Tim Waterman

Academic Interests

Recent Commons Activity

About

Tim Waterman is Professor of Landscape Theory and Inter-Programme Collaboration Director at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. His research addresses imaginaries: moral, political, social, ecological, radical, and utopian. This forms the basis for explorations of power and democracy and their shaping of public space and public life; taste, manners, customs, belief and ritual; and foodways in community and civic life and landscape. He is Chair of the Landscape Research Group (LRG), a Non-Executive Director of the digital arts collective Furtherfield, and an advisor to the Centre for Landscape Democracy of the Landscape and Spatial Planning Institute at NMBU in Norway. He is the author of The Landscape of Utopia: Writings on Everyday Life, Taste, Democracy, and Design and editor of Landscape Citizenships with Ed Wall and Jane Wolff, Landscape and Agency: Critical Essays with Ed Wall, and the Routledge Handbook of Landscape and Food with Joshua Zeunert. His writing has appeared in a variety of journals including the Journal of Architecture, Garden Design Journal, Utopian Studies, and Landscape Architecture Magazine. His brother is the experimental musician, writer, and producer Alex Waterman.

Education

2018-20 PhD in Architecture by Published Work

University of Westminster, London, UK.

Title: Taste, Democracy, and Everyday Life in Landscape Architecture.

Supervisors: Dr. Douglas Spencer, Dr Davide Deriu, Dr. Krystallia Kamvasinou.

2004 Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Providence, Rhode Island, USA.

Bachelor of Fine Art, Master of Landscape Architecture

Thesis: Vest Pocket Utopias: The City and the Theatre of Dreams

Supervisors: Prof. Derek Bradford, Prof. Elizabeth Grossman, Prof. Brian Goldberg

1999-2001 University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho

Major in Landscape Architecture

1991-1993 Mt Hood Community College, Gresham, Oregon

Major in English, minor in history

Mastodon Feed

To be fair to Mbembe, I think he is using the term quite independently of its architectural meaning, but its use does inevitably and erroneously pull a mid-century architectural style into use as a visual metaphor for destructive geopolitics. (2026-02-07 ↗)

I think Mbembe's book 'Necropolitics' is superb, but his 'Brutalism' misinterprets a style from architecture which he reads as heavy and destructive, but which is meant to be dry ('brut') and honest about structure and form. https://dukeupress.edu/brutalism (2026-02-07 ↗)

I often complain that architects appropriate terms and concepts from other fields and misuse and misunderstand them. Now the term 'brutalism' which is very specific to a particular architectural style is being misused and misunderstood outside architecture. Irony! https://journals.upress.ufl.edu/jgps/cfp (2026-02-07 ↗)

"Installing Microsoft security on my computer will increase our dependence upon a bad platform & open me & other staff to both surveillance and censorship. This is a plea to ask you to consider alternatives, especially open source alternatives that we can have greater control of as an institution." (2026-02-06 ↗)

"It is an immediate problem that using Microsoft products means that the whole institution is no longer GDPR compliant, but that there are tangible threats both to democracy and to academic freedom." (2026-02-06 ↗)

Blog Posts

Publications

Books:

Waterman, Tim (2022) The Landscape of Utopia: Writings on Taste, Everyday Life, Design, and Democracy. London and New York: Routledge.

Waterman, Tim, Ed Wall, and Jane Wolff, Eds. (2021) Landscape Citizenships. London and New York: Routledge.

Zeunert, Joshua and Tim Waterman, Eds. (2018) The Routledge Handbook of Landscape and Food. London and New York: Routledge.

Wall, Ed and Tim Waterman, Eds. (2017) Landscape and Agency: Critical Essays. London and New York: Routledge.

Waterman, Tim (2015) Fundamentals of Landscape Architecture, Second Edition. London and New York: Bloomsbury

Waterman, Tim and Ed Wall (2010) Basics Landscape Architecture: Urban Design, Lausanne: AVA Publishing. This has now been translated into French, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Spanish.

Waterman, Tim (2009) Fundamentals of Landscape Architecture, Lausanne: AVA Publishing. This has now been translated into French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, Korean, Chinese, and Farsi.

Articles, Essays, Book Chapters:

Waterman, Tim (forthcoming 2020) ‘Time Portals, Love Machines, Land Oracles: Hybrid Geography and the Situated Digital in the Art Practices of Furtherfield’ in Ed Wall, ed. ’The Landscapists’ AD. New York: Wiley.

Waterman, Tim (2018) ‘Living in Your Landscape’ (Talking Point Column), Garden Design Journal, September 2018.

Waterman, Tim (2018) ‘Two London Squares and a Theory of the Beige Hole’ Landscape Architecture Magazine, July 2018

Waterman, Tim (2018) ‘National Progress’ Bartlett School of Architecture Unit 11 Book

Waterman, Tim (2018) ’Democracy and Trespass: Political Dimensions of Landscape Access’ in Egoz, Shelley, Deni Ruggeri and Karsten Jørgensen, Eds. Defining Landscape Democracy: Perspectives on Spatial Justice. London: Edward Elgar

Waterman, Tim (2018) ’Thailand, Highland, and Secret Island: Landscape and Power in Bond Films’ in Strong, Jeremy, Ed. Bond Uncovered. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Waterman, Tim and Joshua Zeunert (2018) ’Introduction’ in Zeunert, Joshua, and Tim Waterman, Eds. Routledge Handbook of Landscape and Food. London and New York: Routledge

Waterman, Tim (2018) ’Taste, Foodways, and Everyday Life’ in Zeunert, Joshua, and Tim Waterman, Eds. Routledge Handbook of Landscape and Food. London and New York: Routledge

Waterman, Tim (2018) ’Introduction: Landscape Architecture and Utopian Pedagogy’ in Jørgensen, Karsten, Richard Stiles, Elke Mertens, and Nilgül Karadenyz, Eds. Teaching Landscape. London and New York: Routledge

Waterman, Tim (2017) ’Making Meaning: Utopian Method for Minds, Bodies, and Media in Architectural Design’ in Bell, David, Adam Stock, and Nathaniel Coleman, Eds. Imaginaries of the Future 01: Bodies and Locations. https://olh.openlibhums.org/article/10.16995/olh.109/ Open Library of the Humanities.

Waterman, Tim and Joshua Zeunert (2017) ‘Beyond the Ornamental: Agriculture and the City’ (interview with Tim Waterman) Foreground, Autumn 2017. https://www.foreground.com.au/environment/undoing-the-ornamental-landscape/

Waterman, Tim (2017) ’Growing Obsession’ review of two new gardens and new extension at the Garden Museum, Landscape Architecture Magazine, October 2017

Waterman, Tim (2017) ’Introduction’ in Wall, Ed, and Tim Waterman, Eds. Landscape and Agency: Critical Essays. London and New York: Routledge

Waterman, Tim (2017) ’Publicity and Propriety: Democracy and Manners in Britain’s Public Landscape’ in Wall, Ed and Tim Waterman, Eds. Landscape and Agency: Critical Essays. London and New York: Routledge.

Waterman, Tim (2017) ’What’s in a Name?’ on hydrology and place names in the ‘Flood and Flow’ project, Landscape Architecture Magazine, August 2017

Waterman, Tim (from 2010-2017) Quarterly column (‘A Word …’) Landscape, the journal of the Landscape Institute

Waterman, Tim (2017) ’It’s About Time’ on the genius temporum of Martí Franch’s Girona landscapes in Landscape Architecture Magazine, January 2017

Waterman, Tim (2016) There’s Room’ – article on the Room for the River Project in Holland, Landscape Architecture Magazine, June 2016

Waterman, Tim (2016) ’Other Stranger’s Paths’ in the journal Testing Ground

Waterman, Tim and Ruth Catlow (2016) ‘Dining at a Distance: Performing the Commons Across Time and Space’ in the journal p-e-r-f-o-r-m-a-n-c-e vol. 3 no. 1-2. http://www.p-e-r-f-o-r-m-a-n-c-e.org/?page_id=2314

Waterman, Tim and Ruth Catlow (2015) ’Situating the Digital Commons: A Conversation Between Tim Waterman and Ruth Catlow’, https://www.furtherfield.org/situating-digital-commons-conversation-between-ruth-catlow-and-tim-waterman

Waterman, Tim (2015) ’Keep it Up’ on Atelier Dreiseitl’s work in Oslo, Landscape Architecture Magazine, September 2015

Waterman, Tim (2015) Book review: ‘Lefebvre for Architects by Nathaniel Coleman.’ Utopian Studies vol. 26 no. 2

Waterman, Tim (2015) ’Community Effort’ on West 8’s Máximapark, Utrecht. Landscape, Summer 2015

Waterman, Tim (2015) ’The Global Cucumber’ on Milan Expo 2015, Landscape Architecture Magazine, July 2015

Waterman, Tim (2015) Book review: ‘Critique of Everyday Life, (3 Vols) by Henri Lefebvre’ (part of a special edition dedicated to Lefebvre) Journal of Architecture Vol. 20, No. 3, June 2015

Waterman, Tim (2015) ’Trees for Tokyo’ (on landscape architectural practice Studio on Site) Landscape Architecture Magazine, May 2015

Waterman, Tim (2015) ’We need places shaped by local interests to end the housing crisis’ Homes for Britain’s Fifty Blogs in Fifty Days, March 2015. http://homesforbritain.org.uk/we-need-places-shaped-by-local-interests-to-end-the-housing-crisis/

Waterman, Tim (2014) ’Landscape and Energy: An Interview with Dirk Sijmons’ Landscape Architecture Magazine, December 2014

Waterman, Tim (2014) ’Publicity and Propriety: Democratic Etiquette in the Public Landscape’ in I Quaderni di Careggi issue n.6 – Common Goods from a Landscape Perspective, published by UNISCAPE

Waterman, Tim (2014) ’Pedestrian Etiquette, Gormless Phone Users, and the Rise of the Meanderthal’ The Conversation (website), 8 August 2014

Waterman, Tim (2014) ’Common Wealth’ (on West 8’s Máximapark, Utrecht) Landscape Architecture Magazine, July 2014

Waterman, Tim (2014) ’At Liberty’ (on the design for the Place de la République, Paris). Landscape Architecture Magazine, April 2014.

Waterman, Tim (2013) ’Like It Has Always Been There: A Review of Dan Pearson Exhibition at the Garden Museum’ Architects’ Journal 27.06.13

Waterman, Tim and Ed Wall (2013) ’A Landscape Conversation: Design, Representation, Process. Urban, March 2013, ‘Critical Landscapes’ NS05, Madrid: Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

Waterman, Tim and Ed Wall (2012) ’A Landscape Conversation: Design, Representation, Process’. Published in the book Doňana: Out of the City at the Politecnico di Milano

Waterman, Tim (2012) ’Bad Role Models for Landscape Architecture,’ series of six articles, Landscape Institute News and Events (website), http://www.landscapeinstitute.org/news/index.php

Waterman, Tim (2011)’A Question of Taste,’ Landscape, Autumn 2011

Waterman, Tim (2011) ‘Land Ho,’ Landscape, Summer 2011

Waterman, Tim (2011) ’The Flavor of the Place: Eating and Drinking in Payottenland’ in Strong, Jeremy, ed. Educated Tastes: Food, Drink and Connoisseur Culture, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press

Waterman, Tim (2010) ‘Exploring the Landscape of Urban Design,’ Landscape, Spring 2010

Waterman, Tim (2009) ’Shared Space Schemes have the Potential to Provide Beautiful and Effective Streets,’ Landscape, Autumn 2009

Landscape Institute (2008) I Want to be a Landscape Architect (wrote text for website), Landscape Institute, London. http://www.iwanttobealandscapearchitect.com

Waterman, Tim (2008) ‘Conceptual Explorers,’ Landscape, July 2008

Waterman, Tim (2008) ‘Uncovering Waterloo,’ Landscape, February 2008

Waterman, Tim (2004) ‘Tower as Tableau,’ Crosswalk, Providence, Rhode Island

Projects

2018 Co-convener, Landscape Citizenships Symposium, Conway Hall, London

Ongoing ‘Reading the Commons’ project, Furtherfield, London

Ongoing UK Research Group: Landscape Architecture: Research by Design/Creative Practice

2010-17 Honorary editor and chair of the Editorial Advisory Panel, Landscape, the Journal of the Landscape Institute (since 2010) and member of the Landscape Institute Policy and Communications Committee

2016 ‘A Deptford Atlas’ University of Greenwich Summer School with MSA University Cairo

2014 Multi-year student project – Alfred Place, London design masterplanning with Camden Council and the Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Association

2013 Finsbury Park design master planning exercise and exhibition. Undergraduate and conversion students on ‘The Dynamic Site’ in collaboration with the arts collective Furtherfield

2012 Co-convener, University of Essex and Writtle College Interdisciplinary Conference, ‘Food’ at Writtle College, Essex (Nov 2012)

2012 Multi-year student project – Master plan for Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow

2012 Co-convener, Landscape and Critical Agency Symposium, University College, London (Feb 2012)

2011 Co-convener, Writtle/Essex Interdisciplinary Conference, ‘The Real and Imagined City’, University of Essex

2011 Multi-year student project – Masterplan for Lilystone Hall, Stock, Essex

2010 Third year student project – ‘Thresholds’ – Maldon Promenade Park with Maldon District Council, Maldon, Essex

2010-11 European Union Culture Program Bid ‘European Salt Cities Network’

2009-10 Second year and Master’s Conversion student project ‘Greening Golden Lane Estate’ with the Golden Lane Estate Gardening Group

2009-10 ‘Rotterdam London Project’, Writtle School of Design second and third year landscape architecture and landscape and garden design students.

2007-2008 European Union INTERREG IVC ‘Waterways Forward’ with British Waterways

2007-2008 ‘Rotterdam London Project’, Kingston University first and second year Landscape Architecture Students

2007-2008 Waterloo Open Space studio, Kingston University. Waterloo Open Space Exhibition, Waterloo Gallery, London

2006-2007 European Union INTERREG IIIB ‘NorthSEAFaring’, various partners

2006-2007 ‘Legible London’ signage and wayfinding scheme for the Mayor of London and Transport for London

2006-2007 ‘Nash Ramblas’ pedestrian improvements for Regent Street, London with Central London Partnership and Sir Terry Farrell

2004-2006 Queenborough and Rushenden Regeneration master plan for SEEDA

2006 The Green Charter for Queenborough and Rushenden

2006 Arts Strategy, Queenborough and Rushenden

2006 Public Realm Strategy for Dover, Dover District Council and Dover Pride

2005-2006 Swale Neighbourhood Regeneration Strategy for Amicus Housing Association

2005 Hastings Priory Central Urban Design Framework

2005 Swale Borough Interim Open Space Strategy

Memberships

Academic Member of the Landscape Institute

Chair, Board of Trustees, Landscape Research Group (LRG)

Non-Executive Director, Furtherfield

Member, Society for Utopian Studies

Professor of Landscape Theory

Bartlett School Of Architecture, UCL