The Plural Forms of African Landscape Architecture

At the conference "African Landscape Architectures: Alternative Futures for the Field," Joe Christa Giraso of Mass Design Group spoke about the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund in Kinigi, Musanze District, Rwanda. Photo: Iwan Baan.

“Landscape is a way of beholding that is inclusive of nature and culture, of people and environment,” said Jala Makhzoumi. “It is anchored, it is situated, it is contextualized.” An Iraqi landscape architect based in Beirut, Makhzoumi offered these reflections to encourage expansive thinking about her discipline as part of a two-day conference hosted by the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) and the Department of African and African American Studies. The international participants in “African Landscape Architectures: Alternative Futures for the Field” explored what it would mean for the practice of landscape architecture to be anchored in the continent’s diverse cultures, ecologies, and traditions.

You can read the full article about the conference by William Smith, Harvard Department of Landscape Architecture here.