Projective Ecologies

Chris Reed

• Publisher: ACTAR, Harvard Graduate School of Design
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781945150364
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Sustainability in Architecture

The past two decades have witnessed a resurgence of ecological ideas and ecological thinking in discussions of urbanism, society, culture, and design. The field of ecology has moved from classical determinism and a reductionist Newtonian concern with stability, certainty, and order in favor of more contemporary understandings of dynamic systemic change and the related phenomena of adaptability, resilience, and flexibility. But ecology is not simply a project of the natural sciences. Researchers, theorists, social commentators, and designers have all used ecology as a broader idea or metaphor for a set of conditions and relationships with political, economic, and social implications.
Projective Ecologies takes stock of the diversity ofcontemporary ecological research and theory--embracing Felix Guattari's broader definition of ecology as at once environmental, social, and existential--and speculates on potential paths forward for design practices. Where are ecological thinking and theory now? What do current trajectories of research suggest for future practice? How can advances in ecological research and modeling, in social theory, and in digital visualization inform, with greater rigor, more robust design thinking and practice?
New original essays by Peter Del Tredici, Erle Ellis, Christopher Hight, Sanford Kwinter, Sean Lally, Nina-Marie Lister, Chris Reed, Jane Wolff
Reprinted/excerpted essays by Robert Cook, David Fletcher, Richard T.T. Forman, C.S. Holling.
With drawings by, Gross.MAX, James Corner, Field Operations, Sean Lally, Anuradha Mathur and Dilip DaCunha, OMA, Stoss Landscape Urbanism, West 8.

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Table of contents

• Foreword: Ecologies, Plural and Projective - Charles Waldheim
• Introduction: Ecological Thinking, Design Practices - Chris Reed and Nina-Marie Lister
• Parallel Genealogies - Chris Reed and Nina-Marie Lister
• Ecology and Landscape as Agents of Creativity (reprint, 1997) - James Corner
• DYNAMICS (curated drawings + commentary)
• Designing Ecologies - Christopher Hight
• Ecology and Planning (reprint, 1971) - C.S. Holling and M.A. Goldberg
• Selections from Landscape Ecology Principles in Landscape Architecture and Land-Use Planning (reprint, 1996) - Wenche E. Dramstad, James D. Olson, and Richard T.T. Forman
• SUCCESSION (curated drawings + commentary)
• Selections from Discordant Harmonies (reprint, 1990) - Daniel Botkin
• (Anthropogenic Taxonomies) A Taxonomy of the Human Biosphere - Erle C. Ellis
• Cultural Landscapes and Dynamic Ecologies: Lessons from New Orleans - Jane Wolff
• EMERGENCE (curated drawings + commentary)
• Do Landscapes Learn? Ecology’s New Paradigm and Design in Landscape Architecture (reprint, 1999) - Robert E. Cook
• The Flora of the Future - Peter Del Tredici
• Flood Control Freakology: Los Angeles River Watershed (reprint, 2008) - David Fletcher
• RESILIENCE (curated drawings + commentary)
• Design Thinking, Wicked Problems, Messy Plans - Frances Westley and Katharine McGowan
• The Shape of Energy - Sean Lally
• Combustible Landscape - Sanford Kwinter
• ADAPTABILITY (curated drawings + commentary)
• Contributors
• Illustration Credits