Landscape architecture is a distinct profession that blends design, sustainability and artistry to create spaces that are functional, safe and environmentally responsible. It goes beyond aesthetics to ensure public spaces support community well-being while preserving the integrity of the environment.
Public welfare is a core component of the profession — shaping how landscape architects design spaces that promote health, safety and accessibility. CLARB’s foundation paper “Landscape Architecture and Public Welfare” defines public welfare in the profession and explores the seven key ways landscape architecture impacts communities.
Landscape architecture’s impact on public welfare
- [globe-europe-africa icon] Enhances environmental sustainability by responding to development challenges with solutions that involve sensitivity towards natural systems. At the site design level landscape architects integrate sustainability measures into all designs. Their work protects natural systems ensuring that all community members have access to common resources and are involved in active conservation.
- [building-storefront icon] Contributes to economic sustainability by assisting policymakers and others to improve the marketability and long-term value of residential and commercial housing/property. Economic benefits include reduction of crime, smart development and growth, improved air and water quality, efficient energy use, enhanced quality of life and health, and access to culture and recreation.
- [sun icon] Promotes public health and wellbeing by making connections between human health and wellbeing and the conditions of the outdoor environment. Landscape architecture projects directly affect the mental and physical health of individuals and communities and provide immediate and lasting therapeutic benefits.
- [user-group icon] Builds community by creating attractive, functional places. Landscape architects encourage people to engage in their surroundings — strengthening social cohesion — which results in healthier, more dynamic, more resilient communities at the local, national and global levels.
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[arrow-path] Encourages landscape awareness and stewardship by stimulating our awareness of the landscape and increasing our understanding of the role that humans play in it. Landscape architects encourage citizens to appreciate the landscape and to participate in the processes that shape it. By cultivating a symbiotic and iterative relationship between people and their environment, the practice encourages protection, stewardship and understanding of the landscape.
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[bookmark icon] Offers aesthetic and creative experiences that artists offer: the opportunity to experience enjoyment, contentment, stimulation or pleasure by participating in the aesthetic experience of landscape. An important part of this dimension is the preservation and protection of significant historic properties, buildings, structures, districts, cultural landscapes, artistic objects and archaeological elements.
- [home-modern icon] Enables communities to function more effectively by enabling people to function more effectively in their environments. Landscape architects facilitate many critical human activities and functions such as efficient traffic flow, parking, waste collection/recycling, water use/drainage, air quality, optimal use of space.
