Green living must go beyond simple recycling, says Frederick Steiner, dean of the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture and a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. It must reach higher because our planet faces natural disasters as well as natural-resource depletion—and the disciplines of architecture and landscape design can address both, Steiner says in Design for a Vulnerable Planet. He calls for a more-radical redesign of technology and paradigms for urban planners and architects. He also pushes the definition of ecology to include humans and urban environments, because as the population grows, natural disasters will have broader and more-devastating consequences. As a UT dean, Steiner necessarily first expores the wide array of urbanism in Texas for examples, but then he also brings readers to Italy—where he's a fellow at the American Academy in Rome—and to China, to examine what we can learn from the design and planning of two ancient civilizations. • $45; University of Texas Press, April 2011
