Future matters: Rethinking material value-chains by drawing out hidden landscapes of extraction

This paper outlines a mode of landscape architecture practice that uses landscape drawing processes to prompt the rethinking of material value-chains. As the catastrophic damage reaped on Earth’s ecosystems because of human material demands becomes increasingly visible, so too does the need to change current material-use practices. The drawing methods developed in landscape architecture for seeing and working with landscape can play a key role in this change-process, as they have the potential to open new perspectives among material users and support rethinking material value-chains by highlighting the urgent need for change. This approach to landscape practice operates through workshops that lead participants through drawing processes to establish encounters with the environmental destruction caused by hidden processes of material extraction. This work highlights a future role for landscape architects supporting regenerative material practices through cultivating awareness of our distributed landscape impacts.<p></p>