The Big Asian Book of Landscape Architecture

Abstract

Edited by Jillian Walliss from the University of Melbourne and Heike Rahmann from RMIT University, The Big Asian Book of Landscape Architecture offers fresh perspectives in the field of landscape architecture, hitherto dominated by North American and Euro- pean influences, by addressing the question of ‘what it means to design, do business, and think about nature, space, and urbanism with an Asian sensibility’. In taking on this challenging task, Walliss and Rahmann set out to document an emerging contemporary landscape practice in Asia characterized by diversity and audacity. Notably, this book is not a national catalogue or record of ‘Asian’ design projects that define knowledge and design approaches by geographies. Instead, the book represents Asia as a milieu of manifold and overlapping framings and ideas under the moniker ‘Asia as Method’. This review highlights the multiplicity of ‘relationships’ that guided the development, structure and framing of the book, and signposts potential directions for further investigation.