Landscape architecture to respond to the challenges of climate change

“Designing landscapes for our Future” by Andrea Balestrini and Marco Bellante emphasizes the urgent need for landscape architecture to respond to climate change, urban transformation, and social challenges. The landscape is seen by LAND Research Lab experts as a living, evolving system, shaped by human interaction and cultural identity. In this vision, public spaces must be adaptable, inclusive, and multifunctional, designed with the aim of reconnecting people with nature and improving urban quality of life. Through targeted green interventions and a holistic approach, landscape architects become mediators between environment, society, and economy. The COVID-19 pandemic and the European Green Deal both reinforce the need to rethink cities as spaces of resilience, sustainability, and common well-being.

In his “face-to-face discussion”, Andreas Kipar presents a vision of landscape architecture as a responsive, ethical, and context-driven practice. He advocates for impactful solutions as devaping – Let’s break it up! – that respond to environmental and social challenges by being flexible, resilient, and deeply rooted in the surroundings of our cities. Rather than focusing on form alone, regeneration should prioritize processes, and collaborations that support long-term sustainability and community well-being, leveraging the ecosystem services provided by Natural Capital Accounting. Landscape architecture is a tool for resistance, adaptation, and positive transformation.