On Water: Silvia Benedito + Pierre Bélanger

Mare Liberum invites Harvard University Graduate School of Design faculty to contribute informal talks and interviews about landscape, water, waterways, and more as part of the collective’s exhibition and residency, or, The Other Island. 

Tue, Sep 8, 12 pm 
Silvia Benedito

Sílvia Benedito is an Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She teaches graduate core design studios in landscape architecture and urbanism, as well as advanced research seminars. She also serves as Co-Chair of the Sensory Media Platform at the GSD. Benedito's research and practice are focused on the role of atmosphere—the meteorological envelope and space for sensory acquisition—in the built environment. Interested in the production and reception of atmosphere, Benedito’s research simultaneously examines the making of micro-climates for human comfort, and the representation of atmosphere through time-based media such as film and video. In her methods for landscape architecture and urbanism the concept and space of atmosphere claim the body in multiple scopes and scales—from large ecological networks to smaller open space interventions, from large urban plans to immersive installations. Claiming that landscape is as much about air and atmosphere as it is about land and water offers a stimulating dimension to these disciplines, reconciling ecological imperatives with human delight and well-being. Complete bio here. 

Thu, Sep 10, 12 pm 
Pierre Bélanger


Pierre Bélanger is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and Co-Director of the MDes Postgraduate Design Research Program at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Cross-appointed with the Department of Landscape Architecture and the Advanced Studies Program, Bélanger teaches and coordinates graduate courses on the convergence of ecology, infrastructure, media and urbanism in the interrelated fields of design, communications, planning and engineering.

In response to the inertia of urban planning and the overexertion of civil engineering in public works today, Bélanger’s contribution to the field of “landscape infrastructure” has been shared and developed in collaboration with governments, professionals and academics worldwide. Vis-à-vis the complexities, magnitudes and indeterminacies of urban change, Bélanger’s core commitment lies in the agency of landscape architecture to redefine the morphology of urban infrastructure in research, pedagogy and practice.  Complete bio here.