BOOKTALKS| Urban Landscape Lecture Series—Wild and the City. Landscape Architecture for Lush Urbanism

Event Content

“The People vs. The World of Tomorrow” lecture series is extended from a late-night reading session for selected books at Winsing Art Place. Launched by the Winsing Arts Foundation, Hui-Fang Liu, Assistant Professor from the Department of Urban Development at the University of Taipei, invited experts in architecture to submit, share, and talk about their favorite theoretical works in the fields of landscape, cities, architecture, and more. Unlike previous discussions of pure architecture, we look at cities, buildings, and public spaces from a more diverse perspective, discussing concepts such as “urbanism,” “commonality,” “publicness,” and “future cities” in the books. The first session will feature an introduction to Wild and the City. Landscape Architecture for Lush Urbanism by Professor Meng-Tsung Su.

‍Wild and the City. Landscape Architecture for Lush Urbanism is co-edited by Italian scholars Annalisa Metta and Maria Livia Olivetti. Wildness manifests in cities for various reasons—sometimes due to neglect, other times intentionally. We have gradually established a reciprocal relationship with what post-industrial society calls “nature.” Undisturbed ecosystems and wildlife are becoming increasingly common in contemporary European cities. Untamed territories are expanding, housing animals and insects that threaten us, invasive species disrupting native flora, while dense jungles take over parks and the rooftops and facades of the most fashionable buildings. In this context, wilderness can be harnessed by designers to address diverse challenges: regenerating abandoned areas, creating sustainable infrastructure, revitalizing valuable public spaces, improving the ecological footprint of new settlements, proposing new practices and social rituals, responding to climate change, meeting human needs, and satisfying residents’ “longing for nature.”

This book critically examines clues within the current relationship between “wilderness” and “city.” On the one hand, it explores the positive value of wild landscapes in enhancing urban quality through aesthetics, health, and livability. On the other hand, it questions the risks of wilderness as a buzzword that may fuel anti-urban stances or cheap greenwashing policies. It aims to interpret the diverse readings evoked by urban wilderness, which continue to find their distinguishing elements within the unstable relationship between city and nature.