Edited by Frederick Steiner et al. (USA)Translated by the Peking University–Lincoln Institute Center for Urban Development and Land PolicyRevised by He Canfei, Xu ChangxinPublished by The Commercial Press, August 2024

This volume compiles research outputs from leading practitioners and scholars in landscape architecture and planning over the past two decades. It interprets spaces and territories around us from an ecological perspective, explores the vital relationship between cities and nature, and examines how ecological design and landscape planning can play a pivotal role in improving cities of all sizes, varying levels of affluence and poverty. Contributors include both trailblazing veterans and rising new leaders in landscape architecture and planning. Through a series of forward-looking, innovative essays, they put forth fresh perspectives on understanding human living conditions, planetary health, vitality and sustainability. Aligned with China’s national agenda of ecological civilisation construction and green development, this book boasts both academic and social value.

Today, more than half of the global population resides in cities, a proportion that will keep rising over the next century. The environmental, socio-economic challenges brought by urban futures have become defining issues of our era. Centering on the interplay between cities and nature, this book investigates how ecological design and landscape planning can ameliorate this relationship.

Frederick R. SteinerDean of the School of Design and Paley Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He served as Dean and Harry L. Ford Professor of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin from 2001 to 2016. Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and the American Academy in Rome. Author of Design for a Vulnerable Planet (2011), Living Landscape (2008), Human Ecology (2002, revised 2016) and other works. Former Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, and Fulbright-Hays Research Scholar at Wageningen University, the Netherlands.

George F. ThompsonProfessional editor and publisher since 1984. His publications have garnered over one hundred awards, including lifetime achievement honours from the Association of American Geographers, Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, Photo District News, and Vernacular Architecture Forum. He has edited seven volumes including Chicago Portfolio, Ecological Design and Planning, and American Landscapes.

Armando CarbonellDirector of the Urban Planning Program at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy since 1999. Founding Executive Director of the Cape Cod Commission. Teaches urban planning at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania, and has edited numerous volumes on urban and regional planning as well as climate adaptation planning.

The original English edition Nature and Cities: the Ecological Imperative in Urban Design and Planning was published by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in 2016. Authorised by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the Peking University–Lincoln Institute Center for Urban Development and Land Policy (PKU-Lincoln Center) undertook the full translation and publication of this Chinese version. The translation is based on the hardcover edition co-published by the School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin and George F. Thompson Publishing. The translation team was organised by Liu Zhi and He Canfei of the PKU-Lincoln Center, bringing together researchers, master’s and doctoral students from the Center across relevant disciplines for collective drafting.

Foreword & Preface: Ma Jiahui, Xia XinmingChapter 1: Qi Fang, Ma JiahuiChapter 2: Ma Jiahui, Qi FangChapter 3: Liu Yan, Wu YouranChapter 4: Hu Xuqian, Zhao XiyuChapter 5: Zhao Xiyu, Hu XuqianChapter 6: Wang Zeyu, Chen TaoChapter 7: Wang Mengran, Liu WeiChapter 8: Tan Cuiping, Wu YouranChapter 9: Chen Tao, Wang ZeyuChapter 10: Wu Youran, Liu YanChapter 11: Tan Zhuoli, Yang JiayiChapter 12: Xia Xinming, Zhao XiyuChapter 13: Liu Wei, Wang MengranChapter 14: Li Jia, Zeng XinmanChapter 15: Yang Jiayi, Tan ZhuoliChapter 16: Zeng Xinman, Li JiaAfterword: Tan Cuiping

Introduction to Editors, Contributors, endnotes, footnotes, dedication page: Xu ChangxinImage captions: Wu Youran

He Canfei took charge of naming the Chinese edition and full manuscript proofreading. Xu Changxin revised and proofread the first draft of each chapter’s translation. Yu Kongjian reviewed the manuscript of Chapter 5. Liu Junyang consolidated the full manuscript. Wu Youran sorted out terminology and wording. Zhao Min conducted final cross-checking, revision and supplementation. Constrained by the translators’ limited knowledge and experience, imperfections in the translation are inevitable; feedback and corrections from industry peers are sincerely welcomed.

ForewordPreface: Contemporary Landscapes and Future ChallengesChapter 1 Ecological Imagination: Life in Cities and Public SpaceChapter 2 A City Is Not an Egg: Shifting Conceptions of Nature and Western UrbanisationChapter 3 Granite Park: The Ground We Stand OnChapter 4 Landscape Architects: Urban Planners for Our TimeChapter 5 Deep Forms of Urban Nature: Learning from FarmersChapter 6 Sustaining Beauty: On the Performance Utility of AppearanceChapter 7 Creative Adaptation: Urban Design That Follows Nature’s WayChapter 8 Resilience and Regeneration: Pathways to a New UrbanismChapter 9 The Role of Utopian Thinking in Ecological Planning and DesignChapter 10 WPA 2.0: Beauty, Economics, Politics and Building New Public InfrastructureChapter 11 New Directions for Urban Nature: The Power and Vision of Biophilic Cities and Blue UrbanismChapter 12 Cultivating Estuaries: A Participatory Framework for Ecological and Economic TransformationChapter 13 Resilience Beyond Rhetoric: Practice in Urban Landscape Planning and DesignChapter 14 Precautionary Ecology in Design and PlanningChapter 15 Shaping with Flow: Transformative Systems, Design and Aesthetic ExperienceChapter 16 Water, Urban Nature and the Art of Landscape DesignAfterword: Prospects for Ecological Urban Design and Planning