NESS.docs 2: Landscape as Urbanism in the Americas

(Paperback)

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Landscape as Urbanism in the Americas is the second issue of NESS.docs, focused on the concepts and terminology coined by Charles Waldheim and the OFU from Harvard GSD on the potentials for landscape as a medium of urban intervention in the specific social, cultural, economic, and ecological contexts of Latin America cities. Landscape as Urbanism in the Americas features more than twenty projects developed by Latin American practices, who also reflected on their work and its ecological and territorial implications. Ness.docs gathers original texts from Latin America Practices as well as essays on different urban specialists point of view.

The second issue of our monographic series reflects on the project of Landscape as Urbanism in the Americas, lead by Charles Waldheim and the Office for Urbanization at Harvard Graduate School of Design. Curated together with Mercedes Peralta and Jeannette Sordi, NESS.docs 2 explores the potentials for landscape as a medium for urban intervention in the specific contexts of Latin-American cities.

More than twenty Latin American practices are shown and grouped in five different themes: Biological Environments, Resilient Grounds, Performative Systems, Revealed Protocols, and Assembled Natures. Finally, a conversation between Charles Waldheim, Florencia Rodriguez, and Luis Callejas deepens the discussion of our academic curricula, drawing as representation, political spaces, and the general sensitivity around landscape.

With Contributions of: Ana Elvira Vlez Villa & Lorenzo Castro Jaramillo / Ana Mara Durn Calisto / Beals Lyon Arquitectos / Bulla / Camilo Restrepo / CAPA / Ciro Najle / Enlace Arquitectura / Fbrica de Paisaje / Francisco Walker Martnez / FUPAM / LUME, H+F Arquitetos / Metrpole Arquitetos & UNA Arquitetos / Gaeta Springall Arquitectos / Groundlab, LyonBosch+Martic, Idom & Sergio Chiquetto / Guillermo Hevia Garca & Nicols Urza / Husos / Iaki Echeverra Gutirrez / Jeannette Sordi / Jos Alfredo Ramrez / Juan David Hoyos & Sebastin Monsalve / LCLA O ce / Luis Callejas / Manuel Gausa / Mercedes Peralta / Metro Arquitetos Associados / Opera Publica / Plan Comn / Plan:B Arquitectos & JPRCR Arquitectos / RDR Arquitectos / Srgio Bernardes / Tatiana Bilbao Estudio / Teresa Moller Landscape Studio

Reviews

"Over the past quarter century landscape has been claimed as model and medium for the contemporary city. During this time a range of alternative architectural and urban practices have emerged across Latin America. Many of these practices explore the ecological and territorial implications for the urban project. " --Charles Waldheim
The book may be based on academic conferences that are focused on landscape urbanism -- the sometimes contentious theory that challenges New Urbanism and elevates landscape and ecology over buildings -- but the book should appeal to a wide range of architects and landscape architects due to the selection of the two-dozen projects and their presentation taking up most of its pages. Like the conferences, the projects range over much of Latin America. Much-published projects like "Plan: B's and JPRCR's Orquideorama in Colombia are found alongside lesser known projects like Metro's Ladeira da Barroquinha in Brazil. Not all of the projects are built, but on the whole they show a strong embrace of landscape urbanism principles in Latin American contexts. As expressed by Charles Waldheim in his introduction, this embrace has occurred, in part, from Latin American architects carrying the theory with them after being subjected to it at the GSD. Whatever the case, the projects in NESS.docs 2 are an strong argument for landscape urbanism's continued relevance." --John Hill, A Daily Dose of Architecture

Author Bio

Mercedes Peralta is an architect and researcher currently working with Professor Charles Waldheim as a Research Associate atthe Harvard Graduate School of Design's Office for Urbanization. She holds a Master of Architecture and a Certificate in Media and Modernity from Princeton University (2017), in addition to her professional diploma in architecture from University of Buenos Aires(2012). Before Harvard, Mercedes worked in New York (2017-18). She was part of the Princeton-Columbia research team for Beatriz Colomina's and Mark Wigley's Istanbul Biennial "Are We Human" (2016) and a presenter for the 2017 ECAADE conference at Sapienza Universit di Roma. Between 2010 and 2015, she worked in Buenos Aires in different design initiatives. Mercedes was a designer for Claudio Vekstein's Monumento al Grito de Alcorta, represented in the last Argentinian pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale. Her teaching experience includes Harvard, Princeton, and University of Buenos Aires. Her writing appears in Summa+. Her current research focuses on the intersection of architecture, landscape, and urbanism. Her latest projects include design research and editorial work on the re-use of obsolete infrastructure, mobility design, branding proposals for new cities, identity systems, and the design-curatorship of Future of the American City platform initiative. Jeannette Sordi is an architect and urban planner based in New York City. Until 2018 she was Associate Professor of Landscape and Urbanism at Adolfo Ibaez University in Santiago de Chile. Her PhD (UNIGE, 2013) focused on the genealogy of landscape urbanismand was published as "Beyond Urbanism" (List, 2014; Sacabana, 2017, Spanish edition). She is part of the Landscape as Urbanism in the Americas initiative since its beginnings in 2015 and co-organized conferences in Medelln, Santiago, Brasilia, Mexico, and Buenos Aires. Her main publications include the books "Andrea Branzi. From Radical Design to Post-Environmentalism" (ARQ, 2015, with Felipe Vera), "The Camp and the City. Territories of Extraction" (List, 2017, with Felipe Vera and Luis Valenzuela), and "Part-time Cities" (ARQ, 2018). She currently teaches at NYIT and is a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank on projects in Uruguay and Argentina. Charles Waldheim is a North American architect, urbanist, and educator. His research and practice examine the relations betweenlandscape, ecology, and contemporary urbanism. He coined the term "landscape urbanism" to describe the emergent discourse andpractices of landscape in relation to design culture and contemporary urbanization. On these topics, Waldheim is author of "Landscapeas Urbanism: A General Theory" and editor of "The Landscape Urbanism Reader." Waldheim is John E. Irving Professor of LandscapeArchitecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design where he directs the School's Office for Urbanization.