P4 / Nature, self, and being in the world: Revealing a flourishing ethics in landscape architecture through poignant landscape experiences
Van Thi Diep, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University / Grant: $7,000, recipient of the Donald Graham Communications Bursary
Landscape, while not synonymous with nature, is inseparable from the notion of nature. No matter how nature is culturally or historically constructed, it always carries with it an existential question about a human-world relationship that is performed through life experiences. Landscapes provide settings for a variety of experiences, from the most mundane to the most poignant. Landscape architects shape these environments. Social and environmental ethics influence life choices, personally and professionally. However, conventional ethics based on binary judgements are paradoxical, and therefore ineffective. The idea of flourishing sees morality as relational and that ethical individuals make autonomous choices to flourish within a world of social and ecological systems. This project asks what a flourishing life and a flourishing environment really means to landscape architects. Concurrently, it questions how poignant landscape experiences create meaning for landscape architects as they strive to create flourishing environments for others.