Author: Alan Berger (Princeton Architectural Press, 2006)
Waste. We are all familiar with it. We deal with it daily when we throw away of the vast quantities of disposable objects our society creates – from plastic bags to paper cups. 
Our negative attitudes towards waste – as well as its pervasiveness – make meaningful discussions about the subject exceedingly rare.
Even rarer, are those who engage issues of waste beyond garbage and trash to the scale at which it relates to urban design and cities. But it is exactly what landscape architect Alan Berger attempts to consider in Drosscape: Wasting Land in Urban America. As explicitly stated in the books title, Berger turns his attention to the nature – and potential – of wasted land in American cities.
Filled with an abundance of beautiful and evocative urban landscape photographs, Drosscape is roughly divided into three overarching sections. The first describes the complex social, technological, and economic factors that have led to the creation of vast tracts of wasted land in our urban centers. Drawing on a diversity of theoretical texts, this section lays the foundation for the rest of the book – describing waste in its many forms (from sewage to retail malls), the politics of sprawl and the many patterns that encourage what has become status quo development.
This is followed by a quantitative look at the effects of the processes described earlier, given in the form of interesting individual analyses of ten major urban regions across the United States – Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. Graphic heavy, each analysis attempts to visually layer stunning landscape photos with US Census data and colour-coded maps in order to given readers a comprehensive understanding of waste landscapes and their distribution.
This is cleverly followed by the classification and articulation of waste landscapes by type – more specifically, waste landscapes of: dwelling, transition, infrastructure, obsolescence, exchange, and contamination. Each of which is supplemented by more mesmerizing aerial photography.
The final section of the book outlines the Drosscape Manifesto which introduces the concept of drosscape – defined as “the creation of a new condition in which vast, wasted, or wasteful land surfaces are modeled in accordance with new programs or new sets of values that remove or replace real or perceived wasteful aspects of geographical space.”
Furthermore, it proposes eight strategies for designing with drosscapes that are intended to redefine the role of designers in light of our current urbanization based on waste landscapes as well as to shift attention to properly developing these types of derelict spaces, given our growing constraint on natural and other resources.
Although this book does lean towards the academic, the reading is quite clear and easy to follow. For those interested in urban photography, the multitude of beautifully haunting images of these waste landscapes make it worthwhile.
However, although there is a lot of thought and meaningful data within Drosscape, its content suffers considerably by an emphasis on graphic aesthetics instead of information graphics. Thus, although visually powerful, the graphs and charts within the first section are data thin and act as aesthetic accents instead of contributing meaningfully to the author’s argument.
This becomes even more troublesome through the analyses of urban areas. Although one must respect the graphic experimentation, the maps, charts and graphics within this section are overly complex and very difficult to untangle. Here again, essential information is lost in favour of beautiful graphic compositions that layer photographs, text, and graphic elements. Referring to the smaller, “de-layered” versions of this information – located in the appendices – while reading this important chapter serves the reader better than trying to decipher those included within the analyses themselves. Doing the latter also allows for an interesting and easy comparisons between the cities.
Looking more specifically at the content, in spite of the author’s noble intentions, certain design strategies principles outlined within the Manifesto may come across as overly optimistic, general, or naive. This, of course, is a risk when making any public declaration of the sort – and perhaps this was the intention – but nonetheless, Berger’s argument would have been better served by more targeted ways to address these waste landscapes and/or further explaining his strategies.
Yet, despite its shortcomings, Drosscape is a very important book – especially given the uncommon and increasingly relevant nature of the subject discussed. It is must-read for anybody seeking to understand the nature of residual space within the contemporary urban landscape and the processes that lead to their creation. After all, only through understanding can we attempt to develop relevant solutions.
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Erick Villagomez is one of the founding editors at Spacing Vancouver. He is also an educator, independent researcher and designer with personal and professional interests in the urban landscapes. His private practice – Metis Design|Build – is an innovative practice dedicated to a collaborative and ecologically responsible approach to the design and construction of places.
