Landscape Architecture

RISD Landscape Architecture exists at the intersection between ecological systems, human and non-human communities, and built environments. Through creative practices, landscape architects critically reflect on ethical, social and ecological issues, disciplinary and interdisciplinary relations, and practices pertaining to the domains of landscape architecture and its allied fields. They explore design approaches to address the effects of climate change, urbanization, social justice, and environmental degradation.

The MLA students with work in this year’s Grad Show were encouraged to consider landscape as a commons to critically reflect on current challenges and envision future possibilities for the complex contemporary conditions and territories of the 21st century. They took this defining moment as an opportunity to develop approaches to site specificity, imagine strategic and multi-scalar landscape frameworks, and to constantly bridge between theory and practice to resituate the discipline. Their work investigates issues and examines conditions spreading across the globe: from the localized environments in and around Providence and the state of Rhode Island, to the East Coast and the whole territory of the United States, and to geographical and social conditions around the world.