LANDLABS · Landscape Laboratories: Design strategies for sustainable and beautiful urban landscapes in the Anthropocene

LANDLABS operates in six landscape laboratories all over Europe, all of which are urban landscapes characterized by heavy industrial influence. Its goals are the development of new theories for understanding urban landscapes in the Anthropocene and new methods to design them for higher sustainability and beauty. This is necessary because industrial urban landscapes are currently not appropriately recognised in terms of their contributions to sustainability and beauty. The reason for this deficit is the prevalent dualistic concept of nature versus culture in Western countries, which sees landscapes as green, natural counterparts to humanly shaped environments. This concept neglects the potential of industrial urban landscapes for sustainability and beauty. Yet, the current notion of the Anthropocene as a new geologic epoch has shaken up established Western concepts of nature by declaring that every cubic centimetre on the planet has been influenced by humanity - there is no nature out there which is unaffected by humans.LANDLABS assumes that the conditions understood through the concept of the Anthropocene call for new ways of understanding and designing urban landscapes in order to increase their sustainability and beauty. LANDLABS explores new perspectives on the interconnectedness between humans, animals, plants, water or technologies in these landscapes. The young researchers in LANDLABS will first propose new interdisciplinary theory components, second they will develop design scenarios and design strategies for the six landscape laboratory sites through an innovative research-through-design approach, and third they will develop new transferable design strategies for urban landscapes in the Anthropocene which lead to higher sustainability and beauty. LANDLABS offers young researchers the possibility to contribute to the highly topical issue of the green transition of cities in accordance with the European Green Deal and United Nations Goals of Sustainability.