The Power of Landscape
2022
Commissioned by Academy of Architecture Amsterdam. Authors Sven Stremke, Dirk Oudes, Paolo Picchi with contributions by various researchers. Book design by Studio Joost Grootens. Copy editing by Jean Tee. Published by nai010 publishers.
The energy transition is in full swing. Worldwide, windmills and solar panels are taking over from fossil fuels. The construction of these new energy landscapes is often met with resistance. What if this is not about energy technologies, but about the drastic change of our immediate living environment, the places where we live, work and recreate?
The Power of Landscape examines various energy landscapes in Europe and the US in the present, past and future, based on the qualitative and emotional significance of the landscape for residents and users. It thus bridges the gap between the world of renewable energy and the world of spatial designers for the first time. The book is an eye-opener for organizing the new energy challenges in a way that is both sustainable and attractive. The core of the book forms the research into High-Density Energy Landscapes at the Academy of Architecture Amsterdam and Wageningen University by Sven Stremke, Dirk Oudes and Paolo Picchi. A number of experts from the world of energy transition and environmental design contribute and reflect on their research.
Architectural historian Lara Voerman introduces us to a selection of designers that have contributed to the creation of energy landscapes around the world. She illustrates how designers have employed the Power of Landscape over a period of 150 years to cultivate the discourse on the implementation of different energy sources ranging from coal to solar energy. She evidences how design attitudes, or paradigms, have evolved through time, how designers managed to emancipate the notion of energy landscape and, most importantly, moved ‘energy’ form the somewhat exclusive realm of engineering to the arts, humanities and social sciences.