Publications

Landscape as Territory by Clara Oloriz

Landscape as Territory is a cartographic book project that critically addresses the agency of architects in the so-called ‘Urban Age,’ understanding the notion of ‘territory’ as a field of design praxis through which interconnected landscapes are produced. Territory, understood as a ‘political technology,’ has the capacity to involve architects and designers into complex social, political, technical, legal, strategic and economic processes that are both historical and geographical engines of contemporary urbanization. Territorial praxis is interrogated in a collection of threaded theory and design contributions where essays pose key questions that are addressed through projective cartographies, unfolding arguments related to three sections: (1) territory, (2) critical cartographies and (3) agency.
This material intends to raise awareness about the consequential production of landscapes through territorial processes and urges a critical re-appropriation of cartographic tools, accomplice in the production of territories, and to question and expand the architect’s agency.

Green New Deal Landscapes by José Alfredo Ramírez

Given the ongoing climate and socio-ecological emergencies, it is paramount to support a socially just rethinking of the world we inhabit, which is intrinsically dependent on the health of the earth’s systems. This requires a radical transformation of the role of environmental designers in developing  propositions, mitigation strategies and advocacy initiatives.

This issue of AD explores the principles behind the Green New Deal and how they apply to the architectural and landscape professions. Whatever form the Green New Deal will take and is taking, it will be materialised through infrastructure, buildings, landscapes and various other constructed forms. The contributors to this AD examine the theoretical frameworks and design practices within which the protocols of the Green New Deal could be integrated. Initially, such a goal requires a survey of the available design tools and methodologies necessary to achieve a transition to a decarbonised economy in an equitable manner. The articles feature design practices who are transforming their existing modes of operation to work in environments were fossil fuels are kept well below ground, and to explore renewable forms of local, regional and planetary urbanisation.

AA Landscape Urbanism Exemplary Thesis in ISSUU

Some of the most representative theses produced in the Post Graduate Programme can be visited HERE

Critical Territories: From Academia to Praxis

This book records the current state of our practice, theory and teaching of Landscape Urbanism and its development in recent years. It describes the phases and processes through which we have arrived at a distinctive model of Landscape Urbanism and the movement, from academia to praxis, through which this has been achieved. To this end, Critical Territories opens with a series of contributions to the ongoing development of our theoretical perspectives before turning to elaborate, from within the academic framework of the Architectural Association, the work of our students and the agendas they have engaged with in Mexico, Sri Lanka, Dubai and China and the intensive workshops with which they have been involved in Europe. It then turns, finally, to the projects produced and realised by the Landscape Urbanist practice Groundlab, whose work both puts into practice our model of Landscape Urbanism and offers an opportunity to reflect upon its further development.