Today, landscape design is called upon to respond to climate, environmental, and cultural emergencies that are more significant than in the past. There is no longer the time or resources for laboriously constructed natural environments; rather, self-regulation is the founding design principle. Changing climatic conditions require design to celebrate the present and to celebrate it using as little as possible. A careful look at the attitudes of the plant communities with which we share the open space of our cities highlights, today, a manifest discomfort due to the lack of lifeblood, the shortage of water, the progressive aridity of the soil, explicit migrations, new and unprecedented associations and aggregations due to changing conditions. The aim of the GLAS’ research is to decipher these transformations, which are both botanical and cultural, to take into account climate change and the role of our habitat in combating it.

Adriana Ghersi, Fabio Manfredi, Patrizia Burlando, Francesca Mazzino, Stefano Melli, Paola Sabbion, Francesca Coppola