Special Issue "Constructed Natures: Shaping Ecology through Landscape Design"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 October 2021.

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Fabio Di Carlo
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Architecture and Design, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Roma, Italy
Interests: landscape architecture; art of gardens; urban and environmental design; urban forestry; water design; landscape and literature; landscape and arts

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The current challenge for sustainability calls for ever wider answers, which cannot be limited to a mere technical and scientific discourse. Decisions for a new global-scale ecology require steps that necessarily places all actions also in an aesthetic, ethical, and meaningful dimension, even if the positivistic scientific discourse about nature often tries to overshadow these concerns on landscapes.

Landscape architecture has always been placed in a dialectical posture between ecology and society. It interprets the relationship between culture and nature and, even in its most abstract or artificial expressions, is aimed at building conditions of wellbeing aimed at society as regards its reference habitats.

While von Humboldt and Haeckel built the fundamentals of ecology, in parallel, Olmstead and others founded a discipline that, ever since, has shaped and given form to ecology through design, also defining new physical and orientation focuses for societies.

Although the speed of the twentieth century has sometimes separated the design and planning discourses from the scientific one, a crisis in modernity and a rethinking of this approach have already emerged since the post-war period. The motto “Design with nature” was a common basis from which many different lines of design action were built. Thus, today, environmental quality has become a necessary condition for any intervention on landscapes, to construct new forms of natures as a response to current challenges. Overcoming any distinction between urban and non-urban, creating more and more projects for parks, gardens, public space, and green infrastructures, landscaping for abandoned areas and infrastructures, as well as coming up with proposals for rural and natural areas are focused on a sustainable approach balancing representation of contemporary, everyday life, use of resources, and conservation for the future. Constructed natures of landscape architecture represent more than a system of solutions. They are virtuous action and processes that reconnect human transformations to environmental systems, from small interventions up to the planetary dimension.

The main aim of this Special Issue is to overcome this dichotomy and highlight the added value of the landscape project in the context of attention to sustainability. We hope that multidisciplinary groups will want to present contributions that combine different approaches to human–environment interaction and sustainability in order to address these issues across different regions all over the world.

Studies are expected to address:

  • Description of relevant recent and past study cases;
  • Landscape architecture and global changes;
  • Implementing new approaches toward sustainability;
  • Cross-cutting knowledge framework;
  • Beauty and ecology in landscape projects;
  • Landscape transformations and social perception
  • Educational and trans-disciplinary approaches;
  • Reflection on the position of L.A. relating UE, ERC and 2030 Goals;
  • Defining perspectives and innovation;
  • Prevent environmental degradation and risks in natural, cultivated and urban environments.

Prof. Dr. Fabio Di Carlo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • nature-based design
  • landscape design and urbanism
  • beauty and ecology in landscape architecture
  • turning points in landscape architecture
  • new landscapes for global change

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Article
Nature of the Wind, the Culture of the Landscape: Toward an Energy Sustainability Project in Catalonia
Sustainability 2021, 13(13), 7110; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137110 - 24 Jun 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 369
Abstract
Landscape and energy are an inseparable and innovative binomial because of the challenges they imply and being the factors we use to measure the quality of our habitat. Presenting the report “Wind Energy and Landscape. Guidelines for a suitable installation in Catalonia”, which [...] Read more.
Landscape and energy are an inseparable and innovative binomial because of the challenges they imply and being the factors we use to measure the quality of our habitat. Presenting the report “Wind Energy and Landscape. Guidelines for a suitable installation in Catalonia”, which involved research into the methodology for installing wind farms, this article presents a critical reflection on the possible spatial, ethical, and aesthetic effects of energy transition. Landscape design interprets the convergence of territorial values with the innovation of an energy system: it is not measured on a geographical scale, but draws from geography the sense of the overwriting of everyday places, giving them sense, orientation, meaning, and narrative. The research involves ecology, society, nature, and culture. Methodologically, the approach is reversed: rather than designing a project for the correct installation of wind power plants, the project for the wind landscape is understood as new contemporary nature. Wind energy and the culture of the landscape legitimize an advance in thought on design tools, espousing the dictates of the European Landscape Convention and more recent ambitious goals set by the UN with the 2030 Agenda. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Constructed Natures: Shaping Ecology through Landscape Design)
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Article
Challenges for Landscape Architecture: Designed Urban Ecosystems and Social Acceptance
Sustainability 2021, 13(7), 3914; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13073914 - 01 Apr 2021
Viewed by 669
Abstract
The creation of new ecosystems within urban contexts has undeniable benefits for city dwellers in terms of increased urban biodiversity and related provisioning of ecosystem services. However, designing new ecosystems in areas with a high population density or which are subject to intensive [...] Read more.
The creation of new ecosystems within urban contexts has undeniable benefits for city dwellers in terms of increased urban biodiversity and related provisioning of ecosystem services. However, designing new ecosystems in areas with a high population density or which are subject to intensive use may also generate negative impacts on the anthropic dimension and cause social conflicts that, in turn, can undermine the project’s effectiveness. This article focuses on the quite unexplored issue of anthropic “costs” that new urban ecosystems can generate, and on design and management challenges that they open up in terms of social acceptance. Landscape architecture, as a synthesis of ecological, aesthetic, and ethical aspects, seems to be the most appropriate framework for adopting a holistic approach to the design of new urban ecosystems. The article analyzes three Italian landscape architecture projects. All projects adopted spatial measures oriented at fostering perception, understanding, and acceptance of the recreated ecosystems, while preserving them from anthropic impacts. However, these efforts are sometimes jeopardized by a lack of concomitant operational measures, such as stakeholder involvement and site maintenance. Co-existence of delicate habitats and urban functions is thus not utopic but asks that projects effectively integrate ecological sciences, landscape design and management, as well as social-oriented practices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Constructed Natures: Shaping Ecology through Landscape Design)
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