2023 Landscape Architecture Trends
An article I published earlier this year on World Landscape Architecture
The coming year has a greater sense of optimism after the past three years of COVID-19; there are possible economic issues in 2023; however, the landscape architecture profession will continue to move forward and lead projects. Many trends will occur over the coming 12-24 months, and I seek to address the main 2023 trends that will influence the landscape architecture profession.
Climate change will have an increased influence on design firms
As governments, clients and organisations have moved from discussing and debating climate change over the past decade to supporting various initiatives through financial support and procurement requirements. Landscape architects will continue to address various problems (flooding, drought, biodiversity decline, heat island effect, and many others) with solutions based on science, art and nature.
Professional organisations such as ASLA, AILA, Landscape Institute and others are providing policies and tools for landscape architects to assist in reducing or eliminating carbon emissions (operations and projects) from their projects. These organisations are also pushing landscape firms forward by running education programs and including sustainability criteria in award programs.
Clients (Public and Private companies) will place more significant requirements on consultants to reduce emissions to comply with their company action plans and ESG policies. These requirements will come in different forms, with design firms needing to show that they have environmental credentials (carbon offsetting, policies, etc) in operating their company, and they will also have to provide data or certification that the design for the project will achieve reduced emissions or carbon sequestration in comparison to baseline designs.
Addressing climate change will not be limited to environmental issues. Over the past few years, it has been apparent that there is a need to address social issues related to justice, equity, diversity and inclusion within communities, design firms and governments. Landscape architects will need to be part of the conversation and look to lead it when possible in 2023.
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Natural and Engineering solutions
Due to the tight time program, many governments have realised that natural solutions alone (reforestation, wetland creation, mangrove reinstatement, etc.) will not be able to reach their 2030 goals or targets. Therefore they will increase budgets for engineering and technical solutions (batteries, alternative energy systems, carbon capture, etc.) to reduce carbon emissions. These technological initiatives will involve landscape architects during urban design, and planning phases as governments (and private companies) seek to determine the best locations (through GIS etc.) for these initiatives.
A shift in focus from emissions to biodiversity
Due to the Biodiversity Agreement reached at the COP15 UN biodiversity summit in Montreal, Canada and other government policies, the focus will shift from carbon emissions to other climate change issues such as biodiversity, greenhouse gases and water/food security. Landscape architects will start to see clients require more information about how projects are contributing to improving biodiversity and reducing emissions within projects. There will be a move from monoculture urban forests planted to achieve carbon offsets to greater species diversity of plantings to achieve increased biodiversity. This trend will impact nurseries as there may be a significant increase in contract growing, including sourcing seed and developing propagation techniques to grow some species at scale commercially.
Read the full article on World Landscape Architecture at https://worldlandscapearchitect.com/2023-landscape-architecture-trends/