SLU news

Why we shape nature

Published: 13 November 2019

‘Human beings have an innate urge to shape nature,’ writes Michael van Gessel, the Dutch landscape architect who received the international LILA 2019 Honour Award on 2 November in Amsterdam: ‘Ant hills, beaver dams and bird’s nests prove that we are not the only species to do that. But we do it with living material. Landscape architects have made that human urge their profession. Of course farmers were first. They do it for food, we for a fee.’

Michael promotes a design approach in line with SLU Urban Futures’ conviction that human beings shape the planet among a lot of other actors, human and non-human, including farmers, foresters and also animals and other natural forces – which is why SLU’s Future Platforms (focusing precisely on food, forests, animals, and the urban) are at the forefront of today’s attempt to grapple with the intertwined challenges of the 21st century.

Michael has been the founder of the triennial book series Landscape Architecture Architecture in the early 2000s, from which arose a network of professional free thinkers to become the European instance for critical reflection on contemporary landscape practice. SLU Urban Futures’ director Lisa Diedrich has been the chief editor of this book series since its inception and held a laudatory speech at the LILA Award Ceremony. Using the design professions to leverage transdisciplinary research, SLU Urban Futures supports strong links between the academic realm and the world of European landscape architecture. Michael van Gessel’s belief in the power of nature lays the foundation: ‘Nature will always be there and try to undo your work. Man-made nature has its own revenge on man by overgrowing what we did. As long as we inhabit this planet, there will be a need for landscape architects.’

Find photos and presentations on LILA Honour Award 2019.


Contact

Lisa Diedrich, Professor

The Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management, SLU

lisa.diedrich@slu.se, +46 40-41 54 24