Landscape and garden architecture, with its process and practice, has an important sustainability ambition. However, we find that mainly physical and ecological aspects of sustainability are addressed, but much less social sustainability, with aspects such as equity, social equality, attention to human rights, participation and inclusion or exclusion mechanisms, accessibility, justice and poverty. This is true both within education and practice. 

This research project wishes to activate the debate on integrating social sustainability into the practice and training of landscape and garden architecture. With interviews and observations of practice since the 1970s, we reconstruct how and which social sustainability principles receive attention within landscape and garden architecture and how social changes impact on this. In addition, in close cooperation with professional associations and the landscape and garden architecture courses of Hogeschool Gent and Erasmushogeschool Brussel, we reflect, sensitise and activate on social sustainability through workshops, discussion tables design exercises and classes. Throughout this shared learning process, we aim to develop a practically usable frame of reference on social sustainability. Awareness-raising about this will be done in practice and training through a manifesto, teaching contributions, a starting note for the training, vlogs, a film and a study day. Given the direct impact of landscape and garden architecture as a design discipline of physical and social space, putting social aspects such as equity, accessibility, inclusion, etc. in the foreground has direct consequences for the sustainability of Flemish space itself. 

Social sustainability in Landscape and Garden Architecture: towards a dialogue in education and practice is a research project of the Futures through Design research centre.