The ethics of place-making : how landscapes lie

Abstract

Expertise in the ‘Nature-isation’ of urban environments marks an important shift in 21st Century urbanism. In a scramble to rebrand urban design as “sustainable” and “green”, Landscape Architects have attempted to claim the territory wholesale, pointing to a clear link between “Landscape” and “Nature”. Yet, John May’s (2008) critique of a major contemporary project of landscape architecture, Fresh Kills Park, is a significant challenge to this claim. Here, May contests the underpinning values of design in the context of a hidden social and political ideology.