Biography

Landscape Architect, Brad Cantrell: Combining Technology With Nature — Aesthetically

The next time you observe beautiful open and well-landscaped public spaces, park systems and other natural areas amid towering high-rises, shopping malls and office buildings, think of the role that landscape architects and their technology played to make it all happen.

In such settings, says Brad Cantrell, Chairman and Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia, the integration of technology and nature represents a powerful synthesis of man with the outdoor environment. It is in this realm, he said in interviews with The Architect’s Newspaper and Modelo, that landscape architects continue to have significant impact on quality of life as they help design parks, campuses, streetscapes, trails, plazas, and other projects that help define a community.

As a landscape architect and scholar, Brad focuses on the role that computation (computer simulation and computer modeling), and media technology (e.g. digital film) have on environmental and ecological design. In addition to the University of Virginia, Brad has held academic positions at Harvard Graduate School of Design, The Rhode Island School of Design, and the Louisiana State University Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture.

The author of two seminal books in his field (the award-winning Digital Drawing for Landscape Architecture; and Modeling the Environment), Brad’s work has also been presented and published in a wide range of peer-reviewed venues internationally. He earned his Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design, and Bachelor’s degree in that field from the University of Kentucky.

For more information, please visit:
https://www.arch.virginia.edu/people/brad-cantrell