Rosetta S. Elkin (CA/US) is a practice-based scholar in landscape studies whose research, writing, and teaching explore the living world. With a BFA from Concordia University, an MLA from the University of Toronto, and a PhD in History from the University of Antwerp, she integrates creative research with interdisciplinary approaches spanning ecology, literature, horticulture, and the humanities. Her publications, including Plant Life: The Entangled Politics of Afforestation (2022) and Landscapes of Retreat (2023), reflect a commitment to understanding landscapes that sustain life.
As inaugural Director of Graduate Landscape Architecture at Pratt since 2021, she has shaped curricula emphasizing land-based learning, while her professional practice, Practice Landscape, combines design innovation with research in ecological and social adaptation.
She is recognized with awards such as the On the Brink Book Award and J.B. Jackson Book Prize, and her work bridges scholarship, pedagogy, and tangible landscape impact.
SESSION
11:00-12:00 (EN)
ROSETTA S. ELKIN | PORTRAITS OF CLIMATE ADAPTATIONS
Elkin challenges one of the deepest assumptions inherited from modernism: that architecture’s role is to stabilise, conquer, and improve nature. Her work suggests almost the opposite: that landscapes are dynamic, and that architecture must become a participant in ecological processes rather than their master. Drawing across history, fieldwork, citizenship, and geography, Elkin explores a beautiful but politically difficult concept. Who decides who is going to retreat, and at whose expense?
Rosetta S. Elkin (CA/US): Professor and Director of Graduate Landscape Architecture, Pratt Institute
Moderator: Katrina Wiberg (DK): Associate Professor, Aarhus School of Architecture and Head of the Centre for Emerging Landscapes
Aarhus School of Architecture
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