Vladimir Guculak Knihy

In an age of glossy architectural visualizations and slick photography, today’s media is saturated with images of projects mummified in their ideal, untouched, and unused state. Every design and technical publication on landscape architecture tries to teach us how to do things based on best practices. Rarely do we see a landscape project that has been in use for five or even ten years. To counterbalance this status quo, it is time to review and scrutinize the Sh* typical mistakes in the design of our public realm. This publication is a compendium of a hundred failures made in the design, construction, or maintenance processes of urban landscapes. Looking at these unsuccessful examples, the authors propose simple and practical solutions aimed at preventing common mistakes, predicting future scenarios, and averting or accepting failures.

This atlas of contemporary landscape architecture in London offers a comprehensive overview of new projects within public space. Over the past years, major investments in the infrastructure and housing market of London have driven the need for high-quality public spaces. In the course of this development, new public areas have been created, brownfields have been revitalised, and already existing gardens and parklands have been upgraded. Landscape Observer: London illustrates these spaces and their design elements with numerous photographs. Details of the hard and soft landscape elements are labelled to provide essential information on key materials and plants used in each individual project. The book therefore serves as a reference guide and source of inspiration for landscape architects and urban planners, as well as for garden designers and political activists in the field of infrastructure and urban planning. It invites readers to discover the environmental quality and the design diversity of the external public spaces in the metropolis.