Nature, Landscape, and Building for Sustainability A Harvard Design Magazine Reader William S. Saunders Introduction by Robert L. Thayer Jr. Table of Contents		$22.95 paper ISBN: 978-0-8166-5359-1 ISBN 10: 0-8166-5359-3 $69.00 cloth ISBN: 978-0-8166-5358-4 ISBN 10: 0-8166-5358-5
Thought-provoking essays on bridging the destructive divide between humanity and the natural world. The complexity and scale of the environmental problems confronting humanity today provoke a wide range of responses, from indifference to anger to creativity. Among a growing number of architects, landscape architects, and planners, however, these problems have inspired a new vision-sustainability-to guide their practices. In Nature, Landscape, and Building for Sustainability, a diverse group of contributors considers the concept of sustainability, both philosophically and practically. Some take a broad view of the divisions between nature and humanity, exploring the incomprehensible scale of human intervention in the natural world, the relationship between how we feel about nature and what we do about it, and the commodification of the natural world. Other essays focus on sustainable design practices: sustainability’s roots in the American conservation tradition, its utility as a framework for future design practice, and the necessity of moving beyond demonstration projects into the mainstream. Together, these essays suggest that the gap between the promise and reality of sustainable design, although significant, can be bridged through diligence and practice. Contributors: D. Michelle Addington, John Beardsley, Albert Borgmann, Peter Buchanan, Peter Del Tredici, Robert France, Susannah Hagan, Kristina Hill, Catherine Howett, Niall Kirkwood, Lucy R. Lippard, Bill McKibbin, Michael Pollan, Rossana Vaccarino. William S. Saunders is editor of Harvard Design Magazine and assistant dean for external relations at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. He is editor of five previous Harvard Design Magazine Readers published by the University of Minnesota Press. Robert L. Thayer Jr. is emeritus professor of landscape architecture and founder of the landscape architecture program at the University of California, Davis. He is author of Gray World, Green Heart: Technology, Nature, and the Sustainable Landscape and LifePlace: Bioregional Thought and Practice. As a professional he works on regenerative systems in landscape architecture, sustainable design, bioregional theory and practice, wind/renewable energy policy, and post oil-peak landscape planning. 200 pages | 22 b&w photos | 5 7⁄8 x 9 | May 2008 Harvard Design Magazine Reader Series, volume 6   TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Robert L. Thayer Jr. I. Imagining Nature 1. The Destitution of Space: From Cosmic Order to Cyber Disorientation Albert Borgmann 2. Humans Supplant God, Everything Changes Bill McKibben 3. Too Much: The Grand Canyon(s) Lucy R. Lippard 4. What Do We Make of Nature Now? Catherine Howett 5. Kiss Nature Goodbye: Marketing the Great Outdoors John Beardsley 6. Beyond Wilderness and Lawn Michael Pollan II. Designing (for) Nature 7. Nature Used and Abused: Politics and Rhetoric in American Preservation and Conservation Rossana Vaccarino 8. Five Reasons to Adopt Environmental Design Susannah Hagan 9. Invitation to the Dance: Sustainability and the Expended Realm of Design Peter Buchanan 10. Green World, Gray Heart? The Promise and Reality of Landscape Architecture in Sustaining Nature Robert France 11. Green Good, Better, and Best: Effective Ecological Design in Cities Kristina Hill 12. Energy, Body, Building: Rethinking Sustainable Design Solutions Michelle Addington 13. Here Come the Hyperaccumulators! Cleaning Toxic Sites from the Roots Up Niall Kirkwood 14. Neocreationism and the Illusion of Ecological Restoration Peter Del Tredici 15. A Word for Landscape Architecture John Beardsley Contributors