Drawing the Ground – Landscape Urbanism Today

Urbanized landscapes: no longer seeing landscape and city as antithetical

Founded in 1990, Palmbout Urban Landscapes is now one of the leading urban planning offices in the Netherlands. It exemplifies current practices of urban planning in that country. Its approach is characterized by a constant search for a new relationship between urban planning, architecture, and landscape architecture. In this process of experimentation, Palmbout Urban Landscapes has established a profile not only in the field of the relationship between urban planning and architecture but above all in terms of mutual interactions between urban planning, the analysis and design of landscape, and infrastructure. The book documents some fifteen projects organized into six thematic blocks, including such extensive projects as Amsterdam Ijburg, a design for an urban extension to Amsterdam with a total area of 450 hectares, 18,000 residences, 100,000 square meters of office space, 30,000 square meters of stores, and other facilities, and Maastricht Belvedere, a restructuring of 280 hectares of a former industrial site with 4,000 residences, 100,000 square meters of office space, parking lots, and a vehicle bridge.

• With an essay by Aaron Betsky
• With 280 illustrations showing specific works by the firm

Frits Palmboom is an architect and urban planner who has headed his own firm since 1990. He teaches at various universities (e.g., in Delft, Amsterdam, Louvain, Ghent, and Barcelona) and is the author of various publications.

Frits Palmboom ist Architekt und Städteplaner mit eigenem Büro seit 1990. Er lehrt an verschiedenen Universitäten (u.a. Delft, Amsterdam, Leuven, Gent und Barcelona) und Autor verschiedener Publikationen.