Master of Landscape Architecture student Vincent Javet published a Q & A with Pierre Bélanger (BLA 1996) and Lucy Lippard in the Winter 2017 issue of Ground, the magazine of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects.

The discussion considered the roles that globalization, colonialism, and increasing urbanization play in the field of landscape architecture, and explored how landscape architects can work to challenge the exploitation and degradation of the land on which we depend.

"Our ongoing rapid urbanization and the commodification of the world at large has resulted in complex and multilayered socio-economic and environmental issues for the landscape architecture profession to address," writes Javet. "The profession must begin to question its role in the unmaking, formalization, privatization, and sterilization of land at scales ranging from the city to the territory."

Visit Ground magazine's website to read the full Q & A and other articles from the Winter 2017 issue.

Bélanger was the Daniels Faculty's 2016-2017 Michael Hough/OALA Visiting Critic. In January 2016, he presented a public lecture with Jessica F. Green. Titled "What is the Geography of Energy?" the talk explored how landscapes of energy govern the planet, and influence how we conceptualize relationships between human intervention and the natural environment. The full lecture is available on the Daniels Faculty's YouTube channel.

Photo, top: Diavik Diamond Mine, which opened in 2003 in the Northwest Territories excabates deep into the sub-Arctic tundra landscape, via Ground magazine.