Abstract: (48 Views)
The book Is Landscape…? Essays on the Nature of Landscape, edited by Gareth Doherty and Charles Waldheim, is an interdisciplinary collection of essays that engages with the fundamental question “What is landscape?”-without offering any final or definitive answer. The structure of the book is organized around fourteen inquiries, each chapter written by an author from fields such as philosophy, history, ecology, technology, and design. This question‑driven approach opens new horizons for critical thought, yet simultaneously results in conceptual dispersion and a lack of theoretical cohesion among the chapters.
Moreover, the book marks a shift from the classical discussions of landscape urbanism toward philosophical and cultural reflections, re‑examining the relationship between design, thought, and lived spatial experience. Chapters such as “Is Landscape Literature?” and “Is Landscape Philosophy?” reveal that landscape is not merely a physical entity, but rather a linguistic, temporal, and experiential domain through which the world can be understood.
This review, while recognizing the innovation of the book’s structure and its interdisciplinary richness, identifies its weakness in the absence of theoretical consistency and practical applicability. Within the context of landscape architecture education in Iran, the volume provides a theoretical foundation for a transition from skill‑oriented to thought‑oriented approaches, emphasizing that landscape is less a designed product and more a mode of thinking about space, culture, and time.
Moreover, the book marks a shift from the classical discussions of landscape urbanism toward philosophical and cultural reflections, re‑examining the relationship between design, thought, and lived spatial experience. Chapters such as “Is Landscape Literature?” and “Is Landscape Philosophy?” reveal that landscape is not merely a physical entity, but rather a linguistic, temporal, and experiential domain through which the world can be understood.
This review, while recognizing the innovation of the book’s structure and its interdisciplinary richness, identifies its weakness in the absence of theoretical consistency and practical applicability. Within the context of landscape architecture education in Iran, the volume provides a theoretical foundation for a transition from skill‑oriented to thought‑oriented approaches, emphasizing that landscape is less a designed product and more a mode of thinking about space, culture, and time.
Article number: 2
Type of Study: Research |
Subject:
General
Received: 2025/12/15 | Accepted: 2025/11/1 | Published: 2025/11/1
Received: 2025/12/15 | Accepted: 2025/11/1 | Published: 2025/11/1
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