ORO Editions

Fewer than half the talks at the symposium originated as complete texts, which made producing chapters from the presentations a considerable challenge. For those talks without texts, the videos of the presentations were transcribed and substantially rewritten. For others, the original texts were heavily reworked, augmented by missing information and transitions, and in some cases even introducing issues I felt necessary to render the essay more focused or comprehensive. The speakers/authors then reviewed the suggested revisions of their talks, commenting and correcting as needed. The final form of the chapters represents a version mutually agreed upon as final. The book’s fourteen commentaries reflect particular and personal points of view as well as the broader factors, constraints, and ideas that bear on their authors’ own work. As no attempt was made to impose any standard template on all the texts, considerable variety is evident in the approaches and structures of the essays. Despite the differences in discourse and terminology, each of the authors has positioned an aesthetic regard for topographic design within a greater social and environmental context. I would offer that most of the projects, despite their focus on ground form, are ecologically based and socially aware—and beautiful, if in varying ways. All began with topography, a consideration of the ground itself, the shape of the land.

Marc Treib Berkeley, December 2021