Product Description

Living Systems surveys a wide array of innovative approaches to material technologies within the field of landscape architecture. The selected projects and materials exhibit a contemporary demand for technological landscapes and the collaboration between designers, engineers, scientists and ecologists. The book's language proposes a synthesis between technology and theory, and redefines the conventional boundaries of landscape materiality by focusing on its dynamic attributes, such as: growth, flow, metabolism, climate, and atmospheric phenomena.

Projects and materials are cross-referenced within the authors' new categorization system, which focuses on performance criteria, processes, and properties. Each of the 36 international projects and 23 material technologies is presented with drawing details and construction photographs. A description of key processes and adaptive qualities provides an analysis of the various complex systems featured, such as vertical growth structures, flood prevention, stormwater infiltration, erosion control, and the integration of digital media to communicate, monitor, and provide interactive environments.

Projects featured include works by West8, GROSS.MAX, Weiss-Manfredi Architects, Field Operations, BIG, StoSS, DIRT Studio, and Vogt Landschaftarchitekten.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #94583 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 191 pages

About the Author
Liat Margolis is the former Director of Material Research at Material ConneXion, an innovative multi-industry materials research and consulting company. Liat earned her BFA in Industrial Design from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and her Masters of Landscape Architecture from Harvard's Graduate School of Design (GSD). She currently manages GSD's Materials Collection, a material research lab, and practices landscape architecture at Hargreaves Associates in Cambridge, MA.

Alexander Robinson studied fine arts and computer science at Swarthmore College and earned his Masters in Landscape Architecture from Harvard's Graduate School of Design. Alexander led numerous urban landscape technology and planning research projects with Harvard's Center for Technology and Environment. As former landscape architect with Mia Lehrer + Associates, he helped author the Los Angeles River and Compton Creek Master Plans. Alexander currently works for SWA Group in Los Angeles, CA.

Customer Reviews

A good reference book for both design major students and seasoned professional designers
As the former Director of Material Research at Material ConneXion, Liat Margolis combined her many years of experience in innovative multi-industry materials research with the professional design experience of her co-author and fellow Harvard GSD graduate, Alexander Robinson in "Living Systems: Innovative Materials and Technologies for Landscape Architecture."

"Vertical landscapes also represent a conceptual shift toward a synthesis between landscape and architecture; building facades, for example, can be embedded within emergent, active and responsive skins..." Liat Margolis and Alexander Robinson wrote.

They continued to discuss various living systems and applications demonstrated with real examples, including:

Launch (Multi-tiered Vine Park, Misting Vine Pergola, Wind Adapted Road Canopy Structure, Fire-Escape Ecosystem, Parasitic Vegetal Structure)

Stratify (Mechanically Stabilized Landform, Floating Glass Plain, Multi-Operational Modular Surface, Gradient of Resilience, Surface Inversion)

Fluid (Weaving Porous and Non- porous Surfaces, Inflatable Dam System, Stormwater Garden, Drop Structures for Suburban Stormwater System, Networked Sidewalk Stormwater System, Bio-technical Wave and Erosion Control Structures)

Grooming (Tree Crutches Growing Guide, Artificial Winter for a Bamboo Garden, Saltwater Herbicide System, Low-Maintenance Perennial Plantings, Stunted Growth Pattern)

Digestive (Bio-Remediation Park Design, Fluvially Integrated Effluent Wetlands, On-site Sewage Treatment System, Ground Reconstitution Strategy, Strategic Contaminated Soil Placement)

Translate (Pheumatic Body, Power by Wind, the Ground is a Turntable, Weather Informed Park Access System, Fiber Optic Marsh)

Volatile (Responsive Cloud Machine, Computer Animated Rain, Dynamic Thermal Wind Wall, Impression of Rain).

There is a helpful list of products and technologies at the end of the book.

"Living Systems: Innovative Materials and Technologies for Landscape Architecture" has 191 pages and many color interior photos and illustrations. It is a good reference book for both design major students and seasoned professional designers.

Gang Chen, LEED AP, AIA
Author of "Planting Design Illustrated"