In the era of the Anthropocene, cities are increasingly turning into laboratories for mitigating the pressing environmental crisis. Nature-based solutions are becoming a staple in the design of cities, landscape urbanism and its systemic thinking model are permeating practice worldwide.
But is this thinking new?
In her talk, Catherine Maumi, professor in the History of Architecture at ENSA Paris La Villette, recipient of the René Pechère Landscape Architecture Book Prize 2022, will delve into the work and life of American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903). Renowned for projects such as Central Park in New York but also, more importantly, for notions such as park systems and parkways, his theories are increasingly being re-examined by scholars and practitioners in the light of present-day challenges. Some of the concepts Olmsted developed more than 150 years ago are strongly reemerging in contemporary theory and practice.
Envisaging history as an incredible pool of knowledge and creativity, the talk will be followed by a debate on the relevance of Olmsted’s work for contemporary practice, questioning how knowledge and experimentation of the past can inform and enrich present and future visions of the city, mobility and living systems.
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Catherine Maumi, École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Paris-La Villette Architect, doctor of EHESS, HDR (Paris 8), professor in History of Architecture at ENSA Paris La Villette, Research laboratory AHTTEP/AUSser. Her research focuses on the cities and the territory of the United States has been rewarded with diverse fellowships from the Canadian Center for Architecture, from CASVA (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.).
