Food for Thought | Thorbjörn Andersson | Let's Talk About Sustainability!

February 29, 2024
12pm
The most urgent topic today for all professional groups everywhere must be how to give our planet and its inhabitants possibilities to survive. Never before has the professional field of landscape architects shifted its goals so quickly as we have seen over the last few years only. The focus for landscape architecture nowadays is clearly sustainability. Storm water parks, heat islands, fire proof grasses, taming the high winds, preventing river flooding, sustain biodiversity have taken the place of design services. This creates a dilemma for the professional group. Is there a way to contain both core values within the field such as planning and design with climate change red alert issues? Is our profession becoming a completely new one, requiring new competences which we are currently not being trained for?
About Thorbjörn Andersson
Thorbjörn Andersson has practiced landscape architecture since 1981, having studied in Sweden and the United States. He is probably most known for his work in the planning and design of public spaces in the city. A selection of these projects was published in the book Nature Site Restraint-Thorbjörn Andersson, landscape architect (2020).
Thorbjörn Andersson has been author of essays and books including Topografier-landskapets texter (2024). An elected member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts he is currently professor at SLU Ultuna, Sweden, in addition to his continuing practice. Teaching experience also includes visiting professorships at Harvard University GSD, Cambridge (2001); the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland (2004); and the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign (2006).
For his contribution to the field of landscape architecture, in 2009 Thorbjörn Andersson was awarded the Prince Eugene Medal from His Majesty, the King of Sweden.