CARE — Landscapes and Ways of Living

CARE — Landscapes and Ways of Living is the second of the three symposia that make up the ¿SUSTAINABLE? ENOUGH series curated by Raffaella Colombo and hosted by metaLAB (at) Harvard this fall semester.

The series explores the meanings, contradictions, and contested claims that surround the topic of sustainability. CARE raises the question of how can caring for communities and landscapes change not only the environments we inhabit, but the ways we choose to live? Care means asking what is worth sustaining, for whom, and under what conditions.

CARE explores the relationship between landscapes and evolving modes of living, questioning how architecture and landscape design respond to demographic and societal shifts. Moving beyond care as an act of protection or a response to vulnerability, the symposium examines care’s potential to challenge established assumptions about how environments are conceived, whose needs they serve, and how they can adapt to changing modes of habitation.

Rather than treating care as an outcome of design, CARE considers what it means to design with and through care, recognizing care as a practice that grapples with the transformations that landscapes undergo well beyond the time of their creation.

Care is not just a matter of good intentions, but of choices that establish priorities, negotiate between competing needs, and determine how responsibilities are allocated. It requires questioning whose well-being is supported, whose interests may be overlooked, and how the decisions made today may shape future prospects. Ultimately, CARE poses the question of how responsibility for places, and for the lives unfolding within them, can become an integral part of imagining and shaping future ways of living.

The three talks that make up the symposium explore: contemporary landscape practices in Spain; how longevity challenges conventional assumptions regarding ageing; and how on the African continent ecological restoration and the role of landscape design are trying to respond to environmental challenges while addressing the needs and aspirations of local communities.

SCHEDULE NOVEMBER, 10, 2026
AT 11:00 AM EDT (BOSTON) / 5:00 PM CET (CENTRAL EUROPE)

11.00|11.05 OPENING SYMPOSIUM| INTRO GUEST
11.05| 11.20 AGATA BUSCEMI
ARCHITECT AND LANDSCAPE DESIGNER
FACULTY MEMBER AT ESCOLA SERT, COL·LEGI D’ARQUITECTES DE CATALUNYA (COAC)
AND CO-FOUNDER OF B2B ARQUITECTES IN BARCELONA
11,20|11.25 INTRO GUEST
11.25|11.40 NIC PALMARINI
DIRECTOR OF THE UK NATIONAL INNOVATION CENTRE FOR AGEING (NICA)
PROFESSOR OF AGEING, POLICY AND PLANNING AT NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY
11.40.11.45 INTRO GUEST
11.45|12.00 RUTH WANJIKU
PRESIDENT, IFLA AFRICA (INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS)
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT AND ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNER
12.00| 12.20 DISCUSSION