URI Landscape Architecture Lecture Series continues Oct. 28 with talk on ‘Context and Sustainability’ in South Africa

KINGSTON, R.I. – October 18, 2010 – The University of Rhode Island’s Landscape Architecture Lecture Series continues on Oct. 28 with a lecture by Will Green, URI professor of landscape architecture. His talk entitled “Context and Sustainability in South Africa: The Role Context Plays in Determining Opportunities, Expectations and Sustainable Outcomes,” begins at 7 p.m. in Weaver Auditorium in the Coastal Institute building on the URI Kingston campus.


The event is free and open to the public.


Green joined the URI faculty in 1992 and has focused his research and teaching on sustainable design forms and practices. In his senior design studios, he directs students working on sustainable design projects for communities, campuses and non-profit agencies, including the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, the towns of Charlestown, South Kingstown and North Kingstown, and the University of Rhode Island.


He spent a sabbatical in 2009 exploring sustainable design in South Africa and Australia. “It was while visiting sites and speaking with designers that I realized how important culture and social conditions were as determinants of what was appropriate and achievable,” Green said. “Sustainable design does not come in one flavor.”


Green has won awards from the Rhode Island chapters of the American Planning Association and the American Society of Landscape Architects. He serves on the URI Master Plan Technical Advisory Committee and the URI President’s Council on Sustainability.


The next speaker in the Landscape Architecture Lecture Series is Gina Ford, principal of Sasaki Associates in Watertown, Mass., who will speak on “Recent Work: Cities, Rivers, Sites” on Nov. 18 at 7 p.m.


The URI Landscape Architecture series is co-sponsored by the College of the Environment and Life Sciences, the Rhode Island chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Rhode Island Nursery and Landscape Association, and Gates Leighton & Associates. For more information about the series, contact the URI Department of Landscape Architecture at 874-2983 or Professor Will Green at wagre@uri.edu.