Celebrated landscape architect Gilles Clement may be best known for his public parks in Paris, including the Parc Andre Citroen and the garden of the Musee du Quai Branly, but he describes himself as a gardener. To care for and cultivate a plot of land, a capable gardener must observe in order to act and work with, rather than against, the natural ecosystem of the garden. In this sense, he suggests, we should think of the entire planet as a garden, and ourselves as its keepers, responsible for the care of its complexity and diversity of life. "The Planetary Garden" is an environmental manifesto that outlines Clement's interpretation of the laws that govern the natural world and the principles that should guide our stewardship of the global garden of Earth. These are among the tenets of a humanist ecology, which posits that the natural world and humankind cannot be understood as separate from one another. This philosophy forms a thread that is woven through the accompanying essays of this volume: "Life, Constantly Inventive: Reflections of a Humanist Ecologist" and "The Wisdom of the Gardener." Brought together and translated into English for the first time, these three texts make a powerful statement about the nature of the world and humanity's place within it.

Michel Desvigne est certainement la (TM)architecte paysagiste franAais le plus marquant sur la scA]ne internationale. Il collabore avec des architectes tels que Richard Rogers, Norman Forster, Renzo Piano, Ieoh Ming Pei, Herzog et de Meuron ou encore Jean Nouvel, et ses projets dotA(c)s da (TM)une forte composante conceptuelle sont intimement liA(c)s A la notion de gA(c)ographie. La notion de circulation joue A(c)galement un grand rAle dans son travail, soulignant la (TM)importance stratA(c)gique de la (TM)architecture du paysage dans le domaine de la (TM)urbanisme. Cette monographie thA(c)matique analyse les A(c)lA(c)ments clA(c)s du travail de Desvigne A travers diffA(c)rents chapitres consacrA(c)s au processus de transformation, A la gA(c)ographie, au territoire, aux structures urbaines et aux places publiques. Ces notions sont toujours clairement illustrA(c)es par une sA(c)lection de projets, notamment le Walker Art Center A Minneapolis, le Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, le jardin du ministA]re de la Culture A Paris et le jardin japonais de la Keio University A Tokyo.

Gilles Tiberghien est philosophe. Ses ouvrages consacrA(c)s au Land Art font autoritA(c).

James Corner enseigne la (TM)architecture du paysage A la Pennsylvania University de Philadelphie.