Landscape Architecture: What, Why, How, Wow!
The Most Important Profession For The Future Of Humanity?
What is Landscape Architecture?
“Landscapes” + “Architecture”… right?
Well, sort of. But imagine the scope of being an architect of life… where does the profession begin or end? This is the profession’s first problem, and it is a double-edged sword.
Most people understand what an architect does. Likewise, engineers, biologists, foresters, and city planners all have clear identities too.
But Landscape Architects?
Are they fancy landscapers? Garden designers? People who make parks?
Are they the people who decide where the trees go after everything is built?
These are common guesses about what Landscape Architects actually do.
What Is Landscape Architecture?
The Canadian Society of Landscape Architects defines Landscape Architecture as the profession concerned with the design, planning, management, and stewardship of the land.
That is accurate. But it is also about as exciting as describing cooking as “the preparation of food.”
So here is my version:
Landscape Architecture is the art and science of figuring out how people, nature, and everything we build can fit together better.
Landscape Architects work with things like:
- Water & watersheds
- Plants, soils & ecology
- Parks & public spaces
- Roads, trails & transportation
- Housing & communities
- Farms & food systems
- Climate adaptation
- Recreation
- Culture, history & human behaviour
Sometimes that means designing a backyard.
Sometimes it means helping plan an entire watershed.
And that enormous range is exactly what makes this profession so interesting.
I am writing about this because, after years of working professionally as a teacher and Permaculture designer, I am now taking my next step into a Master of Landscape Architecture at UBC.
Why?
Because the deeper I have gone into Permaculture, the more convinced I have become that Landscape Architecture is the closest recognized profession to its way of thinking and designing.
Why Landscape Architecture?
There is an old saying:
“A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”
Landscape Architecture is a profession of generalists. That can also be a criticism. Landscape Architects overlap with engineers, ecologists, botanists, planners, architects, watershed specialists, foresters, agriculturists, and many others.
And no, a Landscape Architect does not replace those experts. Nor should they. But they hold enormous potential to put all the pieces back together.
The problems of modern-day society (or any society) cannot be divided into professions. For example, consider that:
Water affects soil.
Soil affects plants.
Plants affect our bodies and homes.
And our bodies and homes ARE what make up our societies.
Are societies today “healthy”? We need look no further than the health of our soils and waterways for the answer.
Everything is connected. Yet we have spent generations becoming increasingly good at dividing the world into smaller and smaller areas of expertise.
We need our specialists. But we also desperately need people who specialize in putting the pieces back together.
That is why I left the school system to be a Permaculture teacher and designer, and why now it’s time to take what I learned there to the next level.
However, this story isn’t about me; it’s about you and us.
It’s about how we all can be architects of life.
Landscape Architecture + Permaculture
Permaculture asks a deceptively simple question:
How can we design human systems that work WITH nature instead of constantly fighting against it?
And that changes how you look at a landscape.
Rain stops being something to drain away.
It becomes life to slow, store, soak, and use for dozens of purposes.
Fallen leaves, weeds, and branches stop being things to remove.
They become soil & a component of an ecosystem’s evolution.
And a tree? The number of ways we can intelligently place and use one is staggering!
Firstly, trees provide ecosystem services that are almost impossible to put a price on: shade, habitat, wind protection, erosion control, carbon sequestration, soil generation, and more.
Secondly, there are also countless human products and uses. A great way to remember them is the 7 F’s: food, fuel, fiber, fodder, fertilizer, fun, and farmaceuticals.
Good design is not about isolating something like a tree and saying “this is a shade tree.” Instead, we design in as many functions as we can, and honour what that tree intrinsically can do. The result is more harmonious and productive, and it’s also less work.
My favourite definition of Permaculture still to this day is:
“Permaculture is about saving the planet and living to be a hundred, while throwing very impressive dinner parties and organising other creatures to do most of the work.”
~Linda Woodrow
Now that you better understand Landscape Architecture and Permaculture, you can probably see why I get so excited about bringing them together.
Both ultimately ask some very big questions:
How do we create amazing places?
How do we as humans thrive?
And what becomes possible when we design for both?
That is a future and potential that we can push.
And it’s incredibly exciting.
The WOW: What If Humans Became A Keystone Species?
This is where Landscape Architecture gets much bigger for me.
Human beings have become incredibly good at changing landscapes.
Unfortunately, much of that change has come at the expense of soil, forests, biodiversity, water, and future generations.
But our ability to change landscapes is not inherently bad.
It may actually be our greatest opportunity.
What if humans learned to act more like a keystone species?
What if the places where we lived became healthier because we lived there?
Imagine cities where rain is captured instead of rushed into storm drains.
Imagine streets shaded by productive urban forests.
Imagine backyards full of food, wildlife, beauty, and life.
Imagine children understanding where their food and water come from.
I don’t think our future needs to be built around guilt.
We are told to use less. Travel less. Consume less.
But I am much more inspired by another question:
How can we live more by making landscape better because we were here?
And that is exactly what being a keystone species is about.
Want To Learn Along With Me?
If this kind of thinking gets you excited, I invite you to join me and my online community called Attainable Sustainable Academy.
You get trained on how to make your dream property using Permaculture, access to monthly community gatherings, and you also get to follow along as I take a Master of Landscape Architecture. All for $20/month.
And together, we will keep exploring one really important question:
How do we design a world where people and nature thrive together?
Thanks for reading and building this future together.
I’ll see you there.
Warmly,
Kenton “keystone” Zerbin