Comments on: Hundred best books on landscape architecture

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:33:55 +0000

Thank you for the suggestion. I will re-read Spirn’s book but, in comparison with the Granite Garden in in view of the fascinating title, I remember being disappointed by the Language of Landscape when I first read it.

By: Colin

Colin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:24:11 +0000

Ann Spirn’s more recent book “The Language of Landscape” seems an important theoretically-oriented text: it is an exploration of the ideas and concepts informing landscape design in a range of different environments. I’d advocate for its inclusion.

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:38:09 +0000

Thanks Chris, I will add both books to the list

By: Chris Ellis

Chris Ellis — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:55:52 +0000

I would recommend William Marsh’s book “Landscape Planning: Environmental Applications”. If Design with Nature provides a basic framework for regional design, Landscape Planning begins to fill in the details.

An excellent companion book that bridges environmental design into regional planning is Environmental Land Use Planning and Management by John Randolph. This book–also expanding on the work of Ian McHarg–covers the basic regulatory and management frameworks that directly affect landscape architecture practice.

Both of these books are helpful for teaching/learning about landscape planning.

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:03:03 +0000

Thanks Gordon, I will re-read it! [Having done so, I have added the book to the list]

By: Gordon Evans

Gordon Evans — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 05:58:10 +0000

How about “Perennials and their garden habitats” by Richard Hansen and Friedrich Stahl? By taking a radically different approach to that of Gertrude Jekyll, backed up by decades of research at the trial gardens in Weihenstephan, Hansen and Stahl laid the framework for maintainable and sustainable herbaceous plantings on the grand scale in the public realm, at the same time completely redefining the aesthetic range of this kind of planting, taking it out of the “gardens of a golden afternoon” category and putting it in a far more challenging category.

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:22:10 +0000

Thanks Ryan, but I do not remember Residential Landscape Architecture making a useful contribution to design theory of practice. Other views welcome.

By: ryan

ryan — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:10:51 +0000

Residential Landscape Architecture: Design Process for the Private Residence by booth and Kiss
I know a couple of different landscape architects who pull that book out whenever they have to hand render. And the book gives a solid foundation on residential design.

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:23:27 +0000

Agreed, and thank you. I have added both books to the list (though I wonder if Lorraine Kuck does not deserve priority to Marc Keane) and also Maggie Keswick on Chinese gardens.
Re biomimicry, the word is new to me in this context but I understand and appreciate the idea and associate the principles with D’Arcy Thompson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27Arcy_Wentworth_Thompson

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:20:32 +0000

Looking through your list again it all seems very English speaking. You have the Katsura Imperial Villa and the Taj Mahal in your list of top 10 gardens and there are a host of other Japanese landscapes and a few Islamic ones that merit study by anyone interested in landscape architecture. (I seem to recall reading that Escher got the idea for his tessellated designs after visiting the Alhambra.) Surely the list needs to include a couple of books about these cultures?

My nomination for Japanese gardens would be Japanese Garden Design by Marc P. Keane and for Islamic landscapes it would be Islamic Gardens and Landscapes by D. Fairchild Ruggles.

I see that you have a couple of books with ecology in the title but I would like to see one on the list that is about landscape design as biomimicry – like Ecology for Gardeners but on a grander scale. Perhaps such a book exists but I haven’t found it yet.