This collaborative work explores the cultural and ecological implications of post-volcanic lakes and landscapes of Central Italy, such as Lake Bracciano. The work spans a range of scales and subjects, from ancient tuff to old beech trees. Through speculative narratives, collages, drawings, and animations, Burkholder and Lutsky ask questions about the relationships among tectonic, human, and nonhuman timescales and the ways in which landscapes mediate hopes, fears, and possibilities.

Sean Burkholder is an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design, where, in addition to teaching, he co-directs the McHarg Center’s Environmental Modeling Lab. Sean is a member of the Dredge Research Collaborative and a founder of Proof Projects, a small research and design practice that works primarily on coastal landscapes that merge infrastructural and cultural agendas.  

Karen Lutsky recently joined the landscape architecture department at Cornell University. She was previously at the University of Minnesota, where she was an associate professor of Landscape Architecture and director of undergraduate studies. She also founded and directs the Great Lakes Design Labs that has developed exhibitions, public workshops, built projects, and design competitions. She and Sean Burkholder co-authored the University of Pittsburgh Press book Five Bay Landscapes: Curious Explorations of the Great Lakes Basin.