South African Landscape Architecture : A Reader, Vol.1

ISBN: 9781868886623

Unisa Press | 30 April 2012

Paperback | 303 pages

The discipline of landscape architecture in South Africa has been covered in five main popular printed media in the form of trade related journals and magazines. South African Landscape Architecture: A Reader is however the first collection of papers written by academics actively involved with landscape architecture research. The Reader serves as a platform for current South African landscape architecture research and theory to be locally and internationally distributed, making it widely accessible to peers involved with research. Publishing through Unisa Press (the largest local academic publishing house) is for these reasons an appropriate choice.

All the papers have undergone editorial review and every paper was double-blind peer reviewed (a process independently facilitated by Unisa Press). This book provides an accessible vehicle for the dissemination of this research.

While the longer papers are more theoretical, the shorter project descriptions focus more on the application of theory to design projects and are usually more comprehensively illustrated. Several of the authors are involved in practice and supplement their research with results from inquiry undertaken through practice - design as research. These project descriptions add tremendous value to the discipline and to an integration of academia and the profession.

This book will significantly add to the dialogue on the developing discourse of South African landscape architecture and enhance the reciprocal dynamic between praxis and academia.