Join editor Alissa North of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design as she discusses her new book Innate Terrain: Canadian Landscape Architecture, a collection of papers written by Canadian scholars and practitioners in the field of landscape architecture (15 of whom will be speaking at this event). Concerned with the practice and theories of landscape architecture in Canada, the book documents the breadth of contemporary practice from across the country, with each chapter author using works of landscape architecture to theorize a distinct approach practiced by Canadians in their national context. The book’s central argument is that Canadian landscape architecture is distinct because of the unique qualities of the Canadian terrain and the particular relationship that Canadians have with the landscapes of our nation.

The chapter authors who will be speaking at the event are: Ron Williams, Jamie Reford, Grant Fahlgren, Adrian Sun Hall, James Thomas, Chris Grosset, Matthew Brown, Stéphane LeBlanc, Andrea Mantin, Marc Hallé, Yannick Roberge, Matthew Spremulli, Michael Ormston-Holloway, Sandra Cooke and Alissa North.

Alissa North is an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Toronto, where she has served as Landscape Architecture Program Director. She graduated with Honours from the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture Program at the University of Toronto, and received the Master in Landscape Architecture degree with Distinction from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. North is a Co-Founding Director of North Design Office, a landscape architecture firm established in Toronto in 2005. Professor North has edited or co-edited a number of publications on process-based landscapes, with focus on the Canadian context, notably including Processing Downsview Park (JoLA, 2012), Operative Landscapes: Building Communities Through Public Space (Birkhäuser, 2013) and Innate Terrain: Canadian Landscape Architecture (UTPress, 2022).