Harvard GSD's FOREST FUTURES explores the past and present of our co-development with forests

The Harvard Graduate School of Design has opened a new exhibition titled FOREST FUTURES aimed at examining the historical relationship between human settlement and forestry practice with an eye toward the mutual concerns and extraordinary risks shared by each in our present-day Anthropocene.

The exhibition was organized by Professor of Landscape Architecture Anita Berrizbeitia and was born out of the FORESTS: History and Future Narratives seminar taught by Berrizbeitia at the GSD in the Fall of 2023. 

A focus on the relationship between forests, public health, environmental justice, and the climate crisis will feature throughout. The school says their goal in staging the exhibition is to outline the challenges inherent in "earning the vast science of forests while at the same time staying deeply attuned to the powerful experiential dimension they offer."

On display are all the photographs included in Stanley Greenberg’s new Olmsted Trees photo series, plus other media and select research from GSD students and faculty that includes work on Boston’s Urban Forest Plan and the ongoing landscape regeneration at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

The school shares: “FOREST FUTURES demonstrates how forests today have become designed environments through the collective efforts of scholars, scientists, designers, artists, policymakers, and communities to restore and conserve biodiversity. Yet, the exhibition also explores how silvicultural practices and other forms of forest management entail the construction of symbiotic relationships with living beings while enabling nature’s own processes to unfold freely.”

“In that sense, FOREST FUTURES celebrates nature's ineffable essence. By urging a sensorial connection beyond observation, the exhibition underscores the limits of logic alone to fathom the natural world’s complexity.”

A special two-day academic conference will also take place at Harvard from February 15-16 featuring Department of Landscape chair Gary Hilderbrand, GSD Dean Sarah Whiting, Acheampong Atta-Boateng, Maria-Mercedes Jaramillo, Reed Hilderbrand principal Eric Kramer, and other important global scholars and practitioners. 

FOREST FUTURES is open to the public now and will remain on view in the GSD’s Druker Design Gallery through March 31st.