Landscape Dialogue: A New Approach to Site Analysis and Design

Landscape as Dialogue redefines the process of understanding landscapes for students and practi-tioners so they can create more integrated, healthy places. Traditional site analysis sees the landscape as a series of components, evaluated individually, before being put back together. This perpetuates existing social hierarchies, maintains the need for high energy inputs and trumpets iconic designs that contribute to gentrification. This book examines the process of landscape dialogue as a natural give and take with the environment, drawing on diverse and challenging writings from design, geography, philosophy and ecological sciences to probe the relationship between humans and landscape. Each chapter begins with a discussion of a theoretical approach to landscape dialogue, such as perception, information or critique, before offering a series of practical steps and representation techniques that designers can use in understanding the landscape. Detailed illustrated case studies from around the world, including Hawaii, the American Southwest, Japan, China, Mexico, Turkey and Peru, explore the book’s lessons in practice. This must-read book offers a radical alternative to convention-al analytical approaches, inspiring designers to fully engage in the landscape to ultimately generate ecologically considered places.

Cory Parker researches, teaches, writes on and lives within the landscape. He is an adjunct professor at the University of California, Davis in Human Ecology.