Re-territorializing Landscape

Date: 28 Feb 2025

Time: 9:30 AM –10:30 AM

Venue: SDE3 Level 4 LT 427

Re-territorializing Landscape

As one of the central political concepts of the modern world, territory functions as the primary way in which the world is divided and controlled, both conceptually and materially. Scholarly debates surrounding the concept of territory are highly influential in the theory and practice of spatial disciplines, such as architecture, landscape architecture, and planning.

This talk approaches the notion of ‘territory’ as a field of design research praxis through which interconnected landscapes are produced. It calls for placing the concept of territory at the center of landscape studies and praxis to approach landscape not only as a physical ecological system but also as a cultural-historical one. It suggests implementing imaginative and material practices that redraw borders regulating specific resources or individuals within a territorial zone in order to enhance socio-ecological resilience and equality.

Through the examination of three recently completed or ongoing design research projects, this talk hopes to demonstrate an effort of ‘re-territorializing landscape’.

Xiaoxuan Lu, PhD, is a landscape scholar and director of the Bachelor of Arts in Landscape Studies program at the University of Hong Kong. Focusing on cultural landscapes and the geography of conflict, particularly in transboundary regions in Asia, her research is shaped by her multidiscipli-nary background in architecture, landscape architecture, and human geography. Her scholarship occupies a unique space within landscape studies by approaching “borders” and “boundaries” as complex human creations and responding to the challenges faced by an increasingly divided world.

Lu applies critical cartography, photography, and videogra-phy in her research, providing new theoretical framings of socio-spatial phenomena, alternative toolkits for spatial interventions, and practical advisory references for policy-makers.