The essay argues that climate collapse pushes ownership into public responsibility and aesthetics into a medium of obligation. Landscape architecture can cultivate perceptual resilience, an ethics of design attuned to disorder, shared accountability, and the mutable nature of life.
We asked Robin Winogrond to share which publications she has been reading lately and finds particularly relevant for landscape architects today. Here is her selection: Are We Human? Notes on an Archaeology of Design Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley Under such premises as “to talk about design is to talk about the state of […]
The Krater Collective is a group of transdisciplinary artists who have decided to transform their professions, studios and working conditions in order to act as advocates for a self-determined ecosystem in an abandoned construction pit in Ljubljana. In Crafting Biodiversity, they expand over their fenced-off domain.
The news of Kongjian Yu’s sudden death two weeks later sent shockwaves not only through the nearly 1,500 participants of the congress in Nantes, but through the entire landscape architecture community worldwide. Many, myself included, had known him for more than two decades, meeting him at ASLA Annual Meetings, the Barcelona Biennale, the World Architecture Festival, IFLA congresses, and countless other events.
Between 17 and 21 November 2025, the 13th International Landscape Biennial of Barcelona will take place under the motto Natural Intelligence. Since its beginnings in 1999, the Biennial has become one of the most significant international platforms for landscape architecture — a space where practice, research, and education converge. We spoke with Marina Cervera, executive […]
Landscape architecture should engage intensively with conviviality—it has the capacity to unify many issues in current theoretical debates and connect the discipline to the global network of the conviviality movement.
BOGL are the recipients of the 2025 LILA Office Award. They operate from offices in Copenhagen and Oslo with a steady focus on the shared grounds of urban life. Rather than seeking signature forms, the practice has built its reputation on attentiveness — to site conditions, to communities, to the long horizons of climate change, […]
Multispecies Urbanism (MU) concept proposes that cities be designed and governed for the multispecies whole. In her manifesto, artist, infrastructure activist, and researcher Debra Solomon argues that healthy urban environments for humans are inseparable from the flourishing of other species and their microbial consortia. MU treats ecological labour—cooling, water buffering, pollination, soil formation—as infrastructural work […]
We are sad to report that Kongjian Yu died on September 23, 2025. Yu was a farmer’s son from Zhejiang who became the architect of a new ecological urbanism. After early studies in Beijing and a doctorate at Harvard GSD, he returned to China in the late 1990s to found the College of Architecture and […]
An essay on how we push animals into playing roles — from fables and films to renders of biodiversity and art — tracing how these projections tame, abstract, or estrange, and how synurbists and artists unsettle the human–animal divide.
Growing up on a farm in Tyrol, surrounded by repetitions of natural processes to which rituals and traditions attune, Weinberger developed an understanding of the nature–culture relationship observed from the periphery.
Scientific research into animal behaviour still rests on many deeply ingrained assumptions about what is deemed to be “natural” human behaviour. For example, men—males—are assumed by nature to be more dominant and aggressive than women—females. And if men are violent, then the violent behaviour of other male animals in the wild can supposedly be explained […]
Skin-to-Skin Architecture is about rethinking how we design cities and buildings, not just as objects we use, but as spaces that touch us back. Inspired by the power of skin-to-skin contact in neonatal care, where a caregiver’s touch stabilizes, calms, and connects, we ask: what if our built environment could do the same? In Skin-to-Skin, […]
In this article, we enter into a conversation with Danilo Milovanović (DNLM), an artist based in Slovenia, whose practice in public space leaves behind socio-political and environmentally engaged commentaries. His interventions open up civic debate and make visible the tensions that shape contemporary urban life. Trained in the visual arts, Milovanović positions his practice outside […]
In the U.S., lawns cover nearly 2 percent of the land surface and, as researcher Cristina Milesi revealed using satellite data, “could be considered the single largest irrigated crop in America”—their total area is three times larger than that of irrigated cornfields. The infatuation with lawns runs so deep that, in some cases, failing to […]
It was 2 AM, and I was still scrolling through thousands of digitized drawings in the Olmsted archive on Flickr. Six hours in, my avocado toast sat half-eaten, but I couldn’t pull myself away. These hand-drawn plans were so much more alive than the sterile digital renderings that I have gotten so used to seeing […]
I have spent the last two weeks conducting field research at a large music festival located in the interior of Portugal. Every day, I would wake up in my tiny tent and walk into a stunning landscape. Walking around the grounds of the festival every morning was my favorite activity, indulging in the lake around […]
Mental health disorders such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and paranoid schizophrenia affect masses of people worldwide. These conditions not only challenge individuals but also deeply affect their relatives and communities. While clinical treatments remain essential, there is increasing recognition of the therapeutic role landscapes can play in supporting mental health recovery. Historically, nature […]
On a mild evening last April, Room 304 in Pratt Institute’s architecture school, Higgins Hall—an oddly grandiose double-height classroom space with a view of the Manhattan skyline—is packed. The Landscape Seminar Series—launched in 2022 in conjunction with Pratt’s Master of Landscape Architecture program—has invited the iconic land artist and activist Mary Miss to speak as […]
Tempelhofer Feld, one of Europe’s largest urban open spaces, has long been a focal point of debate, particularly since its closure as an airport in 2008. Over the years, the site has sparked public protests, legal disputes, and heated discussions about its future. Now, after a highly anticipated international competition, the winning proposals have been […]
How do we represent territories whose histories, economies, and ecologies have been shaped by centuries of extraction, yet are still often perceived as peripheral or empty? 1. Introduction In his book Norrland, journalist Po Tidholm opens with a poem that captures a long-standing reality: northern Sweden has long been a site of resource extraction— iron […]
As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of what was formerly called ‘the European Landscape Convention’ spare a thought for upcoming generations: Generation Z and especially Generation Alpha are having a difficult time. They are stuck between a rock and a hard place, between the perils of the real world and the dangers of life in […]
Anna Thurmayr and Dietmar Straub, operating from Winnipeg, Canada, approach landscape architecture less as a matter of monumental authorship and more as a form of quiet insurgency. Their practice resists spectacle, embracing instead small yet resonant gestures, collective processes, and deep attentiveness to context—whether planting 20,000 crocuses into a lawn or constructing an ephemeral Snow […]
Lars Hopstock’s Idyll and Ideology: Hermann Mattern and the Landscape to Live In is a heavy-lifter historiographic study. Published by Jovis in 2024, the volume arrives as a carefully crafted and tactile artefact in Jagd style, with hunting-green viscose-flocked covers reminiscent of a mounted trophy. Indeed, Hopstock has ventured deeply into archival “woods”, emerging with meticulous evidence and nuanced narratives around Hermann Mattern (1902–1971), one of Germany’s most significant yet contentious landscape architects. His expansive research not only sets the bar incredibly high for any similar undertakings but vividly frames Mattern’s navigation between aesthetic idyll and loaded ideology.
Led by James A. Lord and Roderick Wyllie, Surfacedesign, Inc. is a San Francisco–based landscape architecture and urban design studio known for bold, material-driven work that blends architectural clarity with a sculptural, site-attuned sensibility. From public parks and international airports to intimate gardens and experimental studios, their projects push against the conventions of globalised sameness, […]
The 2025 edition of the Biennale d’Architecture et de Paysage (BAP!) is taking place in Versailles from May 7 to July 13. This third edition, titled “The Living City”, focuses on preserving life in all its forms amidst climate disruption and dwindling resources. It aims to open new perspectives and sharing of knowledge and innovation […]
Lucia Tozzi is a Milano-based journalist and urban researcher known for her incisive critiques of gentrification, tourism-driven development, and the commodification of public space. Her writing spans cultural criticism, investigative reporting, and political analysis, appearing in publications such as Il Tascabile, NERO, Altreconomia, il manifesto, and other journals. She is the editor and author of […]
Dr. Anette Freytag is a relentless researcher, moving between academia, activism, and public engagement. She taught at ETH Zurich, the University of Basel, and the Technical University of Innsbruck before joining Rutgers University, where she is the Professor of the History and Theory of Landscape Architecture at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Freytag […]
The volume On the Side of Fire. Rites, approaches and cultivation practices in landscapes is the twenty-first edition in the “Memorie” series by the Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche (FBSR), a Treviso-based international centre for landscape studies and research, founded by Luciano Benetton in 1987, focusing on history, geography, natural and cultural heritage. Opening space for […]
The Plečnik Awards are among the highest national recognitions for works realised in architecture, landscape architecture, and urbanism in Slovenia. Each year, the Jože Plečnik Fund acknowledges outstanding contributions in the categories of Public Space, Large Scale Realisations, Small Scale Realisations, Professional Publications, and Enrichment of Spatial Culture — the latter being the category in […]
The Landscape Architecture Europe Foundation (LAE) has published the 7th edition of its book series, titled Full of Life. With each issue released triennially, the editorial board delves into high-quality landscape architecture projects, tracing the evolution of this young profession and highlighting the significance of addressing climate and social issues while crafting beautiful spaces. The […]
Despite ambitious sustainability frameworks, current modes of urban waterfront redevelopment tend to reinforce existing or create new socio-spatial divides in the city. Although the projects regard urban water as a public good, it is oftentimes the most privileged groups that get to enjoy the improved environmental amenities and reap their benefits, at the expense of […]
The book, Thinking Through Soil: Wastewater Agriculture in the Mezquital Valley, by Montserrat Bonvehi Rosich and Seth Denizen, came out last week, published by Harvard University Design Press. It is an enormous study, partly conducted through the Thinking Through Soil studio course at the GSD, Department of Landscape Architecture, and with the help of the […]
The first parks open to the public in Western society date back to the late 18th century, with the Englischer Garten in Munich (1789), named by the renowned Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell, followed by Maksimir Park in Zagreb (1794). Birkenhead Park, described as a “People’s Garden” by Olmsted and designed by Joseph Paxton in Liverpool […]
Landscapes of Retreat, a book by Rosetta S. Elkin, is informed by land-based practice, observation, and paying close attention to the multifaceted changes occurring in landscapes and their impact on communities. The second edition of this award-winning book (originally published in 2022), which gained considerable attention within the landscape architecture community, has been released this […]
Soil is a strange soup of minerals, organic matter, gases and liquids, bound to mediate between lower and higher strata. While one can think of soil eating as bizarre, one can also imagine taking minerals in a form of a pill and why one wouldn’t eat forest soil or soils outside polluted areas? It gives […]
Cobe is on the side of the “progressives” in the profession, working at one of the most urban-eco-technologically progressive centres worldwide, Copenhagen in Denmark. Their merging of cross-disciplinary work into a “meaningful whole”, creating interfaces at different scales of contact, pushing the boundaries of engagement – from the threshold of their office, into the neighbouring […]
In December this year, the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation will start to apply to medium and large operators and traders. For micro and small enterprises, the same rules will apply next year. This means that if a commodity, such as cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soya, rubber, or wood, and products derived from those commodities, […]
As part of the broader philosophical movement of speculative realism, OOO (Object-Oriented Ontology) directly challenges the long-established belief that reality is always determined solely through human perception. Instead, the father of OOO, philosopher Graham Harman, argues that all objects—human and non-human, natural and artificial—exist independently of our subjective conceptualizations. To understand the radical nature and […]
When I walk in the city center, in parks, I feel like I’m in a kind of theater. The fact that these environments have been deliberately designed for me to find them beautiful is, to me, a problem.
But when you walk along an infrastructure, you know you’re in reality. You’re seeing the world as it truly is, as it appears to you. I believe landscape architects shouldn’t focus on cultural aesthetics. Instead, they should work with corporeal aesthetics—something much harder to grasp. Our job is not to create new beauty. Our job is to reveal the beauty that already exists. That’s a completely different approach.
With a highly influential line of land artists creating large-scale earthworks, especially in the North American deserts, one asks: “Where did land art go?” Did works like The Lightning Field (1977) by Walter De Maria, Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels (1973–76), and Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970) conclude with Michael Heizer’s City—a project started in 1970 […]
Reports of global warming, biodiversity loss, rising anti-democratic states, heatwaves, wars, and sea-level rise are enough to make anyone discouraged. In these times, hope is crucial—it’s the difference between envisioning a positive future and resigning to the present. Hope drives action, while hopelessness paralyzes. It rejects the status quo and aspires for change, making it vital for progress. Hope can grow and strengthen, but it can also fade.
Exploring the interplay between low-res design and the transience of landscapes, this essay foregrounds the notion of resolution, enquiring about a dynamic interaction with landscapes in flux.
The book reads like a crime novel for landscape architects. It contains much of the stuff we don’t dare to look into, true – mostly because forests fall under the domain of forestry. Designed Forests: A Cultural History uncovers human entanglements with forests as a design metaphor through a series of gripping stories Dan Handel researched in serious depth, not leaving room for much romance. Taking us on a global journey through projects that involve forests as a point of departure, Handel catches us in our preconceived ways of thinking, traversing the undergirding ideas, cutting to the stem of those lines of thought. The book is not an answer to what a forest is, yet we might get an idea of how forest metaphor gets instrumentalized in discourse in spatial design practices and what this metaphor lacks.
BASE is a France-based studio known for its out-of-the-box thinking and unexpected design choices, often introducing challenges that can be overcome through play. Encountering an obstacle in a public space—one that invites engagement and risk-taking—creates a tension that can lead to moments of joyful liberation. A key aspect of BASE’s approach is putting trust in […]
Soak It Up: Combating Climate Change with Landscape Architecture is a global summit organized by The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), a Washington, D.C.-based education and advocacy non-profit, addressing biodiversity loss, climate change, and social inequities. TCLF’s information-rich website offers in-depth research, critical analysis of threatened landscapes, and a comprehensive database of shared cultural landscape heritage […]
Mnemosyne walks on a Forest Wall What if rural areas took center stage in the movement for resilient, secure communities—getting the same attention as urban environments? What if seawalls and groynes weren’t just lifeless barriers but thriving ecosystems, forests, walking routes for storytelling, art trails and canvases for culture and nature? The growing impact of […]
In this next episode of our series on models as a key tool for communication and exploration, we present the Danish office Cobe, renowned for its terrain and object modulations. The undulating landscapes and folded facades create a dynamic interplay of convex and concave forms, shaping both the skyline and the experience of space with […]
