Landscape Architecture Student Aisha Malik is Inspired by the Alaskan Interior
Aisha Malik received three scholarships offered through LAF in 2024: an ASLA Council of Fellows Scholarship, a LandDesign Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Scholarship, and a Landscape Forms Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Scholarship. She is pursuing a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Rhode Island.
Aisha Malik has always loved art and the beauty of the great outdoors, so when she discovered landscape architecture in her freshman year of college in Alaska, something just clicked. She knew immediately that she’d found her path, worked to save up money to go to school out of state, and transferred to the University of Rhode Island (Alaska does not have any accredited landscape architecture programs). Now a rising senior, her passion for the discipline has only grown.
Aisha is a Pakistani and Ukrainian first-generation American. She grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska, a remote city of about 30,000 in Alaska’s interior, where her parents raised her to care for the land she lived on. From her mother, she learned how to forage and fish. Since she was young, she has maintained a consistent art practice as well, often driving out somewhere remote when she’s back in Alaska to paint for hours at a time.
The field of landscape architecture is small in Alaska and the work of landscape architects is made difficult by a short three-month growing season and eight months of winter darkness each year. During her summer breaks, Aisha is learning more about the unique needs of Alaskan landscape architecture through internships. Last summer, she interned for Design Alaska, a multi-disciplinary firm based in Fairbanks. This allowed her to work on large-scale projects, like a subdivision plan in Denali National Park. This internship also gave her valuable interdisciplinary experience as she collaborated with architects, civil engineers, and land surveyors. This summer, she’s interning with another Fairbanks firm, Bettisworth North Architects and Planners.
Designing for Alaskan winters is an enticing challenge for Aisha. How do you use the landscape to improve life even when it’s covered in snow or dark outside? She’s learned a lot about hardscaping, lighting, and other elements used in winter landscapes where plants only have a short seasonal role. After finishing her undergraduate degree at the University of Rhode Island, Aisha wants to come back home to practice, get to know the landscape architecture community in Alaska, and get involved in addressing Arctic climate change.
Aisha is paying her own way through school, and she says receiving these three scholarships relieves a lot of financial stress heading into her senior year. The ASLA Council of Fellows scholarship also provides registration and a travel stipend to attend the ASLA conference in Washington, DC this October. Aisha is “over the moon” excited to experience the conference. She hopes to meet students from around the county and learn more about how their curriculum is set up and how they are taught. She also plans to use this week to explore non-traditional career paths in landscape architecture.
LAF scholarship applications open each fall with a Feb 1 deadline. Learn more about available scholarships here.
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