdo Aquino is president of SWA and adjunct associate professor of landscape architecture at the University of Southern California. He received his Master of Landscape Architecture in 1996 from Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Pierre Bélanger is a landscape architect and Associate Professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. His academic research and public work focus on the convergence of urbanism, landscape, and ecology in the interrelated fields of planning, design, and engineering.

Charles Waldheim is the John E. Irving Professor of Landscape Architecture, Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and principal of Urban Agency, a multi-disciplinary consultancy in design and contemporary urbanism. He coined the term "landscape urbanism" to describe the recent emergence of landscape as a medium of urban order for the contemporary city.

Julia Czerniak is an Associate Professor of Architecture at Syracuse University and the inaugural Director of UPSTATE. She is founder of CLEAR, an interdisciplinary design practice.

Adriaan Geuze, landscape architect and urban designer, is founder of West 8 urban design and landscape architecture, with offices in Rotterdam, Brussels, Toronto, and New York.

Matthew Skjonsberg, architect and urban designer, is a practitioner with strong roots in design theory and research, and works closely with Adriaan Geuze. He has obtained degrees from Taliesin and ETH-Zurich.

Alexander Robinson, a graduate of Harvard University Graduate School of Design, is an Adjunct Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Southern California. His book, Living Systems (2007) is an exploration of the new potentials of landscape architecture materiality.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Birkhäuser Architecture; 1st ed. 2010 edition (January 1, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 184 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 3034605935
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-3034605939
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.82 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9 x 0.75 x 11.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,715,836 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #550 in Sustainability & Green Design
- #614 in Architecture (Books)
- #892 in Landscape Architecture (Books)

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Alexander Robinson
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Alexander Robinson is an Associate Professor in the Landscape Architecture + Urbanism program in the University of Southern California School of Architecture, and principal of the Office of Outdoor Research in Los Angeles, California. A landscape architect, researcher, and scholar, he is a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, and a lifelong explorer of the Owens Valley and Eastern Sierras. His research advances the design craft of large-scale, multifunctional infrastructures through a synthesis of historical analysis, advanced design tools, and public engagement. His last book, coauthored with Liat Margolis, is Living Systems: Innovative Materials and Technologies for Landscape Architecture (Birkhäuser, 2007), a treatise on landscapes as material performance systems.
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Gerdo Aquino
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Maria Ines Aragon

Amazing projects

Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2013

Verified Purchase

I loved all the graphics and great ideas of landscape architecture. It serve as great inspiration and innovative graphic techniques.

Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2015

Great!

A great book which futhers the dialogue of activating a holistic design approach to the world we live in

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2011

What is Landscape Infrastructure?
What types of infrastructure will this book delve into?
Will it extend beyond tired conversations on sustainable water management?

Those were my initial questions, or perhaps even skepticisms, when I picked up this book.
I was happy to find that the well written, succinct prose of the Preface by Gerdo Aquino quickly answered those questions and in fact piqued my interest further to see exactly what ideas would be explored through this book.

The authors' intention is clear:

`...to question the ongoing viability of these single-purpose corridors by proposing that a multifunctional approach is more in tune with contemporary society".
In order to achieve the goals set out, a book of topical essays exploring the different principles, which they define as Landscape Infrastructure, has been authored. After exploring the principles, ideas, and goals of what Landscape Infrastructure could be in the broader field of Landscape Architecture, the authors provide analysis of some representative SWA projects employing these ideas.

The book begins with an essay on "Reading the Recent Work of SWA" by Charles Waldheim, which I thought initially was a curious way to begin...as a book which seemed to stem from a topical idea as opposed to a firm biography. I soon found out that the rich history of SWA positions it well to be an authority on, or at least have a credible opinion on, the topic of Landscape Infrastructure.

"SWA, originally formulated as Sasaki Walker Associates in 1957, was conceived around the development of a distinct studio culture of multidisciplinary collaboration, decentralized autonomy, independent decision making, and design innovation"

With that history, SWA proves that the addition of a Los Angeles `think tank' office and conceiving of landscape across disciplinary boundaries is in stride with the original SWA mission.

For me, the strength in the book lies in the essays, critical thinking, and the large scale masterplans which show how all of the pieces of Landscape Infrastructure can come together and the sum of the whole is much greater than its parts. The large scale thinking in projects such as Beizhi River Waterfront, Shunde New City, Ningbo Eco-Corridor, Anning River - New South Town, and Central Open Space in MAC, which connect pedestrian networks, ecological networks, water quality management, vehicular networks, and bicycle networks really is at the heart of why Landscape Infrastructure can be such an important and valuable discussion in contemporary practice.

The smaller scale installations were less convincing, focusing primarily on stormwater management and pedestrian networks which overlap to create a multiuse corridor or `Infrastructure'. I would argue that small scale installations, although a step in the right direction, are not greater than the sum of their parts when not integrated within a holistic approach. Small scale projects need to fit within a framework of a new citywide vision of what the urban environment can be. We as landscape architects, urban designers, and landscape urbanists need to be involved in the holistic reinvisioning of not just new cities and new environments, but how to best improve our existing cities under a unified vision.

"Infrastructure is a connective tissue that brings together disparate elements, instilling cohesion and purpose"

It is important to note, that this is not the first book or essay on the topic of Landscape Infrastructure, but it is a great addition to the conversation and the progression of the field of landscape architecture. This book furthers the dialogue of activating a holistic design approach to the world we live in.

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Kira Appelhans

A next wave of landscape infrastructre

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2011

"The word landscape, when placed in front of other disciplines--think landscape urbanism, landscape ecology even landscape architecture--quantifies, modifies and even usurps them." So opens Julia Czerniak's essay Foregrounding, one of four thought provoking essays that open Landscape Infrastructure a new collection of essays and SWA projects.

Infrastructure of all sorts is an integral part of the urban condition. We have been building structures, aqueducts and roads for centuries. Landscape infrastructure is not quite as historic as Roman watercourses, but it is not an entirely new concept--the Emerald Necklace a ring of parks and conserved land in Boston was conceived of and installed between 1878-1896. It has seen a resurgence in popularity over the past in the past 15-20 years as both cities and the discipline of landscape architecture have grown. In particular over the past 10 years as the awareness of sustainability has increased, landscapes and ecological systems have gained new relevancy in urban design.

The fourteen SWA project case studies and four essays in this cleanly laid out and well illustrated new book take on the topic of landscape infrastructure in a variety of ways. The projects are organized by category but if looked at chronologically they present an interesting case study of the development of the concept of landscape infrastructure over the past 25 years.

The books earlier examples, built in the 80's and 90's, are based mostly in the United States and deal with the conversion of abandoned rail lines into pedestrian corridors (Katy Trail) and rehabilitating waterfronts in dense urban areas like the Buffalo Bayou Promenade in Houston, Texas. Moving into the 21st century, as Gerdo Aquino wrote in his preface "changing attitudes about water conservation [have] created a new set of performance criteria for existing and proposed infrastructural corridors." This is evident in the more recent projects many of which are in Asian countries and deal with the conversion of rural farmland into urbanized landscapes.

It was this shift that I found most interesting when reading Landscape Infrastructure. These six projects, Annin River New Town, Ningbo Eco-Corridor, Shunde New City, Beizhi River Waterfront, Central Open Space for MAC, and Chongming North Lake Masterplan, all begin with a relatively clean slate--predominantly agricultural land. Because these projects don't have to contend with the embedded constraints of old city infrastructure, the projects are free to explore integrated and innovative approaches to the conflux of water systems and urban design. These systems deal with issues such as the cleaning of phosphate heavy agricultural runoff, integrated stormwater management, establishing new habitat on the river side of levees, and other issues inherent in building on alluvial sites.

The flexibility of these projects to conceive of cities not as exclusively concrete developments but as systems that can accommodate humans and the natural environment is imperative as our population continues to increase. These projects are all still in the master plan phase and have yet to make it off the drawing board. Hopefully in another 20 years SWA will be able to publish a book that features projects like these as the status-quo rather than as the cutting edge.

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