topos

THE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DESIGN.

topos - The International Review of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design - focuses on landscape architecture as well as increasingly on architecture and urban planning. It sees itself as an interdisciplinary think tank aimed at addressing the challenges urban areas will face in future. The professional magazine strives to inspire planning practitioners, urban experts and professionals who shape the cities of tomorrow. Every issue of the periodical, that is published quarterly, is dedicated to a different topic and deals with a broad array of projects and planning work in countries all over the world.

TOPOS 133: Urban Icons

Urban icons shape how cities are seen, remembered, and sold informing skylines, postcards, and collective imagination. They promise identity, orientation, and pride, yet their meanings are rarely innocent. This issue of topos neither celebrates icons as unquestioned achievements nor dismisses them as empty spectacle. Instead, it examines their power. For architects, planners, and urbanists, icons are more than landmarks. They influence investment, tourism, and policy, while often obscuring the social, political, and ecological costs behind their images. Who defines what becomes an icon? What narratives are amplified – and which are erased?
Urban Icons explores the double life of symbolic places, from monumental architecture to subtle landscapes that invite memory, play, or quiet reflection. Through global case studies, the issue reveals how icons inspire, standardise, distract, and endure. It asks not what icons do for cities, but what they reveal about the values, contradictions, and futures of urban society.

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URBAN DESIGN & LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

When it comes to urban planning and urban design it’s all about the cities we live in, the city as a polis, the city as a place to encounter, to work, to move, to recreate. It is about on how we design and shape the physical appearance of urban realms in future. So, how shall we plan and design the built environment in a sustainable way? How do we create green spaces and livable, human centered public spaces? How do we ensure that the city is a place of diversity and equality? What measures do we as planners take to mitigate the effects of climate change in the cities all over the world? And: how do we adapt to climate change and to stressors and risks?

ARCHITECTURE & URBAN PLANNING
Architecture affects society as a whole and has vital impacts on the individual person, too. Architects shape the places we live in. So, what is the role of architecture when it comes to shaping future cities and facing urban challenges? How and in what surroundings do we want to live? What is the social role of architecture? How to ensure a sustainable building process? What kind of material is future-proof and sustainable? What skills do planners need to create sustainable, human-centered architecture? What role does urban green play in the field of architecture? And: What happens with the spaces between the buildings, the spaces we share as urbanites?

URBAN GOVERNANCE & SOCIETY
Who creates the cities of today and tomorrow? It should be the people. When it comes to developing urban areas, it is crucial to include all necessary stakeholders into the planning process, not only the politics. So, how to manage, plan and initiate city development, design and plan urban realms? Urban governance involves a constant process of negotiation and compromising – and it should be established in the most possible transparent way. It is a matter of balancing out legal requirements, financial resources and the expectations and needs of the citizenship. How to design a city for all, a city that includes the marginalized? How to ensure green spaces for all citizens?

MOBILITY / TRANSPORTATION
Cities all over the world need intelligent mobility and transportation concepts to stay livable places to their inhabitants. How to design urban and rural realms that come face to face with a new kind of mobility in an increasingly urbanised, digitalised and exploited world. What are the challenges and trends when it comes to urban mobility and the sustainable and efficient transportation of goods? How to transform cityscapes and landscapes to be open to both, slow and fast traffic?

TECH
By what ideas, methods, projects and research approaches do we address major urban issues such as climate change, air and environmental pollution, digitalisation, migration, urbanisation, resource and energy consumption, land consumption and poverty? What strategies of resilience can be established in urban development, urban design, urban planning, infrastructure planning and landscape architecture? What design solutions are at our disposal to make our cities more resilient and more future-proof? How do we plan and design greener, healthier, human-centered, sustainable and resilient urban spaces and architecture?

TOPOS 132: AI Pionieers

Artificial intelligence already shapes the systems that run our cities, from designing buildings to steering traffic and powering civic chatbots. It responds instantly, even when its answers are flawed or speculative. This issue of topos takes AI seriously rather than celebrating or rejecting it. For planners, architects and urbanists, AI quietly influences infrastructures, simulations and decisions, raising questions about embedded values, assumptions and legibility. AI Pioneers examines the promises and risks of a technology that optimises efficiency and often reproduces the past. It asks what it means when urbanism itself becomes a function of AI.
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TOPOS 131: 15-minute city

The concept of the 15-minute city is causing a stir in urban planning worldwide. It promises liveable, walkable neighbourhoods in which everything important - from schools and healthcare to workplaces - can be reached within 15 minutes. Paris, Barcelona and Melbourne have already adopted this model. But can it really improve everyday life, reduce emissions and strengthen the sense of community? In view of the World Bank's forecast that almost 70 per cent of humanity will live in cities by 2050, the question arises: is the 15-minute city more than just an ideal?

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TOPOS 130: flood

topos 130 is dedicated to the topic of FLOOD. Water gives us a lot, but it also takes a lot from us. Violently or insidiously. Floods, high water, inundations - these are terrible natural disasters that are occurring more and more frequently. Climate change is reflected in them. Cities like Valencia are experiencing nightmares, while in India and Ghana rainwater management is becoming a problem. What is the situation in New Orleans and what is Copenhagen doing? In a series of images from the organisation climate central, we show what cities like Washington will look like in 100 years if the temperature rises by three degrees. Read more...