This course is an introduction to the principles of landscape ecology, addressing the application of evolving scientific understanding to contemporary landscape architecture and urban design practice. Each week various elemental ecological paradigms and concepts are introduced and paired with a series of seminal works of urbanism and landscape architecture. A new term project was developed, an extensive reading list was established, weekly reading responses and discussions were monitored, expert guests for lectures (including Peter del Tredici: MIT, Anne Coven: Forestry, Joe Desloge: Earth Sciences / Geography) were invited, an end of term gallery review at 1 Spadina was coordinated, and brand new weekly lectures on various topics related to landscape ecology were prepared.  The course focused on landscape ecology in the Anthropocene. Just as the classic biomes are formed by global patterns of climate, anthromes are formed by global patterns in human populations and their use of land over the long-term. The seminar and term project aimed to introduce and immerse students in the relationships between ecology, geography, and human-created urban forms. As such, the lens of “anthropogenic biomes” offers landscape architects and urbanists a clear mandate and agency for both understanding and working with ecological systems in an ever increasingly urban world.

The term project asks students to develop a synthesis of a robust annotated bibliography and three graphic sections related to a selected topic in an urban region the represents one the world’s diverse biomes.  Course members were divided into five groups representing the world’s natural biomes and were assigned urban regions that correspond to them. 

1. Arid/Desert: Dubai, UAE / Phoenix, USA
2. Tropical Forest: Manaus, Brazil / Jakarta, Indonesia / Mumbai, India
3. Arctic- Tundra - Taiga: Yellowknife, Canada / Reykjavik, Iceland
4. TemperateForest:  Boston, USA / Shanghai, China /Vancouver, Canada
5. Semi-Arid / Chaparral: Cape Town, South Africa / Rome,Italy / Los Angeles, USA. Serving as research sites throughout the term.  

1. Arid/Desert: Cairo, Egypt // Las Vegas, Nevada //Alice Springs, Australia
2. Tropical Forest: Quito, Ecuador // Ho Chi MinhCity, Vietnam // Miami, Florida
3. Arctic – Tundra – Taiga: Yellowknife, Canada //Murmansk, Russia // Tromsø, Norway
4. Temperate Forest: Boston, USA // Seoul, South Korea// Vancouver, Canada
5. Semi-Arid / Chaparral: Lima, Peru // Athens, Greece// Beirut, Lebanon

1. Arid - Desert: Antofagasta,Chile // Marrakesh, Morocco // El Paso - Juárez, USA Mexico
2. Tropical Forest: Male,Maldives // Havana, Cuba // Manila, Philippines  
3. Arctic - Tundra: Churchill,Canada // Nuuk, Greenland // Vadsø, Norway
4. Temperate Zone: Bogota,Colombia // A Coruña, Spain // Christchurch, New Zealand
5. Semi-Arid: SanDiego, USA // Istanbul, Turkey // Beirut, Lebanon

Course website:
https://ecosections.cargo.site/
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Featured work by
Kevin Nitiema, Ghalia Alchibani Alnahlawi