Foundations and growth of connections between the science of ecology and landscape architecture

Background/Question/Methods

This session offers a landscape architect’s perspective on how ecology and landscape architecture influence each other -- past, present, and some possibilities for the future. I argue the basis for this mutual influence resides in a healthy tension, one born of distinct ways of thinking and working in each discipline that are at times complementary and at times at odds.

Results/Conclusions

I then highlight foundational ideas from landscape architecture’s past, discuss how these have benefited from the science of ecology as connections between the two fields have grown, and contrast these connections with a small set of important contemporary disciplinary differences. From this contrast emerge prospects for barriers and bridges to come.