Reconnecting the interrupted landscape : a theoretical framework to support ethically responsible design

Abstract

This PhD research project will establish the contribution the concept of ‘Reconnecting the Interrupted Landscape’ can make to the ethically responsible design of critically impaired (interrupted) landscapes. The research problem is identified in an era when the occurrence of these landscape types seems to be increasing, and it is of significant concern to respond in ‘sustainable’ – ethically responsible – ways. It is a contention of this research that in or-der to respond a shift to a new ethical position is required; expanding on the ecocentric environmental ethic to recognise that human culture is part of ecosystems, not a separate, dominant force. This research project is positioned at the intersection of this ethical position and contemporary theory and practice in landscape architecture. Recent work on “systems aesthetics” [1] and landscape “strategy design” [2] inform the concept of, and approach to design proposed for landscape reconnection, taking hybrid ecological-cultural systems as their operational metaphor. As yet this is an area of landscape architecture in which schol-arship and practice are in their early stages, and this research project aims to make a significant contribution to this developing field.
Keywords: Landscape, Reconnection, Interruption, Ethics, Design