Critical topics of our age from climate change, to social inequality and political ecology, require critical landscape architectural approaches. Through various forms of fieldwork, the Critical Landscapes Design Lab, affiliated with the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, engages directly with diverse audiences, sites, and issues, and in the process expands theories and practices of landscape architecture.
Directed by CMES Steering Committee member Gareth Doherty, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and Director of the Master in Landscape Architecture Program at GSD, the Lab has research partners across the University, including the Afro-Latin American Research Institute and the Center for African Studies. Through various forms of fieldwork, the Lab engages directly with diverse audiences, sites, and issues, and in the process expands theories and practices of landscape architecture. The Critical Landscapes Design Lab’s current and recent projects include the Atlas for a City-Region: Imagining the Post-Brexit Landscapes of the Irish Northwest; Sacred Groves and Secret Parks: Orisha Landscapes in Brazil and West Africa; and After Dark: Nocturnal Landscapes and Public Spaces in the Arabian Peninsula, a conference convened by Doherty and CMES Director William Granara.
