Guardians of Water - by Thierry Kandjee (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This anthology approaches water not as a resource to be managed but as a vital condition shaping territories and cultures. Emerging from the paradox of water's disappearance from everyday awareness even as floods and droughts intensify, the book repositions water as a spatial agent.

Rather than advancing technical fixes, it asks a fundamental question: What does it mean for designers to become "Guardians of Water"? Landscape architecture is reframed as an ethical and political practice grounded in reciprocity and long-term stewardship.

Structured in three chapters, "Fluid Soils", "Cloud Forests", and "Rituals of Care", the book presents landscapes as active hydrological and social systems. It challenges extractive logics and technocratic paradigms, demonstrating how landscape architecture can foster regeneration and collective engagement.

• Forewords by Tim Waterman (Bartlett, UCL) and Devayani Deshmukh Upasani (Indian Society of Landscape Architects)
• A decolonial approach to landscape design, addressing fragile landscapes
• 26 tales ranging across Europe, Africa and Asia

About the Author

Editor Dr. Thierry Kandjee is a landscape architect and the co-founder of Taktyk Landscape +. From 2018 to 2022, he held chair for landscape design at the faculty of architecture La Cambre Horta in Brussels. Among the contributors are Tim Waterman, Professor of Landscape Theory and Acting Director of Architecture History and Theory at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, London; Devayani Deshmukh Upasani, Landscape architect, Honorary Secretary of Indian Society of
Landscape Architect, Simon Auperpin, architect, painter, partner of taktyk landscape +, Belgium; Lucine Letassey, photographer and video artist, Belgium; Divya Shah, academic and landscape researcher, India; Kakoli Sen, visual artist, India; Jolin Ordelman, anthropologist, The Netherlands.