custom-cut bricks, a paving material rarely seen in Russia. The 500-metre (1,640-foot) street is laid with two intertwined patterns, the second in two colours cutting through the first. The street surface is perforated in several places by pockets in which pine trees are planted along with seasonal flowers. Pine trees can not only withstand the severe temperatures in Moscow, but create a visual connection between this most cosmopolitan street lined with Prada, Gucci, Rolls-Royce and Yves Saint Laurent and the birch pine forest surrounding it. While such a prestige project has opened West 8’s markets to luxury developments (and one wonders about the prospects <strong>of</strong> a future hermetic world <strong>of</strong> gated communities landscaped by the practice), the sheer heterogeneous range <strong>of</strong> the architects’ work will avoid typecasting. Winning the Waterfront Innovative Design competition in Toronto, a highly public project, represents the side <strong>of</strong> the practice’s work that reclaims the water’s edge <strong>of</strong> cities. An 18-metre (59-foot) promenade with a wooden boardwalk, floating ‘finger’ piers and a series <strong>of</strong> bridges transforms Queen’s Quay, described as the city’s Achilles Heel, into a space ‘where the city kisses the lake’. In an almost unprecedented performance, in the summer <strong>of</strong> 2006 West 8 realised a prototypical chunk <strong>of</strong> the boulevard at 1:1 scale for a long weekend to see how people reacted, adding ‘a Bike de Triomphe’ constructed from old bicycles. The work <strong>of</strong> West 8, Gross.Max and Mosbach Paysagistes demonstrates that younger landscape architects are taking a wider social responsibility in response to complex urban needs for redefinition <strong>of</strong> space, whether it is industrial in origin or public areas around new buildings. They are working in a context <strong>of</strong> privatised land-use yet the huge pressure for cities to redefine their identities is opening up new opportunities for creativity concerning the design and role <strong>of</strong> green spaces. One facet <strong>of</strong> urban identity that has become topical is the concept <strong>of</strong> integrating the countryside into the fabric <strong>of</strong> the city in order to create a common habitat. This has been discussed but rarely implemented in Europe. There are fears in a relatively small country like the UK that urban growth is bringing a tarmacking over <strong>of</strong> the countryside, and that a sense <strong>of</strong> synergy between the urban and the rural is lacking. The traditional European urban scenario has been that whenever the city has grown in size, nature and agriculture have disappeared as the urban has become two opposing and ever more entrenched concepts. A rurban (rural–urban) hybrid, working with a territory’s agricultural origins, not denying it, typifies the Sociópolis urban scheme for the outskirts <strong>of</strong> Valencia, led by Vicente Guallart, which integrates the huerta, or market garden, into a new residential community alongside public amenities. Wider interest in the three practices discussed above has clearly been fostered in part by the effervescent yet relatively highbrow public celebration <strong>of</strong> nature and ‘bio-visions’ <strong>of</strong> the biannual Bundesgartenschau (Federal Garden Exhibition). This event – part exhibition, part trade fair – has opened minds to potential synergies between urban design and landscape architecture. The last event, attended by 3 million people over 165 days, was staged in Munich. Its focus straddling leisure and culture complements a larger push in Germany towards integrated developments harmonising economic, local leisure and ecological requirements, including the preservation and use <strong>of</strong> open spaces in an ecologically interconnected system. An example <strong>of</strong> this is Berlin’s development as a European urban district. Potsdam, which is over a thousand years old, is set, island-like, in a landscape <strong>of</strong> parks and lakes, much <strong>of</strong> them the legacy <strong>of</strong> the Prussian kings from 1657 who created palaces and gardens there. A UNESCO-protected site, its urban development adheres to three principles: the integration <strong>of</strong> former military bases now being converted to civilian use; emphasising the park and garden character <strong>of</strong> the town while maintaining its world cultural heritage; and integrating its varied environments into a historically formed, mixed-use system. Here, the Dutch landscape architects B+B (Bakker en Bleeker) have transformed a former Russian training camp dating from the DDR era into the Waldpark Potsdam. The programmatic possibilities arising across European countries in this postindustrial era require nothing less than a holistic narrative approach to history, culture and the future identity <strong>of</strong> the city. The strategies <strong>of</strong> West 8, Gross.Max and Mosbach Paysagistes show immense lucidity and intellectual leadership – and more than a dose <strong>of</strong> humour – when it comes to the complex issues <strong>of</strong> nature and urban culture, and their combined potential as sustaining forces. 4 The brick paving <strong>of</strong> the Luxury Village is perforated in several places with round tree areas called ‘pockets’, containing pine trees also found in the surrounding birch pine forest. Text © 2007 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Images: pp 76-81 © Gross.Max; p 81(tl) © Gross.Max, photo Peter Iain Campbell; pp 82-3 & 85 © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2007; p 84 © BMA APPA; pp 86-7 © courtesy <strong>of</strong> West 8 87
<strong>Landscape</strong>s <strong>of</strong> the Second Nature Emptiness as a Non-Site Space
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4 Landscape Architecture: Site/Non-
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ISBN-13 9780470034798 ISBN-10 04700
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Alison and Peter Smithson, Upper La
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Introduction Site/Non-Site Extendin
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The most dramatic case of the expan
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Dixon and Jones Architects, Exhibit
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From Mound to Sponge How Peter Cook
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Giovanni Bellini, The Madonna of th
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landscape architects, not only one
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Recombinant Landscapes in the Ameri
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West 8 and du Toit Allsopp Hillier
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Cooper, Robertson & Partners, Coast
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Cooper Carry, Mizner Park, Boca Rat
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Brian McGrath and Victoria Marshall
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forest in terms of human carbon pro
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