Public Natures: Evolutionary Infrastructures

by Marion Weiss, Michael A. Manfredi, Justin Fowler (Editor)

Public Natures: Evolutionary Infrastructures explores the potential to shape a new public realm. Essays, roundtable discussions, and selected projects by WEISS/MANFREDI identify new terms, conditions, and models that insist architecture must evolve to create more productive connections between landscape, infrastructure, and urban territories. With a foreword by Barry Bergdoll and contributions from Kenneth Frampton, Preston Scott Cohen, Felipe Correa, Keller Easterling, Paul Lewis, Hashim Sarkis, and Nader Tehrani, Public Natures is both monograph and projective manifesto and suggests a new paradigm for infrastructure that is distinctly public in nature.

Genres: Architecture

376 pages, Hardcover

First published March 31, 2015

Reviews

[Meg]

To be clear, I did not read most of this book. I looked at the pictures, I scanned the text, I attempted the essays but found them completely impenetrable. Like, those are mostly words I know but I'm getting pretty near nil in terms of comprehension out of reading them.

Pros: I was fascinated with the public works that dealt with nature and flooding (Toronto + NY)

Cons: the projects that were basically all about the buildings and the greenery may as well been window treatments. "Woo! A green roof with native grasses! nevermind that the 'landscaping' around the building is a couple of trees and grass"

Context -> I just finished reading Frederick Law Olmsted and I wanted to read more about landscape architecture in terms of actual nature/landscaping!