This book presents Michel Corajoud (1937–2014) as the master of urban landscape practice in France in the eighties, nineties and early aughts. During this period he produced his most important and influential projects in France and became one of the most significant landscape architects of his generation. Corajoud thought and practiced in an interdisciplinary way, relying on insights from history, human behavior, philosophy, and natural science. As a teacher and practitioner, he helped to redefine French landscape architecture as a creative discipline separate from horticulture.
His thinking allowed a new generation of landscape architects in Europe to see landscape as an intimate part of urbanism rather than merely a pastoral idyll. He is notable for his ability to integrate historical analysis, sensitivity to user needs, and the philosophical insights of Michel Serres.
As a leader of Atelier Corajoud with his wife Claire, he designed important urban projects in Paris, Lyon, and Bordeaux. All of these established new standards for urban and peri-urban redevelopment in the wake of the industrial dislocation of the late twentieth century in French cities.