WHEN RIVER MEETS CITY. Matthew Skjonsberg, an architect and author of Living Cities: Three Centuries of Park Systems, offers a chronological survey of civic design based 30+ park systems across five continents. Over the course of his career, Skjonsberg has supported the realization of several park systems in the Eau Claire community where he was born and raised. (Cover of Living Cities, pictured, courtesy of Matthew Skjonsberg)

Civic design: a practice in landscape design which orientates communities toward the “common good.”

Whether it be through the ecological viability of a landscape or intergenerational recreations hubs, one architect has illustrated the value of this term in practice – both locally and internationally.

Matthew Skjonsberg, a designer, academic and author of Living Cities: Three Centuries of Park Systems, has realized several local architectural projects in the community where he was born and raised. In Skjonsberg's lifetime, his work has been influenced by the Chippewa Valley and time spent at Taliesin, the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture where he studied.

Both the Boyd Park skate park and the Phoenix Park labyrinth in Eau Claire – under the creative direction of Skjonsberg and other collaborators – took into consideration the landscape’s topography and connection to natural watersheds, seasonal usage and the community who would benefit from the projects' construction.

These considerations, Skjonsberg explained, have long been vital to guide future city developments and park systems – spaces designed with the intent to bring ecological, recreational and social benefits.

“The deeper idea is nature literacy and the benefits of nature study; studying nature and working with nature.”

Matthew Skjonsberg

architect, author of Living Cities: Three Centuries of Park Systems

“A fruition (like) the Phoenix Park amphitheater labyrinth, was an early park along the lines of what we do now with these park systems – it really did start here,” Skjonsberg said of his initial vision of Living Cities. “Even underneath existing cities, seeing what the river (was)... gives a good suggestion of how the future of a city can look.”

Living Cities, published last year, offers a chronological survey of civic design based on more than 30 park systems across five continents, he shared. The book, throughout its 300-plus pages, illustrates both the benefits and challenges of communities which seek to implement such projects.

“All of these park systems are part of setting the stage for the community – whether rural or urban – (and) connecting the city with the wilderness,” Skjonsberg said. “It’s really wonderful, because it’s a stable armature of nature that can be serving and (be) served by culture.”

As a leading founder of the Praxis Institute in Switzerland – a disciplinary research initiative which merges landscape design and architecture – Skjonsberg also gained a global perspective which shaped the publication of Living Cities.

Park systems, as Skjonsberg defines, are spaces designed with the intent to bring ecological, recreational and social benefits to its community. Skjonsberg and other Eau Claire collaborators partnered to design and construct the Phoenix Park labyrinth (pictured above) in the early 2000s – an example of a public access space where locals of all ages can convene. (Photo by Measha Vieth)

Whether it be projects closer to home or large-scale international designs in Madrid, Spain or Cairo, Egypt – all have reinforced similar fundamentals of civic design and an awareness of the natural world’s importance.

Living Cities also highlights public engagement in civic design through case studies and workshops with an emphasis on the inclusion of all ages – from youth to seniors. In these workshops led by Skjonsberg, participants created models of their city and ideated new methods to improve access between their homes to bodies of water.

“We can show a mirror back to the community (on) how they see their own community,” Skjonsberg said of the all-ages workshops. “Then, they can really identify what is most interesting to them and (architectural) projects can come from that in a very natural way.”

While the earlier twentieth century was considered the “heyday” for civic design in practice, Skjonsberg views the publication and distribution of Living Cities as a reawakened celebration of the term.

Through glimpses into communities of the past, present and future, readers can discover their own essential role to better the systems and landscapes which surround them.

“The deeper idea is nature literacy and the benefits of nature study; studying nature and working with nature,” Skjonsberg said. “It’s this kind of attitude that I think is behind the title of the book, Living Cities – the recognition that in principle everything is alive and going through a life cycle of some kind.

“The more we treat material things with a kind of integrity and social relations with this kind of integrity… the better off we will be,” he continued.

Living Cities: Three Centuries of Park Systems, authored by Matthew Skjonsberg and distributed through Park Books, can be purchased online through the University of Chicago Press. Learn more about Skjonsberg’s local architecture projects through VolumeOne.org.