Designing with Plants III

21. July 2020 Cara Turett

Instructors

Experts

The majority of currently existing alien tree species were introduced to Europe between the 17th and 19th centuries and have thus contributed to new landscape architectural typologies. The lecture offers an overview of these introduced plant species as well as an outlook on their potential in a rapidly changing climatic situation.

The origins of the current diversity of European plant species and their composition go back a long way. However, due to climate change and human-induced processes, many ecosystems no longer have enough time to adapt to rapid changes, potentially endangering entire ecosystems.

The lecture aims to conduct an inventory of the most common alien plant species found in European forests as well as in arboretums and botanical gardens and to analyse their abundance, geographical distribution, and origin.

Expansion of the plant knowledge of non-native species is at the core of this course. The course builds up on module 5 “Designing with plants I and II”. Theoretical and conceptual lectures are supporting the students to expand their knowledge. They will broaden their botanical knowledge which will allow them to professionally integrate plants in their designs. The concepts will be illustrated and discussed with realized examples to tie the theoretical basics with practical cases.