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Abstract
How can a revived love for plants and a deep understanding of form-giving to our environment lead us out of the many crises we are currently facing? At its best, landscape architecture merges ecology and design to create landscapes that work with the site, not against it. In this lecture, Anette Freytag gives an insight into her research and travels during her sabbatical. She investigated how this profession can benefit from a deep understanding of the history of designing with nature and a new care for the plants involved. Anette argues that two concepts – Biophilia and Topology – can help society to better deal with our current environmental crisis and improve well-being for all. She will show recent research and preservation work as well as her community engaged spatial justice projects, where she works with arts integration.
Bio
Anette Freytag is a Professor of the History and Theory of Landscape Architecture at Rutgers University. Her research focuses on designed landscapes from the 19th century to the contemporary practice with a particular focus on topology, phenomenology, and walking. Anette Freytag’s research has been supported by the Rutgers Research Council, the Volkswagen Foundation, the Lucius and Annemarie Burckhardt Foundation, the Christoph Merian Foundation and various other associations and private donors.
Her books have been honored with the J. B. Jackson Book Prize, the European Garden Book Award, the DAM Architectural Book Award, and many more. Before joining Rutgers University, Anette has taught at ETH Zurich, the University of Basel, the University of Innsbruck, and KU Leuven. She was a visiting scholar at the Central Institute for Art History in Munich, the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. In 2019, she co-founded the Arts Integration Research Collaborative (AIR), which prioritizes creative placemaking to foster spatial justice through projects that seek safe access to nature for all.
