For the past 33 years, Bureau B+B has been a trendsetting agency and a laboratory for landscape architecture. NAi Publishers presents Bureau B+B Urbanism and Landscape Design: A Collective Genius, 1977-2010, a high-spirited survey of the projects of this interdisciplinary agency.

Since it was established by Riek Bakker and Ank Bleeker in 1977, Bureau B+B (until 1990, Bureau Bakker&Bleeker) has served as a laboratory for design professions. The agency's development has, to a large extent, coincided with the flourishing of Dutch landscape architecture and urban development in the postwar era. Self-confident and independent, Bureau B+B reintroduced design to the city from a new angle. From the start, it has been interdisciplinary: their staff includes landscape architects, urban designers, architects, land and water managers, and industrial designers.

Bureau B+B is a hothouse which has nurtured the growth of other agencies such as West 8, Karres & Brands, and Rietveld Landscape, and of designers such as Adriaan Geuze, Alle Hosper, and Michael van Gessel, who began their careers there. Bureau B+B is analytical, interdisciplinary and opinionated. It has made an enduring mark on international landscape architecture.

Bureau B+B Urbanism and Landscape Design covers a large selection of the 1,500 projects completed by the bureau over the past 33 years, such as the Dutch pavilion at the Expo 2000 world’s fair in Hanover and the Waldpark in Potsdam. The book also includes essays about competitions, drafting techniques, the use of plants, and visual art. This unique survey is a source of inspiration.