I originally posted this article on World Landscape Architecture and was seeking to cover a range of topics including Climate Adaptation, Local solutions at grand scale, Alternative Transport Modes, Rural and Remedies, and more. The first part of the article is here but you can read the full article on WLA.
We are now in the second week of 2017 and looking forward to the coming year ahead to what will be trends in Landscape Architecture. These trends deal with a larger areas of landscape architecture predicting what we may possibly see in the future months and years.
Climate Adaptation
The discussion around climate change in the media and blogs is still revolving around the issue and less around solutions. However, in recent time in research and landscape practice we are seeing more intense discussion around climate change solutions including climate adaptation. In the future we will see more research, competitions and projects using elements of climate adaptation to create wholistic design solutions as the world faces with the increasing environmental pressures of climate change. Urban spaces will be designed utilising the opportunities they present to adapt to climate change.
Local solutions at grand scale
As densities increase in cities (developed and developing countries) we will see larger scale projects that will attempt to service the needs of increasing populations (housing, transport, social, green space, job creation) at a local level. However, these projects will increasingly need to build support at the local level with a mix of private and public funding, this may be not new to the mega international cities but it will become more prevalent in the smaller to medium size cities, no longer can these cities chip away at infrastructure and environmental problems at a piece by piece basis as they feel the pressures of increasing populations. On the reverse, ageing cities in some developed countries (Japan, Czechia, Latvia, Italy, Ukraine, etc) will need to look to their unique local character to reinvent themselves as populations decline and jobs move to larger financial and technological centres. It will also be local people who will with the help from government, and design professionals to create solutions for better cities and communities.
Alternative Transport Modes
As people increasingly embrace ride-sharing and the race for autonomous vehicles (cars, trucks, buses) increases between established car companies and start-up tech companies we will see governments developing initiatives and regulations to address these new technologies and how spaces and services are designed. Autonomous vehicles and ride sharing will reduce the need for wide road lanes, car parking, but require an increase in the number and size of areas required for drop-off and pickup of riders at airports, train/subway stations, offices, retail districts, tourist precincts and more. Cities will also look to use the reduced car lanes widths to provide space for bike lanes and other alternative transport (yet to be designed).