Learning from …
Las Vegas and Venice, water and desert. Two cities that are as different as the landscapes from which they emerged. They tell a story, about both the prudent use of the landscape and about arrogant destruction, about sustainable as well as failed strategies of urban development. The beauty and meditative power of these landscapes, as well as the full extent of destruction, ugliness and banality of the past 100 years are impressively documented in Alex S. MacLean’s aerial photographs. They vividly substantiate the claim that the twentieth century city was built in opposition to the landscape. The ecological consequences of this have been climate change, a shortage of water, and the loss of biodiversity. Return of Landscape provides a platform for a variety of well-known authors to open up a new perspective of the landscape, to describe pressing problems while at the same time searching for possibilities to develop twenty-first century cities in accordance with landscape using creative and sustainable solutions and a new and more holistic approach.

With contributions by: Klaus Staeck, Johannes Odenthal, Donata Valentien, David Blackbourn, Hubertus Fischer, Brigitte Wormbs, Thomas Sieverts, Matthias Sauerbruch, Jorg Sieweke, Fritz Reusswig, Anna Viader Soler, Piero Bevilacqua, Nicole Huber, Ralph Stern, Shlomo Aronson, Barbara Aronson, Frank Lohrberg, Kongjian Yu, Enric Batlle i Durany.