PennDesign Launches New Interdisciplinary Journal of Landscape Architecture

The University of Pennsylvania School of Design is pleased to announce the launch of Landscape Architecture Plus (LA+), an interdisciplinary design journal produced at the School under the direction of Dr. Tatum L. Hands, Editor-in-Chief, and distributed globally by ORO Editions.

 

Published twice yearly, each issue of the journal explores a theme from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, provoking new modes of creative inquiry and practice.

 

"We wanted to produce something completely different to the usual landscape design journal-which generally just features designers talking to other designers-and truly embrace the rhetoric that landscape architecture is an interdisciplinary field," Dr. Hands explained. "LA+ aims to reveal connections and build collaborations between landscape architecture and other disciplines," she said. 

 

The journal's inaugural issue, LA+ WILD, to be released in Spring 2015, explores the concept of WILD and its role in design, large-scale habitat and species conservation, scientific research, the human psyche and aesthetics. The issue includes contributions drawn from disciplines as diverse as evolutionary ecology, biology, visual arts, bioengineering, landscape architecture, planning, architecture, climatology, environmental history, philosophy, and literature.

 

LA+ is targeted toward the thinking professional and features a range of contribution types including essays, interviews, design criticism, graphic features, illustrations, and provocations.

 

The themes of the next three issues are LA+ PLEASURE, LA+ TYRANNY and LA+ IDENTITY.

 

Professor Richard Weller, Chair of PennDesign's Landscape Architecture Department, welcomed the new publishing initiative. "LA+ is a genuine effort to expand the intellectual range of the discipline and profession. We all know that landscape architecture is a complex, interdisciplinary field but we've never before had a journal devoted to this fundamentally important fact," he said. "LA+ will be a 'must-read' for students, academics and professionals in landscape architecture and related fields."

 

LA+ is currently seeking submissions for its Fall 2015 issue, LA+ PLEASURE, inviting submissions on how the production and consumption of pleasure impacts our cities, our landscapes and ourselves.  The deadline for abstracts and expressions of interest is September 1, 2014 with submissions due October 15, 2014. For more information, visit www.laplusjournal.com.