Landscape Architecture off the Beaten Path

This month sees the publication of LA+ PLEASURE, the second issue of the ambitious new journal of landscape architecture from PennDesign. From the latest frontier of global tourism to the design of your neighborhood park, from the socially acceptable to the illicit, this issue charts the economy, psychology, and spatiality of pleasure. Following LA+ WILD and LA+PLEASURE, future issues will take on Tyranny, Simulation, Identity, and Risk. Here, Editor in Chief Tatum Hands explains how her team puts the “plus” in LA+.

 

The journal aims to broaden the intellectual reach of landscape architecture. We hope to inspire this new generation of landscape architects to bring more criticality to their work by finding ways into sites and projects through different disciplinary lenses. A side effect of our interdisciplinary approach is also that we are also raising the profile of landscape architecture among other disciplines.

 

Most design journals tend to just have designers ‘talking’ to designers; we wanted to break out of this mold and connect landscape architecture to a world of relevant disciplines and ideas. 

 

Well, there’s no denying that landscape architecture’s role in the design of environment and public space has broad impact. And yet it is often misunderstood or marginalized by other disciplines. LA+ makes landscape architecture, and design more generally, accessible to other audiences by speaking in jargon-free language and showing its relevance through different disciplinary lenses.

 

It’s really quite an incredible range. In every issue we have landscape architects, artists, and designers, but we also have a range of surprising but relevant disciplines, including history, philosophy, geography, evolutionary ecology, semiotics, marketing, anthropology, bioengineering, climatology, biology, literature, even neuroscience . . . the list goes on. 

 

We select themes that enable us to draw upon other fields in a way that exposes the design disciplines to new, inspiring, and relevant material. Because we are sourcing from multiple disciplines, we solicit most of the content for each issue and work closely with our authors to help them bring out the aspects of their work and their fields that are most relevant to our primary audience of designers. Papers go through an internal review process before being accepted for publication and occasionally we’ll also seek external comment on papers where we feel it’s warranted.

 

I admit it’s an unusual background for the editor of a design journal, but the journal is not just about design. Research rigor, concise writing, and accessible language are qualities we seek to bring out in the journal’s content and my research and writing background in law and politics helps me to do that. In fact, the idea for LA+ grew out of my previous editorial experience working on a law journal that was known for publishing alternative perspectives and voices in a field which, like landscape architecture, imagines itself to be interdisciplinary but is in reality fairly insular. 

 

Because there’s already too much “e-babble” out there! LA+ is intended as a collectible set. It’s designed to be something worth keeping and something to which readers will return. 

 

Penn has always been at the center of ideas in landscape architecture. LA+ seeks to extend this legacy and build upon the interdisciplinary culture of the school. 

 

Absolutely! Students are a vital part of the production of the journal and each team shapes the journal in new ways. The students get a lot from being closely involved in the publication process, but the journal gains too. Each member of the editorial team contributes a researched, critical and original take on the theme, which serves as a short (mainly graphic) break throughout the issue. These are often provocative, sometimes humorous, and always informative.  

 

Yes, now that we have established the journal’s identity and audience, we want to focus on the evolution of graphics and typography so that the journal continues to stay fresh and surprising. Issue 4, LA+ SIMULATION, is our first guest-edited issue and is being produced by PennDesign Landscape Architecture faculty members Karen M’Closkey and Keith VanDerSys. 

 

Subscribe at LAPlusJournal.com.

 

Purchase single issues at your local bookseller or museum shop, or at OROEditions.com.