Toward an Urban Ecology: SCAPE / Landscape Architecture

Toward an Urban Ecology is an excellent book that highlights an oft forgotten yet critical aspect of urban design, landscape architecture and ecological urbanism which is advocacy. The case study projects written about hear touch on a number of important national and global topics and describe SCAPE innovative and thoughtful approaches to each project with a distinct focus on place and as advocates who truly pour themselves into their work.The narrative is easy to dive into and the illustrations and photos are excellent.I have bought a number of copies for collaborators and highly suggest you do the same!Excellent book!

This extraordinary and timely book situates landscape architecture within the emergent field of urban ecology, examining the relevance of design to urbanism in an era of unprecedented environmental transformation. Part essay, part monograph, the book is a visual expose of the work of Kate Orff and SCAPE over the past 10+ years—at once a call to action and a contribution to the design literature on societal change.

Awesome book!!!

Cool idea, but felt more it belonged in the lobby at SCAPE than on a shelf in a private home. Kind of promotional and aspiration. I learned about interesting projects, like Safari 6 on New York City's subway line and an educational forest development in Greenville, South Carolina...only to realize that these project and others were either short-lived or never realized. It's disappointing that a group as knowledgeable as SCAPE (with a MacArthur recipient at the helm) hasn't been able to implement many of their projects. Felt more promotional for them than informative for a third-party, ecologically interested audience.

Nice!

The overarching feeling of reading this book is excitement: SCAPE's projects are imaginative and hopeful - but not wacky - grounded in a democratic ethos of public engagement, a reverie for the diversity of the natural world, and moral responsibility for stewardship and self preservation in an age of "shifting baselines." The writing is floral and evocative. There's a linguistic pace that seems to reflect the drive of Orff's work, too: Ideas are important for understanding and synthesizing the world to create something better, but not purely as conceptual journeys. The book does describe very real journeys to and possibilities to a better future. Occasionally, in smaller projects highlighted in two-page spreads, there's a distance between the firm's ambition for humanity and the scale of intervention. Or you can take that as a "there are no small parts" statement on the role of designers and practitioners. As a document, the book is beautiful, balanced between image and text. The diversity of images and authors (interviews, guests) makes it feel contemporary - aware of our multi-media, multi-app world in a way that enriches the reader experience. There's no sacrifice to depth. The book has stayed on my bedside table and I return to it often.

Lavishly illustrated, I found this beautiful book insightful and inspiring. As Braungart & McDonough's Cradle-to-Cradle changed the way I looked at product design and consumerism, SCAPE's Toward an Urban Ecology transformed the way I view urban landscapes and the role of nature and ecology in urban development and the fight against climate change. Highly recommend for designers of all kinds, urban planners, nature lovers, environmentalists, urbanists, and anyone interested in reimagining the future of urban development.

This book summarizes the core advocacy idea of Kate and how it leads the practices of SCAPE."Towards an Urban Ecology is part monograph, part manual, part manifesto. Its objective is to reconceive urban landscape design as a form of activism, within which landscape itself is both a frame and a solution." SCAPE's work aspires to work "toward a collaborative, community-stewardship-driven methodology that acknowledges change and uncertainty."