Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface -- Reforming terrain / Marc Treib -- Repton for real : the practical and pictorial / Stephen Daniels -- The art of landmaking / Adriaan Geuze -- The starting ground / Bas Smets -- Scaled down / Jennifer Guthrie -- Unleveling the land, on sand and lava / Karl Kullman -- Ten topographic acts / Marc Treib -- Moving the earth, stirring the soul / David Meyer -- Trash topography : shaping postindustrial land / Elissa Rosenberg -- Topograpy as expressive form / Ana Kucan -- The Washington Monument topographically considered / Kathleen John-Alder -- To act or not to act / Georges Descombes -- Renewal and topophilia : Toronto's port lands / Laura Solano -- Contours with and without lines / Jos� Miguel Lameiras.

"The Shape of the Land: Topography & Landscape Architecture--the first book to center on this subject--presents the contributions of thirteen well-known practitioners and academics who discuss the forms and ramifications of reconfiguring terrain. The essays range in content from pre-industrial precedents in the work of Humphry Repton to new digital topographic modeling systems without the use of contour lines, the treatment of waste products to the land art of the American Southwest. Practicing landscape architects focusing on the modeling of topography in the works considering both utility and aesthetics. In all, the book reviews the history, reasons, and results of at least three centuries of topographic interventions, while suggesting pathways into the future -- as new technology and new necessities increase the functional demands placed upon landscape architects, while at the same time potentially offering new forms of artistic expression."--Publisher's website.