DESIGN AND LANDSCAPE FOR PEOPLE
The new community planning: invaluable strategies for creative rebuilding and renovating from around the world.
For many years planning was something done in the name of progress by distant committees with the abstract aim of tidying boundaries and controlling growth. In the past decade, however, heavy-handed ideology has given way to a new generation of planners from diverse backgrounds—architecture, landscape, even art and performance—who seek fresh, creative ways of working with communities.
This book presents and explains, for the first time, the rise and success of this new global sensibility. Organized into five sections—Identity, Utility, Citizenship, Rural, Urban—it explores the challenges of planning in the developed and developing worlds through a series of detailed, often groundbreaking case studies.
Projects have been chosen to highlight a variety of approaches. They range from the recycled architecture of Rural Studio in Alabama to the remarkable revitalization of isolated communities in Japan, from the rehabilitation of industrial wasteland in Germany to novel ways to provide clean water in South Africa. Other projects include Edible Schoolyard (Berkeley, California), De Strip (Netherlands), Osuna Cattle Tracks Regeneration (Spain), Play or Rewind (Italy), and Ephemeral Vineyard (France). The in-depth studies are completed with valuable technical information. 200+ color illustrations.
Paula Frosch – Library Journal
How to improve the quality of life in a fixed environment is a challenge to city planners, designers, architects, and social activists alike. Renewal-urban or rural-requires a new set of tools and ideas, and this book describes a number of successful attempts at renewal and sets out a blueprint for future endeavors. In their global scope, the authors, cofounders of the British consulting firm General Public Agency, emphasize “transferable strategies,” e.g., the use of a children’s merry-go-round to pump clean water, the ecological restoration of a major park in Mexico applying age-old agricultural techniques in a modern environment, and the transformation of a massive, empty steelworks in Germany’s Ruhr Valley into public green spaces with evolving processes and community involvement. More than 20 case studies are divided into five parts: “Utility,” “Citizenship,” “Rural,” “Identity,” and “Urban.” The common theme is that imagination, with minimal resources, can produce maximum results. A useful book for collections dealing with social and environmental issues, urban and rural community planning, and ecological concerns.
The new community planning: invaluable strategies for creative rebuilding and renovating from around the world.
For many years planning was something done in the name of progress by distant committees with the abstract aim of tidying boundaries and controlling growth. In the past decade, however, heavy-handed ideology has given way to a new generation of planners from diverse backgrounds—architecture, landscape, even art and performance—who seek fresh, creative ways of working with communities.
This book presents and explains, for the first time, the rise and success of this new global sensibility. Organized into five sections—Identity, Utility, Citizenship, Rural, Urban—it explores the challenges of planning in the developed and developing worlds through a series of detailed, often groundbreaking case studies.
Projects have been chosen to highlight a variety of approaches. They range from the recycled architecture of Rural Studio in Alabama to the remarkable revitalization of isolated communities in Japan, from the rehabilitation of industrial wasteland in Germany to novel ways to provide clean water in South Africa. Other projects include Edible Schoolyard (Berkeley, California), De Strip (Netherlands), Osuna Cattle Tracks Regeneration (Spain), Play or Rewind (Italy), and Ephemeral Vineyard (France). The in-depth studies are completed with valuable technical information. 200+ color illustrations.
Paula Frosch – Library Journal
How to improve the quality of life in a fixed environment is a challenge to city planners, designers, architects, and social activists alike. Renewal-urban or rural-requires a new set of tools and ideas, and this book describes a number of successful attempts at renewal and sets out a blueprint for future endeavors. In their global scope, the authors, cofounders of the British consulting firm General Public Agency, emphasize “transferable strategies,” e.g., the use of a children’s merry-go-round to pump clean water, the ecological restoration of a major park in Mexico applying age-old agricultural techniques in a modern environment, and the transformation of a massive, empty steelworks in Germany’s Ruhr Valley into public green spaces with evolving processes and community involvement. More than 20 case studies are divided into five parts: “Utility,” “Citizenship,” “Rural,” “Identity,” and “Urban.” The common theme is that imagination, with minimal resources, can produce maximum results. A useful book for collections dealing with social and environmental issues, urban and rural community planning, and ecological concerns.
