Representing Landscape Architecture

It has been said that we can realize only what we can imagine; but to realize what we imagine, we must convey those ideas to others as well as present them to ourselves. We use images, models, and words alone or in combination to conceive, study, test, construct, and evaluate new landscapes or modify old ones. Given the transient nature of most landscapes always growing, always changing landscape representation presents a special challenge. It is by no means neutral in a political sense or even in terms of design evaluation. Representation requires selection and thus bias, becoming as much a part of the project as the designed landscape itself. The recent decades have witnessed a major shift from the hand to the computer, raising new questions about the methods and limits to what we can achieve through surrogates.Representing Landscape Architectureoffers a first broad investigation of various mediums through which the designed landscape has been depicted. Written by a team of renowned landscape architects and scholars, this book examines the subject along several critical axes. First, it casts an historical eye and tests the limits of historical images to convey their place and time. Second, it examines the types of drawings and graphic projections used during the various stages of the design process. Third, it presents situations that trace the relation between client and maker and the role of representation in their transactions. This is not a "how-to" book, but a "why" and "what" book, and it is the most comprehensive to date on the many dimensions of landscape representation.Marc Treibis Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of numerous articles on architecture, landscape, and design. He has held Fulbright, Guggenheim, and Japan Foundation fellowships, as well as an advanced design fellowship at the American Academy in Rome. Recent books includeNoguchi in Paris: The Unesco GardenandSettings and Stray Paths: Writings on Landscapes and Gardens, published by Routledge in 2005.Treib, Marc is the author of 'Representing Landscape Architecture ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780415700429 and ISBN 0415700426.