Books

The renowned landscape architect David Kamp, FASLA, traces the first stirrings of his interest in landscape to his childhood in rural North Carolina. Kamp maintained his passion for nature through his architectural studies at the University of Virginia, and these in turn helped prepare him for his first design project, a landscape for Australia’s new Parliament House in Canberra.

In the mid-1990s, Kamp volunteered to design one of the first gardens created specifically for individuals with HIV/AIDS, the Joel Schnaper Memorial Garden at the Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center in East Harlem. The experience proved life-altering, and Kamp resolved to dedicate his practice to exploring the web of relationships connecting design, nature, and health.

In this work, Kamp has sought to put people in touch with nature, regardless of their capabilities—from children with autism spectrum disorder to elders with cognitive and physical challenges.  He has also explored these ideas in the larger realm, where his plans have revitalized schools, brownfields, parks, and urban waterfronts. By putting personal health on a continuum with environmental health, Kamp has demonstrated that design can help make communities more vibrant, resilient, and equitable.

In Nature, Design, and Health, Kamp chronicles his remarkable artistic journey through the stories of his projects for hospitals, cancer centers, elder communities, educational campuses, and other landscapes dedicated to health and well-being. Kamp’s belief in the power of nature to sustain and connect is summed up in his firm’s name—Dirtworks.