Landscape Is…! is a collection of essays on the meaning of landscape edited by Gareth Doherty and Charles Waldheim. This is the second edition and a counter project to the original 2016 volume of Landscape Is…? to shift the focus from what landscape is to questions concerning what landscape means in the world.
In the introduction Doherty and Waldheim state “This volume is conceived as an opportunity for ethical reflection on the conditions for practice as well as a timely reconsideration of how landscape lands on various sites for various human subjects….”. This is one of the many aspirations outlined in the introductory chapter for the book, along with definitions of landscape.
This book comprises eighteen essays, with the premise of Is Landscape [insert subject]? written by well-known academics and professionals, that address a diverse range of topics. However, Landscape Is…? should not be mistaken for a reader with a general overview of each subject. Many of the chapters focus on the writer’s expertise and therefore transition from addressing the question to providing detailed information. Subjects that the the writers address include Is Landscape… Fieldwork, Capital, Colonial, Empowered, Gendered, Indigenous, Elitist, Just, Public, Queer and so on.
As a collection of essays, the book allows the reader to explore which topic they may wish to delve into. Reading through the various topical essays provides the opportunity to move away from what may be expected and provides an alternative perspective.
Reading through the book, I enjoyed some essays more than others, but this is due to my interests and studies; I also found the essays on topics that I would normal not read to be challenging but also enjoyable.
Doherty’s essay Is Landscape Fieldwork? explores various disciplines, including Anthropology, Archaeology, Architecture, Art, Ecology, Geography, History, and Planning. The discussion encompasses the methodologies and tools employed within these fields to comprehend the landscape and how they visually and practically represent their fieldwork, such as ethnography, mapping, painting, and rapid ecological assessment.
Is Landscape Capital? by Douglas Spencer explores capitalism at the juncture of the climate crisis. Challenging the reader to consider how unrealistic it would be to think that the landscape can refashion itself to address climate change while maintaining client bases and prestige in a capital-based economy.
Ọlátúnjí Adéjùmọ̀ discusses how experiencing landscape varies in the Global North, which is often based on material assets, whereas the relationship is more spiritual for indigenous communities of the Global South.
Alison B. Hirsch writes about elitist Landscapes and discusses Brownian landscapes, correcting natural form into pastoral landscapes, and the impact of the picturesque across the world, which often sanitised difference, and in turn left many voices out is designed landscape and their histories. Hirsch continues by discussing who the landscape is for?
Is Landscape Just? by Kofi Boone provides the reader with an a better understanding of Recognition, Reconciliation, Reparations as expressed in communities and the landscape.
Ed Wall looks into the relationship between landscape and public sites. Wall addresses various topics such as the tension between public and private spaces, along with how the Occupy movement (and public protests) inform landscape design and practices.
Is Landscape Language? by Anne Whiston Spirn explores “landscape is our native language” and that “humans are not the sole authors of landscape”. Spirn provides many observations that make your mind wander through many landscapes through the use of language as a “powerful tool”.
Waldheim concludes the book with Is Landscape Human?, in which he addresses many of the topics presented in the collection of essays, and also poses further questions for the reader to ponder about the availability of landscape to all humans across all cultures.
The above is only a summary of some of the eighteen essays contained within Landscape Is…!, a book that students, academics and professionals would wish to read a book to challenge their thinking and contemplate landscape from differing perspectives and aspects.
Landscape Is…! is published by Routledge and available from online bookstores.
Landscape Is…!
Publisher: Routledge
Publication date: 24 February 2025
Language: English
Print length: 331 pages
ISBN-10: 0367708213
ISBN-13: 978-0367708214
Dimensions: 16.51 x 1.91 x 23.5 cm
Book Review by Damian Holmes, Founder and Editor of World Landscape Architecture.
World Landscape Architecture was provided a review copy of the book by the publisher.