Niall Kirkwood is a Professor of Landscape Architecture and the Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. In Terragrams Dispatch Nº 8 Mr. Kirkwood describes the role of the super absorbent polymer in his Sponge City project in Rotterdam, discusses some of the research he has yet to publish as well as that which is contained in his books The Art of Landscape Detail, Manufactured Sites - Rethinking the Post-Industrial Landscape and Weathering and Durability in Landscape Architecture, and recalls his introduction into the world of landscape architecture. December 2, 2006