I remember studying ancient civilizations in fifth grade and being completely awestruck learning about how people came together and formed complex, highly functioning societies.When I think about the illustrations from those fifth grade history textbooks I most vividly remember the city maps and diagrams of the innovative ways ancient peoples leveraged their environments to survive and thrive. I think this goes to show how essential city planning and environmental adaptability were to the success of those early societies. I believe that by interrogating landscapes (and the systems that govern the them), we can understand how to create more sustainable, healthy, and synergistic human habitats. 

 

For those of you unfamiliar with the practice of landscape architecture, here is a segment from the New Landscape Declaration, a comprehensive statement from the unified voices of the field's practitioners: 

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"As landscape architects we vow to create places that serve the higher purpose of social and ecological justice for all peoples and all species. We vow to create places that nourish our deepest needs for communion with the natural world and with one another. We vow to serve the health and well-being of all communities".

 

I intend to uphold those vows and believe it is also our responsibility to share our findings with others. I started this website as an extension of my practice of taking notes of my experience in the landscape. So much of our surroundings can go unnoticed unless we make a conscious effort to uncover the meaning and purpose of our environment. Pairing first-hand experience with supporting research, I hope to make our environment the topic of more conversations, and to evoke thoughts and actions to enhance our world through deliberate landscape design.

 

Note: Tread upon the face of the earth lightly, but dig deep into its essence.