Rosetta S. Elkin

I am a practiced-based scholar in landscape studies. My research, writing and teaching help me explore the living world. My work is motivated by adjacent fields including ecology, literature, gardening, horticulture and the humanities more broadly. I studied Fine Arts before receiving a Master of Landscape Architecture then earned my PhD in History, a trajectory that reflects my interest in creative research, and the manifold ways of understanding and valuing the landscapes that continue to support our species.

My passion for interdisciplinary attention is best conveyed by the publications that I author and design.  In Plant Life: The Entangled Politics of Afforestation (University of Minnesota Press, 2022), I explore the past, present and future of large-scale tree planting campaigns and the curious position designers play when they specify trees. The publication was awarded the On the Brink Book Award from the University of New Mexico. Shortly thereafter, I published Landscapes of Retreat (K.Verlag, 2023), a portrait of social adaptation found in the land that is left behind as settlement patterns shift due to changing climates. This publication, now in its second edition printing, was awarded the J.B. Jackson Book Prize from University of Virginia Center for Cultural Landscapes. Other book publications include Tiny Taxonomy: Individual Plants in Landscape Architecture (Actar, 2017), Live Matter: Designing Plants (Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, 2015) and Platform 6: A Year at Harvard Graduate School of Design (Actar, 2013). I also published widely in magazines, journals and other media; and believe in open access publishing, so all titles are available for free download here.

I joined Pratt in 2021, as the inaugural Director of Graduate Landscape Architecture. In this role I developed the curriculum and pedagogic direction of the program, including the emphasis on land-based learning. Previously, my work as co-director of the Master of Design Studies in Risk & Resilience at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) enabled me to develop post-graduate research in environmental risk without disciplinary limitations. As a Professor, I have also taught landscape studies at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Academie Bouwkunst, and McGill University. I am honored and supported by awards and recognitions, including the Graham Foundation Grant, Harvard Climate Solutions Award, the Garden Club of America Rome Prize. My design work is also exhibited widely in venues such as the Victoria & Albert Museum, Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chelsea Festival, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Early in my career, I worked as lead project designer and manager for Inside Outside in Amsterdam, collaborating across discipline with offices including OMA, Arup, UNStudio, MVRDV and De Architecten Cie. Following this professional foundation in Europe, I established my own practice in 2006. Practice Landscape is both a for-profit design studio and a not-for profit (501c3) regranting foundation. Our work encompasses a range of scales and landscape types, from regional adaptation, to ecological assessment, large public parks to exhibitions and private gardens. Our projects prioritize novel methods and radical collaboration, often outside the regulatory environment. Taken together, it is only in practice that research hits the ground, and begins to amend our relations.

PhD, University of Antwerp
MLA, University of Toronto
BFA, Concordia University