The Urban Surface - public, glorious, urgent"Programming the Urban Surface" is the title of an article Alex Wall contributed to Recovering Landscape, edited by James Corner and published in 1999. In the early days of landscape urbanism, the article looked at the emergence of projects, nascent theories and the potential significance of an "extensive" design of the urban landscape. Since its publication, the twin forces of urbanization and climate change bring a far more urgent focus on the performance of public space and the public realm. The lecture will consider the design of the urban surface with respect to the city as a context "as found," to questions of density, social equity, and as Philippe Rahm has put it, "public space becomes the place where the quality of air is defined. LANDSCAPR URBANISM LECTURE SERIES: ALEX WALL, THE URBAN SURFACE - PUBLIC, GLORIOUS, URGENT
The Urban Surface - public, glorious, urgent"Programming the Urban Surface" is the title of an article Alex Wall contributed to Recovering Landscape, edited by James Corner and published in 1999. In the early days of landscape urbanism, the article looked at the emergence of projects, nascent theories and the potential significance of an "extensive" design of the urban landscape. Since its publication, the twin forces of urbanization and climate change bring a far more urgent focus on the performance of public space and the public realm. The lecture will consider the design of the urban surface with respect to the city as a context "as found," to questions of density, social equity, and as Philippe Rahm has put it, "public space becomes the place where the quality of air is defined. 
