Case Studies in Architecture and Landscape: Expanding the Legacy of Peter Blundell Jones

The architect, historian and critic Peter Blundell Jones (1949–2016) considered architecture as an expansive field within the arts and humanities and social sciences that included landscape and urban studies. His focus within this built environment was firmly on people and place, which to him meant developing a comprehension of the broad human, material and social engagements with specific localities. His favourite way to explore this human and environmental focus was through case studies of individual places, leading to a modus operandi to tackle the study of any place in a generous, rigorous and comprehensive manner that used the skills of related professions, of the sciences as well as of psychology and anthropology. Being able to adopt such interdisciplinarity determined the real value of his output, which was further enriched through the thick interpretation of placemaking in non-Western cultures. This book, celebrating the East-West Studies in Architecture and Landscape at the University of Sheffield co-founded by Peter Blundell Jones in 1995, presents 16 distinctive case studies in order to underline the relevance of his case study methodology and global legacy. It is intended to have relevance for a range of disciplines including the design ones of architecture, landscape and urban design and planning, as well as anthropology, history, geography and cultural studies.

Table of Contents:
Introduction SECTION I: Buildings and Modernities 1. Re-Visioning Saltaire: Narrating Place Through Design 2. Space Group of Korea Building in Seoul and Modern Architecture in Korea 3. Architecture as Mnemonic: The Central Post Office, Kaunas, Lithuania 4.The Liminality of Maggie’s, Oxford: A Place for the Spaces in Between SECTION II: Urban Landscapes 5. Designers’ Narratives and Misplaced Confidence: Sheffield’s 1939 Draft (Central) Planning Scheme 6. Gaborone’s Pedestrian Core: The Evolution of the Main Mall in Botswana 7. The Social Properties of Architecture: A Historic Street Regeneration Project in Liulin County, China 8. Roots of Resilience: Cultural Values of the Vernon Oak SECTION III: Indigenous Places 9. Place in Australia: Aboriginal Spiritual Landscapes 10. Dorze Houses in Ethiopia 11. Roman Epiphany: A Case Study of Ritual and Public Space 12. The Social Construction of Auspiciousness and Sanctification in the Thai Domestic Domain SECTION IV: Reimagining Places Otherwise 13. Climate Places: Floating University Berlin 14.A Line in the Sand: Neom’s Mediatic Placemaking 15. Sustaining the Sense Of Place: Challenges in Long-Term Management 16. Life at Padley Mill, Grindleford, UK: An ‘Ethno-Case Study’ Conclusions

About the Author :
Jan Woudstra is a landscape architect and historian who initially worked in private practice while teaching part-time at the Architectural Association in London. He has a PhD from the University of London entitled ‘Landscape for living: Garden theory and design of the Modern movement’. He joined the University of Sheffield as a full-time academic in 1995, where he collaborated with Peter Blundell Jones, writing a series of case studies on ‘Some Modernist houses and their gardens’, and co-founded the Centre for East-West Studies in Architecture and Landscape. He has published widely, with recent titles including The Politics of Street Trees (Routledge, 2022), edited with Camilla Allen, and Teaching Landscape History (Routledge, 2024), edited with David Jacques. He is currently working on a monograph on Robert Marnock, the ‘most successful landscape gardener’ of the nineteenth century. Xiang Ren teaches and researches architectural history, theory and design at the University of Sheffield from 2018. Prior to that, he completed his MA and PhD under Peter Blundell Jones after years in design practice. He has regularly published case studies on place and heritage through vernacular, modernist and contemporary architecture of Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Nepal and the United Kingdom. He co-founded the architectural practice Studio Cloud with Jing Qiao in 2016, initiated the Peter Blundell Jones Library in 2021, and was the principal investigator of Endangered Wooden Architecture Programme Large Grant ‘Decoding Dong’ from 2023 to 2025.

Review :
'Case studies are surely useful, but they are not lessons that should be copied. Each is unique. However, important lessons can be learned, especially if a case includes failure. They can provide important guidance on the questions which must be asked but designers should hesitate when considering the responses embedded in the designs of the case studies. Accurate? Yes. Truthful? Possibly. Useful? Perhaps. Worthwhile? Yes. Are case studies essential to broaden education and experience? YES!’ Carl Steinitz, Professor Emeritus, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University 'This compelling collection of case studies brings the spatial narrative to the forefront, echoing the experiential richness of the promenade architecturale. A vital resource for anyone seeking to understand how architecture and landscape have an active role in choreographing place, perception, and memory.' Flora Samuel, The Professor of Architecture and Head of Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge 'This volume of case studies is a welcome and timely contribution to our understanding of how we shape our environments, and they shape us. Its embrace of a range of geographies, including non-Western cultures, contributes important insights in a world of climate crisis and global change. Its critical lens, particularly on reimagining places, emphasises the value of in-depth and rigorous case studies to examine human-environment interactions and the implications of how places are created and cared for, as we face an uncertain future.' Catharine Ward Thompson, Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Edinburgh