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Urban Design and Landscape Architecture is a professional discipline that aims to protect, restore, and improve existing landscapes and create new landscapes in urban areas using scientific and artistic principles to enhance people’s quality of life.
By 2040, all landscape architecture projects will simultaneously:
- Achieve zero embodied and operational emissions and increase carbon sequestration
- Provide significant economic benefits in the form of measurable ecosystem services, health co-benefits, sequestration, and green jobs
- Address climate injustices, empower communities, and increase equitable distribution of climate investments
- Restore ecosystems and increase and protect biodiversity
Landscape architects are uniquely qualified to understand and manage complex, multi-disciplinary challenges and design sustainable, world-changing solutions.
We are committed to following the science, and through this Climate Action Plan we will rapidly scale up Climate- and Biodiversity-positive solutions
- Design Climate Positive Landscapes
- Design Pedestrian, Cyclist, and Public Transit-Centric Communities
- Reduce Energy Use and Support Renewables
- Help Communities Adapt to Climate Impacts
- Explore Pathways to Financial Sustainability with Communities
- Protect and Increase Biodiversity
- Learn from Indigenous Communities Through Collaboration
- Build Climate Coalitions
What is landscape architecture?
Landscape architecture is the study and practice of designing environments (outdoors & indoors) of varying scale that encompasses elements of art, environment, architecture, engineering, and sociology.
Landscape Architecture is a profession that is unknown or misunderstood as gardening by many. Its value to society is greater than many can imagine and should be celebrated by the population of every town, city, and country.
Landscape architects are involved in the conceptual design of spaces that “creates and enables life between the buildings”. The involvement of landscape architects can be seen in streets, roads, shared paths, housing estates, apartment compounds, shopping malls, squares, plazas, gardens, pocket parks, playgrounds, cemeteries, memorials, museums, schools, universities, transport networks, regional parks, national parks, forests, waterways and across towns, cities and countries. Landscape architects often go beyond site design and also create masterplans, frameworks and policies for place
and city-shaping that enable citizens and government to create better places for all.
Many landscape architects from the past, current, (and future) have designed everlasting landscapes that will stand the test of time for decades to come that create calm, joy, and inspiration for so many. As a profession, landscape architects should be proud as few professions can stake claim to creating places that impact and benefit so many people.
The question of what is landscape architecture raises varying opinions on what it is and isn’t; the profession is so broad and encompassing that there is enough scope and breadth in the profession to accommodate varying views and remember that we have a wide range of expertise, skills and talents.
What is Urban Design?
Urban design is concerned with the arrangement, appearance and function of our suburbs, towns and cities. It is both a process and an outcome of creating localities in which people live, engage with each other, and engage with the physical place around them.
Urban design involves many different disciplines including planning, development, architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, economics, law and finance, among others.
Urban design operates at many scales, from the macro scale of the urban structure (planning, zoning, transport and infrastructure networks) to the micro scale of street furniture and lighting. When fully integrated into policy and planning systems, urban design can be used to inform land use planning, infrastructure, built form and even the socio-demographic mix of a place.
Urban design can significantly influence the economic, environmental, social and cultural outcomes of a place:
- Urban design can influence the economic success and socio-economic composition of a locality—whether it encourages local businesses and entrepreneurship; whether it attracts people to live there; whether the costs of housing and travel are affordable; and whether access to job opportunities, facilities and services are equitable.
- Urban design determines the physical scale, space and ambience of a place and establishes the built and natural forms within which individual buildings and infrastructure are sited. As such, it affects the balance between natural ecosystems and built environments,and their sustainability outcomes.
- Urban design can influence health and the social and cultural impacts of a locality: how people interact with each other, how they move around, and how they use a place.
Although urban design is often delivered as a specific ‘project’, it is in fact a long-term process that continues to evolve over time. It is this layering of building and infrastructure types, natural ecosystems, communities and cultures that gives places their unique characteristics and identities.
The estimated annual potential economic value of landscape architecture and urban design works globally is challenging to quantify precisely due to the diverse range of services and impacts these fields encompass. However, some estimates can be made based on the economic contributions of related industries.
- Urban Development and Infrastructure: Urban design plays a critical role in shaping the infrastructure of cities, which has a significant economic impact. The global construction market, which includes urban development, was valued at around $10.5 trillion in 2021 and is expected to grow significantly. Landscape architecture, as part of this, contributes to property values, tourism, and overall quality of life in urban areas.
- Property Value Enhancement: Quality landscape architecture can increase property values by 5-20%. In large urban areas, this translates to billions of dollars in additional value.
- Environmental Services: Landscape architecture contributes to ecosystem services like air and water purification, flood control, and climate regulation, which have been valued at trillions of dollars annually on a global scale.
- Tourism and Recreation: Parks, green spaces, and well-designed urban areas are major attractions, generating significant revenue through tourism and recreation.
- Health and Well-being: The design of urban spaces has a direct impact on public health. Walkable, green cities reduce healthcare costs and increase productivity, contributing billions to the economy.