Doing Almost Nothing
Regular price
€33.99
Until now, writings about the architect/landscape architect Georges Descombes have been relatively limited, appearing primarily in publications in Switzerland and abroad as conversations, interviews, and conference proceedings; most of them have appeared only in French. However, during his forty years of practice, Descombes has developed and applied a method unique to landscape architecture, one in which an extremely broad vision, both scientifically and culturally, shapes his thinking and projects. Descombes enters each project by attempting to understand the existing conditions on site and how, using minimal means and interventions, those conditions can be modified to meet the requirements of the programme and those appropriate to the natural or urban environment. To some critics it would appear that Descombes has always done too little on and to the site, and in some instances have condemned him for 'doing almost nothing'. Although simplicity usually demands greater concentration and study, it often yields greater rewards that result from just that restraint. Perhaps how we approach the world is more important that how we shape the world. Descombes's landscapes are instructive in this regard.
Marc Treib, is Professor of Architecture Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley, and a historian and critic of landscape and architecture who has published widely on modern and historical subjects in the United States, Japan, and Scandinavia. Recent works include Austere Gardens: Thoughts on Landscape, Restraint, and Attending (ORO, 2016), Pietro Porcinai and the Landscape of Modern Italy (co-editor, Routledge, 2016), John Yeon: Modern Architecture and Conservation in the Pacific Northwest (ORO, 2016), and Landscapes of Modern Architecture: Wright, Mies, Neutra, Aalto, Barrag n (Yale, 2017).