Geography's lens, landscape architecture, and the green recovery

• Published in: Area (London 1969) Vol. 56; no. 2
• Main Author: Smith, Carl A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-06-2024
• Subjects: Architecture; collaborative community of practice; Discourse; geodesign; Geography; geography's lens; green recovery; Inequality; Landscape; Landscape architecture; Lenses; Recovery
• ISSN: 0004-0894; 1475-4762
• DOI: 10.1111/area.12906

In this article, I expound upon the recent claim that Geography is well placed to contribute to the global ‘green recovery’ by suggesting that landscape architects have the potential to be highly effective collaborators in this endeavour. Contemporary Geography represents a diverse array of sub‐fields coalescing around scale, space and place. Altogether, Geography provides a disciplinary lens that is multi‐scalar and can focus on any number of critical environmental and cultural concerns that resonate with green recovery discourse. At various times, landscape architecture has shared Geography's multi‐scalar and multifaceted lens, and through this complementary outlook, the disciplines have collaborated within mutual spaces such as ‘geodesign’, and through a to‐and‐fro of methods of practice and disciplinary reflection. However, ongoing discourse within landscape architecture describes self‐doubt around the consistency of its agency and capacity to engage with the critical challenges of the climate crisis and social inequity. Elsewhere, this has been attributed to landscape architecture's loss of professional territory to other practices of spatial design, and a reverse into scenography. Here I articulate the concern that much landscape architectural practice appears to intermittently misplace the scale and scope that is akin to Geography's lens and that, although this has stymied the discipline, there are recent indications that landscape architecture is hungry for relevance and ready to re‐engage with the necessary space, place, and scale. This article, then, looks to provide are a reminder of the potential to be found in landscape architecture and whet the appetite for green recovery collaboration.
Short
In this article, I expound upon the recent claim that geography is well placed to contribute to the global ‘green recovery’ by suggesting that landscape architects have the potential to be highly effective collaborators in this endeavour. Contemporary geography provides a disciplinary lens that is multi‐scalar and can focus on any number of critical environmental and cultural concerns that resonate with green recovery discourse and, at various times, landscape architecture has shared this outlook. While there has been significant self‐doubt around the consistency of landscape architecture's agency and capacities to engage with the critical challenges of the climate crisis and social inequity, there are recent indications that the discipline is hungry for relevance and ready to engage with the space, place, and scale of green recovery. This article, then, looks to provide a reminder of the potential to be found in landscape architecture and whet the appetite for collaboration.