Author Archives: José Juan Terrasa-Soler, ASLA

Designing Nature as Infrastructure – Symposium

La Parguera Analysis Designing Nature as Infrastructure – Symposium – Technische Universitat Munchen, Munich, Germany Here’s the Symposium poster and program.  We will present on a Green Infrastructure Plan for La Parguera, Puerto Rico. Poster Program, Abstracts, Authors

La Mancha, remembered…

La Mancha is an impossible landscape to understand easily; it is quite difficult to know it deeply…  But an amazing landscape it is…. One full of history and meaning to us Spanish-speakers…. The Tajo River is the lifeblood of the Upper La Mancha…  A river of contradictions, silent witness of life and death…. Life-giver andContinue reading “La Mancha, remembered…”

Freedom Fire

It was instantaneous like a hot fire raging through the forest it took everything on its path destroyed demolished eliminated with a sweetness and tenderness unseen before it was wild and free it was animal it was instinctual without thinking like magnets attracting accelerating to each other until contact made the explosion obvious and plainlyContinue reading “Freedom Fire”

The Mindful Designer

The Buddhist tradition is essentially about the discipline of the mind to attain Enlightenment or transcendental wisdom, but its techniques and outlook can (and should, for the Buddhist) be applied to any task at hand, including design.  The application of Buddhist thought as a non-religious, philosophical outlook to engage daily life, from psychology to literature,Continue reading “The Mindful Designer”

The Peeling of the Papaya: Buddhist Meditation on Connectedness

INTRODUCTION One of the most important skills of the landscape architect is to realize connections in the landscape.  “Realize” is meant both in the sense of understanding and in the sense of achieving or building.  Realizing connections might be, in fact, the essence of what a landscape architect does, given our current understanding of “landscape”Continue reading “The Peeling of the Papaya: Buddhist Meditation on Connectedness”

Founders of a pioneer academic program

Four alumni of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) are founding faculty members of the first landscape architecture program in the Caribbean. Olga Angueira, M.L.A. ‘04, José Lorenzo, M.A.U.D. ‘05, Edmundo (Mundy) Colón, M.L.A. ‘06, and José Juan Terrasa-Soler, M.L.A. ’07, teach at the new School of Landscape Architecture of the Polytechnic University ofContinue reading “Founders of a pioneer academic program”

PUT o K-PUT: El tiro de gracia o la resurrección de un muerto

Ha surgido nuevamente discusión pública en torno al Plan de Usos de Terrenos de Puerto Rico (PUT), que lleva años gestándose por parte de la Junta de Planificación de Puerto Rico (JP).  El PUT intentaría darle a Puerto Rico entero una base para la planificación del país, que hasta el momento ha tenido planes queContinue reading “PUT o K-PUT: El tiro de gracia o la resurrección de un muerto”

¿Qué es arquitectura paisajista?

Empecemos por lo que la arquitectura paisajista no puede ser hoy. La arquitectura paisajista no puede ser escultura porque la escultura es siempre una imposición sobre el paisaje. La arquitectura paisajista contemporánea tampoco puede ser la continental europea del siglo XVIII, al modo de André Le Nôtre, porque ésa es al fin y al caboContinue reading “¿Qué es arquitectura paisajista?”