Christophe Girot

Philip Ursprung

In many ways the history of civilization is a history of our relationship with nature and landscape. Christophe Girot chronicles this intimate connection, drawing on all aspects of mankind's creativity and ingenuity, and bringing together the key stories that have shaped our manmade landscapes. Starting from the need to clear land for cultivation and to enclose space for protection - the forest clearing and the walled garden - there emerges a vital and multifaceted narrative that describes our cultural relationship to, and dependence on, the landscape, right up to the present day. Organized chronologically, each chapter includes a thematic essay that ties together the central developments and a case study illustrated with specially commissioned photographs and meticulously detailed 3D re-creations showing the featured site in its original context.

A History of Our Designs on the Natural World, from Prehistory to the Present

The Course of Landscape Architecture

Elena Cogato Lanza 

What are the best tools for assessing the quality of an urban space or landscape, in terms of social, physiological, aesthetic, and functional well-being? What features – spatial, material, or visual – can make some areas of a city welcoming, and perhaps even inspire a sense of belonging? And how do we define “landscape experience”? These are some of the questions behind Experimenting Proximity, an extensive compendium of the teaching and research experience conducted in EPFL (Construction and Conservation Laboratory) and ETHZ (Institute of Landscape Architecture) about visual representation. Authors present a new approach based upon video and experimental mapping, which deals with the notion of “physicality” and stands as the cornerstone for an improved correlation between built form, landscape and public space. All technical and theoretical aspects are developed in the book, as videos and maps can be examined in detail in the website www.experimentingproximity.net

Christophe Girot

Books

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