The Independent Group

05/22/2020

Coming soon: PLOT 9: Top Down / Bottom Up. A Do-is-dos binding will conjoin explorations of these two opposing approaches.

Top-down and bottom-up are terms used in a variety of fields to describe strategies of knowledge ordering and information processing. These terms have shifted from conceptual use in scientific and humanistic theories into real strategies describing the application and practice of design, thinking, teaching, and leadership. Grassroots organizing or authoritarianism? Break down the system into its parts, or build up its complexity from small base elements or “seeds”? Revolution or reform? Refined polish or scruffy vernacular? Landscape architects traffic in both seeds and systems, but how do these two opposite approaches inform a better understanding of the messy ecologies in our “household of nature”? Top-down or bottom-up? At the end of the day, which strategy is most likely to succeed? And, as Mierle Laderman Ukeles reminds us, “After the revolution, who’s going to pick up the garbage?”

Cover by Virginia Hanusik

05/08/2020

We just launched a refresh of the website. Check out their brilliant work!

05/08/2020

We just launched a refresh of the website. Check out their brilliant work!

02/12/2020

Poster for the Everyday Ecologies symposium at March 13th at City College Spitzer School of Architecture

12/19/2019

is an account of the Senate investigation into the CIA’s post-9/11 Detention and Interrogation Program. If you enjoyed the film and want to learn more, may we suggest: Spaces of Disappearance.
--
Spaces of Disappearance reconstructs the network of black site prisons developed in the early years of the so-called War on Terror. Jordan H. Carver compiles an original archive of architectural representations, redacted documents, and media reports to build a knowingly incomplete spatial history of post-9/11 extraordinary rendition. This book skillfully presents the territorial and political logics of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program. Spaces of Disappearance shows how architecture was used to deny prisoners their human subjectivity and describes how the spectacle of government bureaucracy is used as a substitute for accountability.
--
Design by
Published by
Order at urpub.org
--

06/10/2019

Typographic design for the 2019 MICA Graphic Design Graduating Student Awards. This award is given to a student who served in a formal or informal leadership capacity to serve department activities.

05/28/2019

Recently completed, in full-on fluorescent green glory: Green Readiness, Response, and Recovery: A Collaborative Synthesis, a report for the US Department of Agriculture / US Forest Service.
A collection of case studies, interviews, and personal reflections inspired by a national workshop, GRRR includes lessons learned from a diverse group of practitioners and researchers about the ways in which environmental stewardship has served as a catalyst for revitalizing communities. Its focus is on practical solutions from various sectors on how to best prepare for, respond to, and recover from disturbances. The book contains a wide range of examples, including social and environmental disturbances and disasters, urban and rural geographies, and various modes of action, from small nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to government agencies. This volume is a shared endeavor by the USDA Forest Service and the TKF Foundation as they work to understand, cultivate, and celebrate the persistence of community, nature, and the human spirit. 358 pages.
Edited by Lindsay K. Campbell, Erika Svendsen, Nancy Falxa Sonti, Sarah J. Hines, David Maddox
Design by
Principal type: Atlas Grotesk by
Limited copies will be available for free on the US Forest Service Northern Research Station website shortly.
# green @ New York, New York

04/02/2019

Poster for Andrew Dall'olmo’s 2018 exhibition, “I can't tell if there's something going on, or if it just looks like something's going on” in Pasedena. It features his brilliant light installation, “How a Room for One Color Became Orange and Brown.” We first collaborated with Andrew on his 2015 exhibition “Polyvitalism,” held in Detroit.



@ New York, New York

04/01/2019

PLOT in progress. Launching w new website May 2019.

03/21/2019

2100: A Dystopian Utopia, designed by The Independent Group, got a mention in USA Today.

Experts say some areas will experience more violent and wetter storms as climate change makes global weather more variable and extreme.

03/20/2019

Last week Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled his plans to protect lower Manhattan from climate change in .
“Unless you’re going to surround Manhattan with a wall, the water is going to get in somewhere,” she said, asking why a more holistic, citywide solution was not being considered.�—Denise Hoffman via Slate.com “Manhattan Transfer”�.
Waterproofing New York suggests a more nuanced understanding of urban nature while challenging landscape architects, engineers, and policy makers to move beyond short-term pragmatic responses to extreme storms to engage a broader definition of everyday infrastructure.
WATERPROOFING NEW YORK�Editors: Denise Hoffman Brandt and Catherine Seavitt Nordenson �.
Contributors: Lance Jay Brown ; Nette Compton ; Deborah Gans ; Jeffrey Hou; Lydia Kallipoliti; Signe Nielsen ; Kate Orff ; Sandra Richter ; Frank Ruchala Jr. ; Thaddeus Pawlowski ; Janette Sadik-Khan ; Hilary Sample ; Judd Schechtman ; Gullivar Shepard .inc; Michael Sorkin ; Byron Stigge; Erika Svendsen, Lindsay Campbell, Nancy F. Sonti and Gillian Baine .s.forestservice; Georgeen Theodore
Available urpub.org
@ Lower Manhattan