College of Built Environments at the University of Washington.
Elizabeth Meyer "Sustaining Beauty"
Location: Kane Hall 120, University of Washington
Friday, November 6, 2009 @ 6:30 PM
About BE Lectures:
All lectures are free and open to the public: however, space is limited. We request that your register in advance online or call 1-800-AUW-ALUM.
This lecture is presented in cooperation with AIA Seattle and their 2009 Design Honor Awards program. Information about this program and the awards presentation on November 9 at Benaroya Hall can be found at the AIA Seattle
Lecture Description:
Elizabeth Meyer, FASLA, lectures on her current work "Sustaining Beauty," an affirmation of the necessity of aesthetics in a sustainable design agenda.
Sustainable landscape design is generally understood in relation to three principles-ecological health, social justice and economic prosperity. Rarely do aesthetics factor into sustainability discourse outside of negative asides conflating the visible with the aesthetic and rendering both superfluous. This lecture examines the role of beauty and aesthetics in a sustainability agenda. It argues that for culture to be sustainable it will take more than ecologically regenerative designs. What is needed are designed landscapes that provoke those who experience them to become more aware of how their actions affect the environment, and to care enough to make changes. This requires considering the role of aesthetic environmental experiences, such as beauty, in re-centering human consciousness from an egocentric to a more bio-centric perspective. This argument takes the form of a manifesto is inspired by American, European and Australian landscape architects whose work is not always understood as contributing to sustainable design.
About the Elizabeth Meyer:
Elizabeth Meyer, FASLA, is an associate professor In the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia.