The Routledge Research Companion to Landscape Architecture considers landscape architecture’s increasingly important cultural, aesthetic, and ecological role. The volume reflects topical concerns in theoretical, historical, philosophical, and practice-related research in landscape architecture – research that reflects our relationship with what has traditionally been called ‘nature’. It does so at a time when questions about the use of global resources and understanding the links between human and non-human worlds are more crucial than ever. The twenty-five chapters of this edited collection bring together significant positions in current landscape architecture research under five broad themes – History, Sites and Heritage, City and Nature, Ethics and Sustainability, Knowledge and Practice – supplemented with a discussion of landscape architecture education. Prominent as well as up-and-coming contributors from landscape architecture and adjacent fields including Tom Avermaete, Peter Carl, Gareth Doherty, Ottmar Ette, Matthew Gandy, Christophe Girot, Anne Whiston Spirn, Ian H. Thompson and Jane Wolff seek to widen, fuel, and frame critical discussion in this growing area. A significant contribution to landscape architecture research, this book will be beneficial not only to students and academics in landscape architecture, but also to scholars in related fields such as history, architecture, and social studies.

Landscape architecture is one of the key professions dedicated to making cities hospitable and healthy places to live, work and play, while respecting and enhancing the natural environments and landscapes we inhabit. This edited collection presents current writing about the pivotal roles that landscape architects play in addressing some of the most pressing problems facing the planet, its environments and its populations through their research, analysis and speculative practice. The book has assembled current writings on recent research structured around five major themes: governance, power and partnership; infrastructure, systems and performance; environment, resilience and climate change; people, place and design; and culture, heritage and identity. As a collection, the chapters demonstrate the diversity of themes and topics that are expanding the scholarly body of knowledge for the discipline and its relevance to the practice of landscape architecture. The contributors to this book are academic researchers and practitioners from the discipline of landscape architecture. The chapters draw on their research, teaching and experience as well as analysis of project examples. Fifty-two contributors from the United Stsates, United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Malaysia, Spain, Colombia, Australia, New Zealand and Canada discuss a diverse range of contemporary themes in urban landscape architecture. Collectively, the contributors demonstrate the breadth of experience, shared concerns and distinct issues that challenge urban landscape architecture and cities in the 21st century.

Heritage represents the meanings and representations conveyed in the present day upon artifacts, landscapes, mythologies, memories and traditions from the past. It is a key element in the shaping of identities, particularly in the context of increasingly multicultural societies. This Research Companion brings together an international team of authors to discuss the concepts, ideas and practices that inform the entwining of heritage and identity. They have assembled a wide geographical range of examples and interpret them through a number of disciplinary lenses that include geography, history, museum and heritage studies, archaeology, art history, history, anthropology and media studies. This outstanding companion offers scholars and graduate students a thoroughly up-to-date guide to current thinking and a comprehensive reference to this growing field.

It has become increasingly evident that effective planning for sustainable communities, environments and economies pivots on the ability of planners to see the possibilities for culture in comprehensive social, historical and environmental terms and to more fully engage with the cultural practices, processes and theorisation that comprise a social formation. More broadly, an approach to planning theory and practice that is itself formed through a close engagement with culture is required. This Research Companion brings together leading experts from around the world to map the contours of the relationship between planning and culture and to present these inextricably linked concepts and issues together in one place. By examining significant trends in varying national and international contexts, the contributors scrutinise the theories and practices of both planning and culture and explore not only their interface, but significant divergences and tensions. In doing so, this collection provides the first comprehensive overview and analysis of planning and culture, interdisciplinary and international in scope. It is comprised of six parts organised around the themes of global and historical contexts, key dimensions of planning and cultural theory and practice, and cultural and planning dynamics. Each section includes a final chapter that provides a case study lens which pulls the themes of the section together with reference to a significant planning issue or initiative.

It has become increasingly evident that effective planning for sustainable communities, environments and economies pivots on the ability of planners to see the possibilities for culture in comprehensive social, historical and environmental terms and to more fully engage with the cultural practices, processes and theorisation that comprise a social formation. More broadly, an approach to planning theory and practice that is itself formed through a close engagement with culture is required. This Research Companion brings together leading experts from around the world to map the contours of the relationship between planning and culture and to present these inextricably linked concepts and issues together in one place. By examining significant trends in varying national and international contexts, the contributors scrutinise the theories and practices of both planning and culture and explore not only their interface, but significant divergences and tensions. In doing so, this collection provides the first comprehensive overview and analysis of planning and culture, interdisciplinary and international in scope. It is comprised of six parts organised around the themes of global and historical contexts, key dimensions of planning and cultural theory and practice, and cultural and planning dynamics. Each section includes a final chapter that provides a case study lens which pulls the themes of the section together with reference to a significant planning issue or initiative.

Energy has become a central concern of many strands of geographical inquiry, from global climate change to the effects of energy decisions on our lives. However, many aspects of the ‘black box’ of relationships at the energy-society interface remain unopened, especially in terms of the spatial underpinnings of energy production and consumption within nations, cities and regions. Debates focusing on the location and nature of energy flows frequently fail to consider the multiple geographical networks that illustrate and explain the distribution of fuels and services around the world. Providing an integrated perspective on the complex interdependencies between energy and geography, The Routledge Research Companion to Energy Geographies offers a timely conceptual framework to study the multiple facets of energy geography, including security, space and place, planning, environmental science, economics and political science. Illustrating how a geographic approach towards energy can aid decision-making pathways in the domains of social justice and environment, this book provides insights that will help move the international community toward greater cooperation, stability, and sustainability.

Landscape is a vital, synergistic concept which opens up ways of thinking about many of the problems which beset our contemporary world, such as climate change, social alienation, environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity and destruction of heritage. As a concept, landscape does not respect disciplinary boundaries. Indeed, many academic disciplines have found the concept so important, it has been used as a qualifier that delineates whole sub-disciplines: landscape ecology, landscape planning, landscape archaeology, and so forth. In other cases, landscape studies progress under a broader banner, such as heritage studies or cultural geography. Yet it does not always mean the same thing in all of these contexts. The Routledge Companion to Landscape Studies offers the first comprehensive attempt to explore research directions into the many uses and meanings of ‘landscape’. The Companion contains thirty-nine original contributions from leading scholars within the field, which have been divided into four parts: Experiencing Landscape; Landscape Culture and Heritage; Landscape, Society and Justice; and Design and Planning for Landscape. Topics covered range from phenomenological approaches to landscape, to the consideration of landscape as a repository of human culture; from ideas of identity and belonging, to issues of power and hegemony; and from discussions of participatory planning and design to the call for new imaginaries in a time of global and environmental crisis. Each contribution explores the future development of different conceptual and theoretical approaches, as well as recent empirical contributions to knowledge and understanding. Collectively, they encourage dialogue across disciplinary barriers and reflection upon the implications of research findings for local, national and international policy in relation to landscape. This Companion provides up-to-date critical reviews of state of the art perspectives across this multifaceted field, embracing disciplines such as anthropology, archaeology, cultural studies, geography, landscape planning, landscape architecture, countryside management, forestry, heritage studies, ecology, and fine art. It serves as an invaluable point of reference for scholars, researchers and graduate students alike, engaging in the field of landscape studies.

This book provides an in-depth overview of graphic and visual communication styles for conveying climate change and climate action within the landscape architectural profession and in academia. The book features visualizations of climate adaptation and resilience, developed by award-winning landscape architects and academics from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Italy, France, Finland, South Africa, Singapore, and China. Representing Landscapes: Visualizing Climate Action illustrates the imaginative ways in which climate action and climate resilient concepts are visually presented, communicated, and perceived. The book will be especially valuable for students and practitioners in landscape architecture, urban planning, and related fields to understand how to visually capture climate change issues and design solutions, and to deliver this message to the public.

In this anthology with contributions about architecture, media, and infrastructure technology, the authors investigate in what multifaceted way architecture and information is in tune with contemporary technology, and in what way we live with them. The book is divided into following parts: BREEDING (medialising matter), BREATHING (transcending language), and INHABITING (making things inhabitable). The compilation of various text contributions creates a lexicon of ‘naturing affairs’ and is written for readers who look for an inspiring overview of our medialised environments.

This Companion provides an authoritative source for scholars and students of the nascent field of media geography. While it has deep roots in the wider discipline, the consolidation of media geography has started only in the past decade, with the creation of media geography’s first dedicated journal, Aether, as well as the publication of the sub-discipline’s first textbook. However, at present there is no other work which provides a comprehensive overview and grounding. By indicating the sub-discipline’s evolution and hinting at its future, this volume not only serves to encapsulate what geographers have learned about media but also will help to set the agenda for expanding this type of interdisciplinary exploration. The contributors-leading scholars in this field, including Stuart Aitken, Deborah Dixon, Derek McCormack, Barney Warf, and Matthew Zook-not only review the existing literature within the remit of their chapters, but also articulate arguments about where the future might take media geography scholarship. The volume is not simply a collection of individual offerings, but has afforded an opportunity to exchange ideas about media geography, with contributors making connections between chapters and developing common themes.