Projective Ecologies: Ecology, Research, and Design in the Climate Age

The past two decades have witnessed a resurgence of ecological ideas and ecological thinking in discussions of urbanism, society, culture, and design. The field of ecology has moved from classical determinism and a reductionist Newtonian concern with stability, certainty, and order in favor of more contemporary understandings of dynamic systemic change and the related phenomena of adaptability, resilience, and flexibility. But ecology is not simply a project of the natural sciences. Researchers, theorists, social commentators, and designers have all used ecology as a broader idea or metaphor for a set of conditions and relationships with political, economic, and social implications.

Projective Ecologies takes stock of the diversity of contemporary ecological research and theory―embracing Felix Guattari’s broader definition of ecology as at once environmental, social, and existential―and speculates on potential paths forward for design practices. Where are ecological thinking and theory now? What do current trajectories of research suggest for future practice? How can advances in ecological research and modeling, in social theory, and in digital visualization inform, with greater rigor, more robust design thinking and practice? How does all of this point to potential paths forward in an age of climate change and the need for adaptation and mitigation?

With Contributions of:
Jesse M. Keenan, foreword to the second edition
Charles Waldheim, foreword to the first edition
James Corner
Christopher Hight
C.S. Holling and M.A. Goldberg
Wenche E. Dramstad, James D. Olson, and Richard T.T. Forman
Daniel Botkin
Erle C. Ellis
Jane Wolff
Robert E. Cook
Peter Del Tredici
David Fletcher
Frances Westley and Katharine McGowan
Sean Lally
Sanford Kwinter


Co-published by Harvard Graduate School of Design & Actar Publishers

Chris Reed is Founding Director of Stoss Landscape Urbanism, and both Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture and Co-Director of the Master of Landscape Architecture in Urban Design Program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He is recognized internationally as a leading voice in the transformation of landscapes and cities, and he works alternately as a researcher, strategist, teacher, designer, and advisor. Reed is particularly interested in the relationships between landscape and ecology, infrastructure, social spaces, and urbanization. His work collectively includes urban revitalization initiatives, climate resilience and adaptation efforts, speculative propositions, adaptations of infrastructure and former industrial sites, dynamic and productive landscapes, vibrant public spaces that cultivate a diversity of social uses and cultural traditions, and numerous landscape installations. His work can be found in cities as diverse as Boston, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Dallas, Detroit, Galveston, Abu Dhabi, and Dongshan, China. His work through Stoss has been recognized with the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Landscape Architecture; the Topos International Landscape Award; and various other practice and project-based awards from Progressive Architecture, the American Society of Landscape Architects, Azure’s AZ Awards, World Landscape Architecture, the Architectural League of New York, the Waterfront Center, EDRA / Places, and the Boston Society of Architects.

Nina-Marie Lister is Graduate Program Director and Associate Professor in the School of Urban + Regional Planning at Ryerson University in Toronto. From 2010-2014, she was Visiting Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture + Urban Planning at Harvard University, Graduate School of Design. A Registered Professional Planner (MCIP, RPP) trained in ecology, environmental science and landscape planning, she is the founding principal of PLANDFORM, a creative studio practice working at the nexus of landscape, ecology, and urbanism. Prof. Lister’s research, teaching and practice centre on the confluence of landscape infrastructure and ecological processes within contemporary metropolitan regions, with a particular focus on resilience and adaptive systems design. At Ryerson University, Lister founded and directs the Ecological Design Lab, a collaborative innovation incubator for ecological design research and practice. She is a member of the Ryerson Urban Water Centre where she contributes work on flood-friendly design through green and blue infrastructure for resilience. Her current research is funded by a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant and a Graham Foundation publication grant. She is co-editor of Projective Ecologies (with Chris Reed, Harvard and ACTAR Press, 2014) and The Ecosystem Approach: Complexity, Uncertainty, and Managing for Sustainability (with David Waltner-Toews and the late James Kay, Columbia University Press, 2008), and author of more than 40 professional practice and scholarly publications. These include notable contributions to Design With Nature Now (Lincoln Land Institute 2019), Nature & Cities: The Ecological Imperative in Urban Planning & Design (Lincoln 2016), Is Landscape…Essays on the Identity of Landscape (Routledge 2016), Ecological Urbanism (Harvard GSD with Lars Müller Publishers 2010), and Large Parks (Princeton Architectural Press 2008, winner of the J.B. Jackson Book Prize). She was Guest Editor of the Journal of Ecological Restoration for a special issue on landscape infrastructure, and is a contributor to Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment to a special issue on climate change for the 100th anniversary of the Ecological Society of America. Her work has also been widely featured in international exhibitions, including the 2016 Venice Architectural Biennale in which Lister is a collaborator on Canada’s entry entitled EXTRACTION―a critical examination of Canada’s role as a global resource empire, featuring an installation, film and book exploring the ecologies and territories of resource extraction (curated by Pierre Bélanger). Locally, Lister is curator and director of a public exhibition on wildlife, infrastructure and urbanism: XING - (re) connecting landscapes now on permanent exhibit at the Toronto Zoo. In recognition of her international leadership in ecological design, Lister was awarded Honourary Membership in the American Society of Landscape Architects. She was recently named an an “Inspired Educator” by the Canadian Green Building Council’s excellence and leadership awards, and in 2017, Lister was nominated among Planetizen’s Most Influential Urbanists.