Landscape Urbanism vs New Urbanism

The voices are getting more heated and louder in the public debate of Landscape Urbanism vs New Urbanism with recent pieces inMetropolis by Andres Duany – ‘Duany vs Harvard GSD’‘ and a response from Alex Krieger – ‘Krieger to Duany’. The debate occurs in the 50th year of Urban Design and 30th year of New Urbanism seems to gives landscape architects a new sense of place and that the profession at last have a debate that will raise the profession to new level.

Landscape Urbanism and New Urbanism articles and opinion pieces over the last few months have provided great reading material for us to think about cities and communities. Whether your on the Landscape Urbanism or New Urbanism side we all know this debate will rage on but with Urbanisation occurring a phenomenal rate in Asia and Africa the biggest question is will these theories be placed into real practice (beyond the token projects)  so they can be truly evaluated or will the debate continue on until the protagonists are long gone.

I thought that it was time to write about this debate after reading one of the best articles on the debate this year by Charles A. Birnbaum: City Shaping II: Will Architecture Go Horizontal? written for the Huffington Post. Also Jason King on his blog – landscape+urbanism has given a great synopsis and response in ‘GSD as Epicenter’ from  the landscape urbanism perspective. Jason’s landscape+urbanism blog is the best source of information, insight and debate about  landscape urbanism.

Below is a list of recent articles that will provide some great Sunday reading to get you all fired up for Monday at the office. Remember to follow us  @landreader to get the latest landscape headlines like the ones below.

City Shaping II: Will Architecture Go Horizontal? Charles A. Birnbaum – Huffington Post 14 November 2010

Krieger to Duany – Alex Krieger – Metropolis Magazine 8 November 2010

Duany vs Harvard GSD – Andres Duany – Metropolis Magazine 3 November 2010

The definition of landscape urbanism – Tom Turner – Gardenvisit Blog 5 November 2010

All Carrot, No Stick (Senate Bill S.1619) – Karrie Jacobs – Metropolis Magazine 20 October 2010

Landscape Urbanism: Sprawl in a Pretty Green Dress? – Michael Mehaffy 11 October 2010

Systems, Not Icons: The unstoppable rise of landscape urbanism – John Gendall – Architect 6 October 2010

New Urbanism for the Apocalypse – Greg Lindsay – Fast Company May 24 2010

The Man Who Reinvented the City (interview w/ Duany) – Kevin Redmon – The Atlantic May 18 2010

And for something a little visual America’s suburban sprawl elevated to aerial art – Matthew Knight CNN (includes Christoph Gielen’s aerial photos) November 8 2010

These are only some from the past year there are many more from pre-2010 and not on the web including Topos #71 – Landscape Urbanism and also books including Ecological Urbanism (Harvard GSD). If I have missed any important articles on the web send me an email [email protected]

for more links to Landscape Urbanism and New Urbanism articles

More Links

Cities in Flux: Latino New Urbanism – The City Fix 2 November 2010

05.26.10: The Architecture of Fear – David Bryne Journal 26 May 2010

Landscape Urbanism: A Critique from a CNU Cardholder and Landscape Architect – John Olson EVstudio – 13 May 2010

Urban Inspirations: Andy Kunz on New Urbanism and High-Speed Trains in America – Carbusters 25 January 2010

A Look at Landscape Urbanism – Graham Livesey – Canadian Architect November 2009

About Damian Holmes 3245 Articles
Damian Holmes is the Founder and Editor of World Landscape Architecture (WLA). He is a registered landscape architect (AILA) working in international design practice in Australia. Damian founded WLA in 2007 to provide a website for landscape architects written by landscape architects. Connect on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/damianholmes/