Out of Place : Restoring Identity to the Regional Landscape
65: Yale University Press, 1990. Hardcover. Text in English. 230 pp. Minor rubbing to the dust jacket.
Why do modern cities, suburbs, and industrial and farming landscapes all tend to look the same despite their regional settings? How can designers restore a sense of place and distinctiveness to the built and unbuilt environment?
In this provocative book, a landscape architect argues that the monotony of the modern landscape is a reflection of indifference on the part of society to the diversity inherent in ecological systems and in human communities. Influences that at one time gave uniqueness to places – climate, the use of local building materials, and craftsmanship that gave rise to vernacular forms – are today becoming obscured as technology makes materials universally available and as climate is controlled by artificially modifying the interior environment of buildings. In addition, pre-determined utopian ideals about how places should function, the uncontrolled development of tourism and the pervasive influences of urban growth that ignore natural processes, all serve to homogenize the environment. Very Good / Very Good. Item #5465
ISBN: 0300045107
Price: $30.00