Stiles, R., 2000, Landscape architecture (education): challenges and strategies at the start of the 21st century – between balkanisation and globalisation?, in: ECLAS (Aničić, B.), ‘Landscape of the future: the future of landscape architecture education’, Department of Landscape Architecture, Zagreb
- Author : Stiles, R.
- Year : 2000
- Published in Book : Landscape of the future: the future of landscape architecture education
- Pages : 169-177
- Abstract in English : We live in a rapidly changing world characterised more than ever by uncertainty about future developments. In this context it is essential that the relatively young discipline of landscape architecture reflects upon the directions of its future development in terms of the wider historical and geographic context. This paper will consider the scale of social change and the historical relationships between landscape architecture and its social context. It will then go on to consider what lessons landscape architecture education can draw from this analysis for planning its future development. Landscape is not just a product of mankind, it is a very tangible outcome of social change and development. Major developments in landscape architecture can also be interpreted as reflections of significant social upheavals as well as being manifestations of wider cultural, political and artistic trends. The development and spread of the landscape garden in England can be linked to the improvements of country estates by landowners carried out in the course of what is know as the agricultural revolution. The modern European city is, in turn, a product of the industrial revolution. Out of this as a direct reaction to the serious social and environmental problems it generated grew, more or less directly, a whole new category of landscape, urban parks and open spaces. Landscape architecture as we know it is a product of the industrial city far more than of the country estate, and landscape architecture education and the modern landscape profession was established only after most of the modern cities had taken shape. Current changes in society are every bit as revolutionary as the previous ones and are certain to bring with them new changes in the way landscapes are created and used. The latest acronym: ICE – Internet Changes Everything is already having a profound effect on our lives. Publications with titles such as ‘The Death of Distance’ suggest that fundamental changes in the significance of the cities created by the industrial revolution are likely. The rural landscape too is changing with developments in crop production and the liberalisation of world trade. Developments such as deregulation and globalisation have impacts for landscape architecture and landscape architecture education. These will include the need to develop our international perspectives within and beyond Europe; to welcome the discovery of the significance of landscape by other disciplines and to concentrate of the development of more consistent and rigorous theoretical and methodological approaches using new technologies within which creativity and innovation can flourish and contribute to the shaping of new European landscapes.