Perspectives: Jean Yang
Jean Yang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF).
March 2025
Tell us about yourself.
I am a landscape architect, educator, and researcher dedicated to exploring how design can foster resilience—ecologically, culturally, and socially. My work bridges design, advocacy, pedagogy, and community co-creation, always asking: How can landscapes support belonging, adaptability, and systemic change?
My path to landscape architecture has been anything but linear. Like many people, I didn't even know what landscape architecture was until graduate school. I was pursuing a dual master's in urban planning and architecture at UCLA, where I studied how spatial policies shape communities. My early work in Nairobi’s Kibera slum, exploring community-led infrastructure, showed me that policy alone wasn’t enough—design was missing as a tool for agency and resilience. When I discovered landscape architecture, it was a revelation—finally, a field that integrated spatial design, policy, and cultural narratives into a more holistic practice. I had initially started in architecture, but I found myself drawn to the larger, systemic questions of space, environment, and equity. Landscape architecture offered a more flexible, interdisciplinary approach—one that allowed me to prototype new ways of working that combined technical expertise with community-driven processes, resilience planning, and long-term ecological thinking.
At SUNY ESF, I teach and research at the intersection of climate justice, resilience frameworks, and participatory design, helping students see design not as a final product but as an evolving process embedded in relationships, storytelling, and adaptation. I believe that landscape architecture has the potential to reshape power structures, democratize access to design knowledge, and prototype alternative futures that are more inclusive and just.
How did you find the profession of landscape architecture?
I didn’t find landscape architecture—it found me through the gaps in my experiences with urban planning, architecture, policy, and advocacy. During my first years practicing after getting my MLA , I was working at the intersection of landscape architecture, urban planning, and GIS, focusing on issues like equitable park distribution and resilience metrics. But I kept running into the same frustration: policy often fails because it doesn’t account for the spatial realities of people’s daily lives.
As I was working on large-scale projects at Studio-MLA, like Our County, the Upper LA River Plan, and Destination Crenshaw, I realized that metrics alone weren’t answering the questions I was asking. I became increasingly interested in how landscape architecture could translate policy into place, data into lived experience, and climate adaptation into tangible interventions. More importantly, I explored how it allowed for iteration, co-creation, and alternative models that could be tested, adapted, and reimagined.
Now, my work continues to prototype new ways of practicing landscape architecture—whether in the field, in the classroom, or in collaboration with communities—integrating storytelling, critical geography, and interdisciplinary design methods to create adaptive, resilient landscapes.
Can you share what inspired you to make the transition from practice to pedagogy?
I transitioned to academia because I wanted to prototype new models of research, practice, and engagement that I couldn’t fully explore in a firm. In my professional experience, I saw how many design solutions failed not because they weren’t technically sound, but because they lacked embedded relationships, long-term adaptability, or mechanisms for community self-determination. Through pedagogy, I hope to expand design literacy, break down barriers to participation, and equip students with the critical tools to reimagine the profession from within.
I teach because I believe landscape architecture is not just for designers—it’s for everyone.
As a Spatial Justice Fellow at the University of Oregon, I had the opportunity to test new methodologies in partnership with students, communities, and collaborators—whether that’s integrating participatory action research into studio work, developing resilience metrics that reflect lived experiences, or rethinking how landscape architecture can address systemic inequities.
What are the foremost issues that are you working to address through your research, practice, and advocacy at present?
Such a hard question. It’s like picking a favorite ice cream. I love them all. If I had to choose, I see my work as addressing not just issues but opportunities to rethink landscape architecture’s role in shaping just and resilient futures. My research, practice, and advocacy focus on three key areas:
- Redefining resilience beyond infrastructure
Too often, resilience is framed through technical solutions rather than lived experiences. My work integrates climate adaptation with cultural and social frameworks, ensuring that resilience strategies reflect local knowledge, historical injustices, and future aspirations. - Community-led design and governance
I study and implement co-design methodologies that empower communities to take ownership of their landscapes. This includes design literacy workshops, participatory planning processes, and frameworks for community self-governance. - Designing for displacement and mobility
With climate migration and housing precarity on the rise, I am exploring how landscape architecture can better serve transient and vulnerable populations. This includes my work with unhoused communities, refugee populations, and informal settlements, ensuring that public spaces remain adaptable, inclusive, and responsive to movement.
Can you talk about designing with an iterative process in a profession where the designer's involvement often ends at project delivery?
I emphasize the importance of iterative design processes—both before and after breaking ground. Communities should be actively shaping their environments throughout a project’s lifespan. Unlike buildings, landscapes evolve—ecologically, socially, and culturally. My approach integrates iteration at every stage, ensuring that projects are not static solutions but adaptive systems.
This includes phased prototyping—I often work with community-led pilot projects that allow for testing and refinement before full-scale implementation. This promotes interventions that respond to real needs rather than assumptions. I also try to my best to design with long-term adaptability. Whether through planting strategies, material choices, or governance structures, my work embeds flexibility into landscapes. This allows them to shift with environmental and social conditions. Finally, every project should include a system for community-driven evolution. I focus on embedding capacity within communities so they can continue iterating on a project long after the designer’s formal role ends. This has included knowledge-sharing, local stewardship models, and design literacy initiatives.
Ultimately, designing with iteration means designing for uncertainty—embracing landscape architecture as a dynamic, evolving process rather than a finite product.
Much of your prior work has involved the City and County of Los Angeles. With the recent disasters that affected these communities, is any of your current research, practice, or advocacy focused on regional recovery?
The fires in Los Angeles are devastating, reshaping landscapes and communities in ways that will take years to recover from. Yet, amidst the destruction, the response from Los Angeles has been nothing short of heroic—communities rallying, firefighters pushing the limits, and policymakers working to mitigate future risks. We have also learned from COVID-19 that resilience is not just about rebuilding—it’s about reimagining how we prepare for, respond to, and adapt to crises.
Los Angeles has always been at the forefront of adaptation, learning from past crises to build a stronger, more prepared city. My work in LA, especially with the great Mia Lehrer, fundamentally shaped my understanding of resilience as a layered, systemic issue. These experiences reinforced that disasters don’t just demand recovery—they require a complete reframing of how we design and invest in public space, infrastructure, and social networks to support long-term adaptation.
While I’m now based in the Northeast, my research continues to ask:
- How do we design for displacement, not just disaster recovery?
- How do we quantify resilience in ways that reflect lived realities?
- How can recovery efforts be co-created with communities, rather than imposed upon them?
Our post-disaster landscapes must reflect the needs, values, and histories of the people they serve. Whether through my work in climate adaptation, participatory design, or performance-based resilience metrics, I remain committed to ensuring that recovery is not just about rebuilding what was lost, but about creating more just, adaptable, and responsive landscapes for the future.
As a SUNY Civic Education and Engagement and Civil Discourse Fellow, can you share your thoughts on how our institutions are preparing the next generation of designers to engage respectfully and authentically with the communities they work with and for?
If we want students to engage authentically, we need to incorporate design thinking into every aspect of the curriculum. At SUNY ESF, I integrate participatory action research, critical theory, and co-creative frameworks into my teaching, aligning with the university's strong commitment to civic discourse and community engagement. This ensures that students learn:
- How to listen, not just design.
- How to center relationships over aesthetics.
- How to see design as a civic responsibility, not just a technical skill.
My goal is for students to leave with more than just a portfolio—they leave with a new way of seeing the world, a commitment to equity, and the tools to create lasting change.
LAF's Perspectives interview series showcases landscape architects from diverse backgrounds and identities discussing how they came to the profession and where they see it heading. Any opinions expressed in this interview belong solely to the author. Their inclusion in this article does not reflect endorsement by LAF.
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