Günther Vogt Book order

Inspired by the architects' tradition of passing on experience in conversation form, this paperback book provides insights into the ideas, methods, and memories of one of Europe's most innovative landscape architects. In twelve concise conversations, Vogt inquires into the meaning of landscape architecture in the context of the worldwide urbanization process, and tries to define this young discipline's position. To this day, our concept of landscape appears to be influenced by an Arcadian ideal. Only when landscapes are understood on several levels, as the product of natural, cultural, and social processes, can atmospheric and living urban landscapes appropriate to the specific situation be created. Günther Vogt sees landscape architecture decidedly as part of a city, given its close relationship to topography, architecture, and infrastructure.

Günther Vogt and his landscape designers bring a lot of passion to their research and to their search for ideas for transforming undesigned sites or tracts of land into landscapes. They don’t want to depend just on knowledge acquired from books. They venture out into the landscape at all times of the day and year and interrogate what they see there. They make room for art and science in their studies and use the same tools to turn their landscape designs into reality. Most of their "field trips" begin out of curiosity based on something they’ve seen, heard, or read. Against this backdrop, they explore, among other things, fortifications in France, the Upper Rhine in Switzerland, and national parks in England. The results of their "field trips," research projects, and practical implementations are collected in this publication. Distance and Engagement takes up where Miniatur und Panorama left off and shows not only what Günther Vogt is working on but also, and above all, how he works.

Günther Vogt legt anhand einer typologischen Struktur (Landschaft, Park, Platz, Garten, Promenade etc.) dar, auf welcher gedanklichen Grundlage die erfolgreichen Projekte von Vogt Landschaftsarchitekten entstehen. In den vergangenen Jahren haben sie viel beachtete internationale Projekte in Europa und den USA realisiert; beispielsweise für die Tate Modern in London, einen neuen Typ des Stadtgartens (mit Herzog & de Meuron), in Zürich haben sie im Hotel Hyatt einen 'Wettergarten' von grosser poetischer Kraft geschaffen (mit Meili, Peter Architekten), in Basel einen tropischen Innengarten für den Novartis Campus (mit Diener & Diener) und zuletzt in München den Aussenraum der Allianz Arena gestaltet (mit Herzog & de Meuron). Vogt Landschaftsarchitekten ging 2000 aus dem Büro Kienast Vogt & Partner hervor. Besonders die erfolgreichen Kooperationen mit dem Künstler Olafur Eliasson und den Architekten Herzog & de Meuron haben zu Internationalen Renommee des Büros beigetragen.