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João Nunes has a degree in Landscape Architecture by the Higher Institute of Agronomy at the Technical University of Lisbon in 1985 and he got a master´s degree in Lanscape Architecture at the School of Architecture of Barcelona, Technical University of Catalonia in 1996. He belongs since 1985 the portuguese Association of Landscape Architects. He teaches at the Institute where he graduated and he extends his educational activity as teacher and lecturer at workshops in many schools, among them, IUA in Venice, Architecture Faculty of Alghero, Technical University of Milan, University of Girona, the School of Arquitecture in Barcelona and Graduate School of Desing in Harvard. PROAP is a society with a strong national and international renown founded in 1989 with headquarters in Lisbon, Luanda (Angola) and Treviso (Italy). The architectural and investigation work directs its efforts toward the interpretation of the place, the recognition of its rules and its working mechanisms and where to base the construction of its approaches and proposals according to which a landscape project must approach as an organization tool of a series of times, steps and states. In this sense, it works integrating a complex group of processes without proposing a rigid and predetermined way of development. It possibly manipulates the metabolic factors of the nature and includes an ideological and artistic meaning. It combines these factors with human factors, economic results or mere wishes and expectations. The studio is directed by João Nunes (Lisbon, 1960) and it gets a broad group of professionals together.

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Joly & Loiret’s horse eventing arena located at the heart of the forest of Fontainebleau sits effortlessly within the natural landscape. The architects have tried to invent a real architecture-landscape, where boundaries between definitions blur and merge to create an appropriate intervention. The result is a continuity of the natural landscape, rather than a building in the usual sense of the word. The edges of the project envelope are undefined, allowing a functional, conceptual and formal continuity of space.

A key part of this relationship with the landscape is a pedestrian circuit leading around the whole of the site. This circuit is a public walkway, punctuated with elements of both the equestrian centre and the forest. Beginning at the entrance, the pathway crosses the exhibitors area before climbing gently up to the top of the roof of the building, giving visitors plunging panoramic views over the arenas. Descending from the roof, this boardwalk becomes a grand staircase that steps down through the levels of wooden terraces returning the visitor to the main entrance at the bottom.

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With tree-lined streets, ancient buildings, a vibrant culture and clean environment, Mysore is one of the most aesthetically pleasing cities to live in India. For similar reasons, it is also one of the fastest growing, as IT companies go in search of more satisfying environments to base their operations. Having seen neighbouring Bangalore's explosive growth, Mysore is trying to build its infrastructure sustainably as it grows. It has several sustainable initiatives, but the city got an unexpected ally to move in an unexpected direction: a British firm looking for opportunities in the low-carbon market.

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Fifty years ago, the late, great planning author Jane Jacobs came to Ithaca. She had just published the book "The Death and Life of Great American Cities," which would become an urban planning classic.

She was here at the invitation of Dave Abbott, a community leader and successful businessman. Abbott was particularly persuaded by her views on preserving older buildings, both those of landmark quality as well as more modest structures.

Jacobs and Abbott toured Ithaca together and he showed her all of the older buildings slated for demolition by the recently created Ithaca Urban Renewal Agency. Among these was the Greek revival City Hall, the 1830s Clinton House, the six- story Ithaca Hotel, both the older and the more modern Rothschild department store buildings, Ezra Cornell's library, and a big portion of the south side of Green Street. The Ithaca high school building (now the Dewitt Mall) was added to the list later, as was Clinton Hall.

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The Water Works Parkitecture competition, held by Des Moines Water Works and the Iowa State University Department of Landscape Architecture, sought proposals to integrate the ecological and social functions of the park and river into a unified landscape, inspire the community, and generate discussion about watershed issues.

The competition also called for solutions for ecological and recreational challenges specific to Water Works Park. Sasaki’s winning plan - developed in collaboration with RDG and AES - shapes two distinct yet complementary sections of Water Works Park: the wild and the engineered. The wild offers immersion into the park through activities like horseback riding and hiking. The engineered is the active heart of the park and provides more structured activities and events.

The centerpiece of the engineered landscape is a recreational watercourse, experienced on standing paddleboards, that is linked to interpretive opportunities regarding the role of the site in harvesting and cleaning drinking water.

via World Architecture World

If public universities cap salaries for their Presidents, will they recruit less able leaders? The California State Universities may soon be running this experiment.     The Chronicle also has an interesting article on my UCLA colleague Dick Jackson.  Dr. Jackson is a leading scholar at UCLA's School of Public Health.  Here is a quote from the Chronicle of Higher Education:

"His center had already been dealing with problems that he suspected had origins in the built environment—asthma caused by particulates from cars and trucks, water contamination from excessive runoff, lead poisoning from contaminated houses and soil, and obesity, heart conditions, and depression exacerbated by stressful living conditions, long commutes, lack of access to fresh food, and isolating, car-oriented communities. Treatments could come in the form of pills, inhalers, and insulin shots, but real solutions had bigger implications. "More and more, I came to the conclusion that this is about how we build the world that we live in," he recalls, speaking over the phone from San Francisco."

Read more via Christian Science Monitor

Washington, D.C., January 25, 2012 — The Sustainable Sites Initiative™ (SITES™) has announced the first three projects to be certified by the nation’s most comprehensive system for rating the sustainable design, construction and maintenance of built landscapes.

The corporate headquarters of an international manufacturing company, a new university green space and a children’s playground in an urban park are the first to be recognized for their sustainable land practices from among 150-plus pilot projects that began the certification process in summer 2010. These initial projects are the St. Charles, Missouri, campus of Novus International Inc.; the Green at College Park of the University of Texas at Arlington; and the Woodland Discovery Playground at Shelby Farms Park in Memphis, Tenn.

SITES is a partnership of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center of The University of Texas at Austin and the United States Botanic Garden. SITES was created to fill a critical need for guidelines and recognition of green landscapes based on their planning, design, construction and maintenance. The partners have collaborated since 2005 in developing a voluntary, national rating system and set of performance benchmarks for sustainable landscapes in areas with or without buildings.

Students and faculty gathered yesterday to find ways to produce plants with healthy roots.

The Department of Landscape Architecture hosted the “Harvard Soils Project” at the Douglass Campus Center, yesterday to learn about ways to maintain soil organically while preserving the appearance of the land.

Balancing the soil involves certain planting methods, proper preparation, and pruning techniques, said Eric Fleisher, director of Horticulture at Battery Park City Parks Conservancy.

“We need to find where the balance is and fix it from that perspective — it’s not product-based,” he said. “It’s diagnostic-based, and that’s the key with this process.”

Fleisher said the Conservancy started to implement a method of maintaining public parks differently from its traditional maintenance needs.

“It was an opportunity to really try out organic practices on a very public, high-profile basis,” Fleisher said. “We wanted to prove that high-profile parks with a high number of visitors could be managed organically.”

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San Francisco Bay Area landscape architect Simmonds and Associates, Inc. was recently selected from a group of five firms to design the landscape for the 2200 Pacific Homeowners Association in Pacific Heights, San Francisco. Simmonds was chosen for their proven ability to creatively solve difficult design problems.

For this project, the building will be refreshed with contemporary landscape design elements to compliment the building's 1960s architecture. Custom-designed planters will transform the building's entrance under the porte-cochère, as well as the sidewalks facing Pacific Avenue and Buchannan Street.

Designing for the Pacific Avenue street frontage presented a special challenge due to large, unsightly vents that provide air circulation to the parking garage below-vents that cannot be blocked. Simmonds' solution involves installing low granite-clad walls with planters on top to screen the vents, with barrel cacti planted in front of the wall adding an architectural feel.

The polished absolute-black granite walls are inset with stainless steel LED lights that will illuminate the bright green barrel cacti. The elevated stainless steel trays containing softer plantings over the vents, behind the wall, will provide interest and contrast to the surrounding architectural elements.

The judges presiding at a recent Taiwan Tower International Competition have finally cast aside the debate of worthy victor, as the proposal ‘21st Century Oasis’ picked up top honours. Presented as a joint venture, it benefited from the expertise of Japanese practice Sou Fujimoto, as well as Taiwanese firm Fei & Cheng. The strikingly original concept draws its inspiration from the aesthetic of a banyan tree’s trunk, (vegetation indigenous to Thailand).

A vast, ornate system stems high into the Taichung City skyline, evoking the feel of a vast plethora of metallic bamboo. Being a semi-enclosed structure resembling a caged plaza, the predominant partings of the framework allows the enclosure to be inundated with illumination; the creeping light is afforded a dappled quality, affording an evocative semblance of a leafy deciduous canopy. At the precipice of this oval whitewash rainforest, 300m up, perches a rooftop island, providing elevated panoramic views, whilst in the midst of this concentrated patch of flora. Intended to represent the divine Isle of Formosa, its defining duty will be to help re-establish the beauty of nature in an increasingly urbanised world.

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