An Emerging Paradigm for Landscape Architecture

Abstract

A new paradigm—a model or framework that creates a world-view within which a tradition of research arises—is emerging in landscape architecture. The paradigm involves a shift in the world-view of the human relationship to the natural world. It is identified as an ecological humanism, being based in its most fundamental form on a growing comprehension of the universality of the principles of ecology. In terms of landscape architecture it signals a shift or an enlarging of the concept of “the stewardship of the land” from a human responsibility to care for the land, to one in which the steward is now an integral part of the environmental continuum; rather than being above it, the steward's responsibility is now toward recognizing his/her impact on that environment.